By default, MySQL employs hash joins whenever possible. It is possible to control whether hash joins are employed using one of the BNL and NO_BNL optimizer hints, or by setting block_nested_loop=on or block_nested_loop=off as part of the setting for the optimizer_switch server system variable.

MySQL employs a hash join for any query for which each join has an equi-join condition, and in which there are no indexes that can be applied to any join conditions, such as this one:

SELECT *
    FROM t1
    JOIN t2
        ON t1.c1=t2.c1;

A hash join can also be used when there are one or more indexes that can be used for single-table predicates.

In the example just shown and the remaining examples in this section, we assume that the three tables t1, t2, and t3 have been created using the following statements:

CREATE TABLE t1 (c1 INT, c2 INT);
CREATE TABLE t2 (c1 INT, c2 INT);
CREATE TABLE t3 (c1 INT, c2 INT);

You can see that a hash join is being employed by using EXPLAIN, like this:

mysql> EXPLAIN
    -> SELECT * FROM t1
    ->     JOIN t2 ON t1.c1=t2.c1\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
           id: 1
  select_type: SIMPLE
        table: t1
   partitions: NULL
         type: ALL
possible_keys: NULL
          key: NULL
      key_len: NULL
          ref: NULL
         rows: 1
     filtered: 100.00
        Extra: NULL
*************************** 2. row ***************************
           id: 1
  select_type: SIMPLE
        table: t2
   partitions: NULL
         type: ALL
possible_keys: NULL
          key: NULL
      key_len: NULL
          ref: NULL
         rows: 1
     filtered: 100.00
        Extra: Using where; Using join buffer (hash join)

EXPLAIN ANALYZE also displays information about hash joins used.

The hash join is used for queries involving multiple joins as well, as long as at least one join condition for each pair of tables is an equi-join, like the query shown here:

SELECT * FROM t1
    JOIN t2 ON (t1.c1 = t2.c1 AND t1.c2 < t2.c2)
    JOIN t3 ON (t2.c1 = t3.c1);

In cases like the one just shown, which makes use of an inner join, any extra conditions which are not equi-joins are applied as filters after the join is executed. (For outer joins, such as left joins, semijoins, and antijoins, they are printed as part of the join.) This can be seen here in the output of EXPLAIN:

mysql> EXPLAIN FORMAT=TREE
    -> SELECT *
    ->     FROM t1
    ->     JOIN t2
    ->         ON (t1.c1 = t2.c1 AND t1.c2 < t2.c2)
    ->     JOIN t3
    ->         ON (t2.c1 = t3.c1)\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Inner hash join (t3.c1 = t1.c1)  (cost=1.05 rows=1)
    -> Table scan on t3  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
    -> Hash
        -> Filter: (t1.c2 < t2.c2)  (cost=0.70 rows=1)
            -> Inner hash join (t2.c1 = t1.c1)  (cost=0.70 rows=1)
                -> Table scan on t2  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
                -> Hash
                    -> Table scan on t1  (cost=0.35 rows=1)

As also can be seen from the output just shown, multiple hash joins can be (and are) used for joins having multiple equi-join conditions.

A hash join is used even if any pair of joined tables does not have at least one equi-join condition, as shown here:

mysql> EXPLAIN FORMAT=TREE
    -> SELECT * FROM t1
    ->     JOIN t2 ON (t1.c1 = t2.c1)
    ->     JOIN t3 ON (t2.c1 < t3.c1)\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Filter: (t1.c1 < t3.c1)  (cost=1.05 rows=1)
    -> Inner hash join (no condition)  (cost=1.05 rows=1)
        -> Table scan on t3  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
        -> Hash
            -> Inner hash join (t2.c1 = t1.c1)  (cost=0.70 rows=1)
                -> Table scan on t2  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
                -> Hash
                    -> Table scan on t1  (cost=0.35 rows=1)

(Additional examples are provided later in this section.)

A hash join is also applied for a Cartesian product—that is, when no join condition is specified, as shown here:

mysql> EXPLAIN FORMAT=TREE
    -> SELECT *
    ->     FROM t1
    ->     JOIN t2
    ->     WHERE t1.c2 > 50\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
EXPLAIN: -> Inner hash join  (cost=0.70 rows=1)
    -> Table scan on t2  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
    -> Hash
        -> Filter: (t1.c2 > 50)  (cost=0.35 rows=1)
            -> Table scan on t1  (cost=0.35 rows=1)

It is not necessary for the join to contain at least one equi-join condition in order for a hash join to be used. This means that the types of queries which can be optimized using hash joins include those in the following list (with examples):

By default, MySQL employs hash joins whenever possible. It is possible to control whether hash joins are employed using one of the BNL and NO_BNL optimizer hints.

Memory usage by hash joins can be controlled using the join_buffer_size system variable; a hash join cannot use more memory than this amount. When the memory required for a hash join exceeds the amount available, MySQL handles this by using files on disk. If this happens, you should be aware that the join may not succeed if a hash join cannot fit into memory and it creates more files than set for open_files_limit. To avoid such problems, make either of the following changes:

Join buffers for hash joins are allocated incrementally; thus, you can set join_buffer_size higher without small queries allocating very large amounts of RAM, but outer joins allocate the entire buffer. Hash joins are used for outer joins (including antijoins and semijoins) as well, so this is no longer an issue.