How can I improve this query depending on the explain results

Question

I have The Following query:

SELECT DISTINCT f1.match_static_id,
                f2.comments_no,
                f2.maxtimestamp,
                users.username,
                users.id,
                matches_of_comments.localteam_name,
                matches_of_comments.visitorteam_name,
                matches_of_comments.localteam_goals,       
                matches_of_comments.visitorteam_goals,
                matches_of_comments.match_status,
                new_iddaa.iddaa_code
FROM comments AS f1
INNER JOIN (
             SELECT match_static_id,
                    MAX( TIMESTAMP ) maxtimestamp,
                    COUNT( match_static_id ) AS comments_no
             FROM comments
             GROUP BY match_static_id
          ) AS f2 ON f1.match_static_id = f2.match_static_id 
                  AND f1.timestamp = f2.maxtimestamp
INNER JOIN users ON users.id = f1.user_id
INNER JOIN matches_of_comments ON matches_of_comments.match_id = f2.match_static_id
LEFT JOIN new_iddaa ON new_iddaa.match_id = matches_of_comments.match_id
WHERE matches_of_comments.flag =1
ORDER BY f2.maxtimestamp DESC

This is the EXPLAIN plan for that query :

+----+-------------+---------------------+--------+-----------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------------------------------------+-------+------------------------------------------------+
| id | select_type |        table        |  type  |           possible_keys           |    key    | key_len |                   ref                    | rows  |                     extra                      |
+----+-------------+---------------------+--------+-----------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------------------------------------+-------+------------------------------------------------+
|  1 | PRIMARY     | <derived2>          | ALL    | NULL                              | NULL      | NULL    | NULL                                     |   542 | Using temporary; Using filesort                |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | f1                  | ref    | timestamp,match_static_id,user_id | timestamp | 4       | f2.maxtimestamp                          |     1 | Using where                                    |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | users               | eq_ref | PRIMARY                           | PRIMARY   | 4       | skormix_db1.f1.user_id                   |     1 |                                                |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | matches_of_comments | ALL    | match_id                          | NULL      | NULL    | NULL                                     | 20873 | Range checked for each record (index map: 0x8) |
|  1 | PRIMARY     | new_iddaa           | ref    | match_id                          | match_id  | 4       | skormix_db1.matches_of_comments.match_id |     1 |                                                |
|  2 | DERIVED     | comments            | ALL    | NULL                              | NULL      | NULL    | NULL                                     |   933 | Using temporary; Using filesort                |
+----+-------------+---------------------+--------+-----------------------------------+-----------+---------+------------------------------------------+-------+------------------------------------------------+

I use this query to get a match information if this match has at least one comment.
I get the names of the teams , the code (iddaa code), the number of comments, the timstamp of the last commrnt, the author of the last comment.
I have a big database and it is expected to be larger in the next few monthes and I am very new with the MySQL queries and I want to be sure that I am using the optimize queries from the beginning so I want to know how to read this explain information to make the query better and faster.

I see that there are a lot of places in the table that does not use the indexes eventhough i built them.
I also see derived in the table column and I do not know how to make this query more fast and how to get rid of the filesort because I can not make indexes for the derived queries??

I write down the structure of the using tables in the query with the indexes (keys) and I hope to get some hints or simple answers for my questions , thanks in advance .

Comments (f1) table structure is :

CREATE TABLE `comments` (
 `id` int(25) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `comments` text COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `timestamp` timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
 `date` date NOT NULL,
 `time` time NOT NULL,
 `match_static_id` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `ip` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET latin1 NOT NULL,
 `comments_yes_or_no` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `user_id` int(25) NOT NULL,
 PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
 KEY `timestamp` (`timestamp`),
 KEY `match_static_id` (`match_static_id`),
 KEY `user_id` (`user_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=935 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci

users table structure is:

CREATE TABLE `users` (
 `id` int(25) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `username` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `password` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `email` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `gender` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `first_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `last_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `avatar` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `alert` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `daily_tahmin` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `monthly_tahmin` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `admin` int(25) NOT NULL,
 PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=995 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci

matches_of_comments_ structure is :

CREATE TABLE `matches_of_comments` (
 `id` int(25) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `en_tournament_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `tournament_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `country_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `match_status` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `match_time` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `match_date` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `static_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `fix_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `match_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `localteam_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `localteam_goals` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `localteam_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `visitorteam_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `visitorteam_goals` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `visitorteam_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `ht_score` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `flag` int(25) NOT NULL,
 PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
 KEY `match_status` (`match_status`),
 KEY `match_date` (`match_date`),
 KEY `match_id` (`match_id`),
 KEY `localteam_id` (`localteam_id`),
 KEY `visitorteam_id` (`visitorteam_id`),
 KEY `flag` (`flag`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=237790 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci

new_iddaa table structure is :

CREATE TABLE `new_iddaa` (
 `id` int(25) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
 `match_id` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `iddaa_code` int(25) NOT NULL,
 `tv_channel` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
 `skormix_tahmin` varchar(255) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
 PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
 KEY `match_id` (`match_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=8191 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

Answer 1

Main problem of this query is number of joins. I would suggest:

1. Take nested query f2 out and insert its output into table or temporary table, better with index. (With index it will change full table scan to index, speeding things up. Chances are high that such table will be reusable).

2. lternatively to 1 or at the same time, swap f1 and f2. You need to eliminate rows as early as possible. So first get the list of matches and timestapms you need, and join only necessary date. This query takes huge comments table and filters out unnecessary rows. It is easier to take 10% than through away 90% for the same result.

3. Remove Distinct as it does nothing here: all joins are on equalities. If there any duplicates get data from all tables and find difference. Then add necessary JOIN condition to pick rows you need.

4. Consider these PRIMARY KEYs: comments: PRIMARY KEY (match_static_id) matches_of_comments: PRIMARY KEY (match_id) new_iddaa: PRIMARY KEY (match_id)

   Reason: Primary Key should be done on an often used column with meaning. Having it on technical AUTOINCREMENTing column does not add value to the table.

5. You may consider adding flag as a first column to PRIMARY KEY. It will add an overhead when flag is changed, but will speed up this query as all flag=1 records will be in a single range and in a sequence on hdd. Hope this helps.