MySQL can employ join buffers to execute not only inner joins without index access to the inner table, but also outer joins and semijoins that appear after subquery flattening. Moreover, a join buffer can be effectively used when there is an index access to the inner table.

The join buffer management code slightly more efficiently utilizes join buffer space when storing the values of the interesting row columns: No additional bytes are allocated in buffers for a row column if its value is NULL, and the minimum number of bytes is allocated for any value of the VARCHAR type.

The code supports two types of buffers, regular and incremental. Suppose that join buffer B1 is employed to join tables t1 and t2 and the result of this operation is joined with table t3 using join buffer B2:

Incremental join buffers are always incremental relative to a join buffer from an earlier join operation, so the buffer from the first join operation is always a regular buffer. In the example just given, the buffer B1 used to join tables t1 and t2 must be a regular buffer.

Each row of the incremental buffer used for a join operation contains only the interesting columns of a row from the table to be joined. These columns are augmented with a reference to the interesting columns of the matched row from the table produced by the first join operand. Several rows in the incremental buffer can refer to the same row r whose columns are stored in the previous join buffers insofar as all these rows match row r.

Incremental buffers enable less frequent copying of columns from buffers used for previous join operations. This provides a savings in buffer space because in the general case a row produced by the first join operand can be matched by several rows produced by the second join operand. It is unnecessary to make several copies of a row from the first operand. Incremental buffers also provide a savings in processing time due to the reduction in copying time.

The block_nested_loop and batched_key_access flags of the optimizer_switch system variable control how the optimizer uses the Block Nested-Loop and Batched Key Access join algorithms. By default, block_nested_loop is on and batched_key_access is off. See Section 8.9.2, “Switchable Optimizations”. Optimizer hints may also be applied; see Optimizer Hints for Block Nested-Loop and Batched Key Access Algorithms.

For information about semijoin strategies, see Section 8.2.2.1, “Optimizing Subqueries, Derived Tables, and View References with Semijoin Transformations”

The original implementation of the MySQL BNL algorithm is extended to support outer join and semijoin operations.

When these operations are executed with a join buffer, each row put into the buffer is supplied with a match flag.

If an outer join operation is executed using a join buffer, each row of the table produced by the second operand is checked for a match against each row in the join buffer. When a match is found, a new extended row is formed (the original row plus columns from the second operand) and sent for further extensions by the remaining join operations. In addition, the match flag of the matched row in the buffer is enabled. After all rows of the table to be joined have been examined, the join buffer is scanned. Each row from the buffer that does not have its match flag enabled is extended by NULL complements (NULL values for each column in the second operand) and sent for further extensions by the remaining join operations.

The block_nested_loop flag of the optimizer_switch system variable controls how the optimizer uses the Block Nested-Loop algorithm. By default, block_nested_loop is on. See Section 8.9.2, “Switchable Optimizations”. Optimizer hints may also be applied; see Optimizer Hints for Block Nested-Loop and Batched Key Access Algorithms.

In EXPLAIN output, use of BNL for a table is signified when the Extra value contains Using join buffer (Block Nested Loop) and the type value is ALL, index, or range.

Some cases involving the combination of one or more subqueries with one or more left joins, particularly those returning many rows, may use BNL even though it is not ideal in such instances. This is a known issue which is fixed in MySQL 8.0. If upgrading MySQL is not immediately feasible for you, you may wish to disable BNL in the meantime by setting optimizer_switch='block_nested_loop=off' or employing the NO_BNL optimizer hint to let the optimizer choose a better plan, using one or more index hints (see Section 8.9.4, “Index Hints”), or some combination of these, to improve the performance of such queries.

For information about semijoin strategies, see Section 8.2.2.1, “Optimizing Subqueries, Derived Tables, and View References with Semijoin Transformations”

MySQL implements a method of joining tables called the Batched Key Access (BKA) join algorithm. BKA can be applied when there is an index access to the table produced by the second join operand. Like the BNL join algorithm, the BKA join algorithm employs a join buffer to accumulate the interesting columns of the rows produced by the first operand of the join operation. Then the BKA algorithm builds keys to access the table to be joined for all rows in the buffer and submits these keys in a batch to the database engine for index lookups. The keys are submitted to the engine through the Multi-Range Read (MRR) interface (see Section 8.2.1.10, “Multi-Range Read Optimization”). After submission of the keys, the MRR engine functions perform lookups in the index in an optimal way, fetching the rows of the joined table found by these keys, and starts feeding the BKA join algorithm with matching rows. Each matching row is coupled with a reference to a row in the join buffer.

When BKA is used, the value of join_buffer_size defines how large the batch of keys is in each request to the storage engine. The larger the buffer, the more sequential access is made to the right hand table of a join operation, which can significantly improve performance.

For BKA to be used, the batched_key_access flag of the optimizer_switch system variable must be set to on. BKA uses MRR, so the mrr flag must also be on. Currently, the cost estimation for MRR is too pessimistic. Hence, it is also necessary for mrr_cost_based to be off for BKA to be used. The following setting enables BKA:

mysql> SET optimizer_switch='mrr=on,mrr_cost_based=off,batched_key_access=on';

There are two scenarios by which MRR functions execute:

With the first scenario, a portion of the join buffer is reserved to store row IDs (primary keys) selected by index lookups and passed as a parameter to the MRR functions.

There is no special buffer to store keys built for rows from the join buffer. Instead, a function that builds the key for the next row in the buffer is passed as a parameter to the MRR functions.

In EXPLAIN output, use of BKA for a table is signified when the Extra value contains Using join buffer (Batched Key Access) and the type value is ref or eq_ref.

In addition to using the optimizer_switch system variable to control optimizer use of the BNL and BKA algorithms session-wide, MySQL supports optimizer hints to influence the optimizer on a per-statement basis. See Section 8.9.3, “Optimizer Hints”.

To use a BNL or BKA hint to enable join buffering for any inner table of an outer join, join buffering must be enabled for all inner tables of the outer join.