Optimizing Queries with Operators, Branching, and Functions

Abstract

In this chapter, we’re going to explore the central premise of this book: It is almost always the best course of action to make the database perform as much work as possible, thus minimizing the amount of filtering and manipulating data that you do in your programming code. Another way of saying this is that by replacing program logic with SQL logic, it is possible to gain significant opti­mization benefits. A strong working knowledge of operators, branching, and functions in MySQL, with this optimization goal in mind, is a key part of your database skills.