mysql unique key and index

Question

in MySQL, If I create a unique key on two columns, say

UNIQUE KEY my_key (column1, column2)

is it necessary to build another key on column1? My goal is to have column1 and column2 to be unique, and I'll do lots of selects keyed by column1.

Answer 1

No, it is not necessary because an index on (column1, column2) can be used instead of an index of column1 alone.

You might want to make a new index on just column two though as the index (column1, column2) is not good when searching only for (column2).

Answer 2

No, your my_key index takes care of any queries on column1 or conditions on column1 AND column2. However, if you make queries on only column2, then you should add an additional index for column2 to be able to query it efficiently.

Furthermore, if both column1 and column2 are unique, then you might want to consider using something like

[...]
UNIQUE(column1),
UNIQUE(column2),
PRIMARY KEY (column1, column2);

This ensures that both column1 and column2 are unique, and any query selecting only column1 and column2 can be retrieved using index-only access.