mysql duration and fetch time

Question

I am using MySQL workbench - What is the difference between duration and fetch times when a query is run?

Also is there a way I can enable the microsecond option in MySQL?

Answer 1

Fetch time - measures how long transferring fetched results take, which has nothing to do with query execution. I would not consider it as sql query debugging/optimization option since fetch time depends on network connection, which itself does not have anything to do with query optimization. If fetch time is bottleneck then more likely there's some networking problem.

Note: fetch time may vary on each query execution.

Duration time - is the time that query needs to be executed. You should try to minimize it when optimizing performance of sql query.

Reference

Answer 2

Duration shows the time needed to execute the query and fetch is the time needed to read the result set (retrieve the data)

I am unsure about the microsecond option. If this is in regards to optimization, remember - "premature optimization is the root of all evil"