案例

select * from abc_number_prop where number_id in (select number_id from abc_number_phone where phone = '82306839');

67 rows in set (12.00 sec)

只有 67 行数据返回，却花了 12 秒，而系统中可能同时会有很多这样的查询，系统肯定扛不住。用 desc 看一下(注：explain 也可)

desc select * from abc_number_prop where number_id in (select number_id from abc_number_phone where phone = '82306839');

+----+--------------------+------------------+--------+-----------------+-------+---------+------------+---------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+--------------------+------------------+--------+-----------------+-------+---------+------------+---------+--------------------------+
| 1 | PRIMARY | abc_number_prop | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 2679838 | Using where |
| 2 | DEPENDENT SUBQUERY | abc_number_phone | eq_ref | phone,number_id | phone | 70 | const,func | 1 | Using where; Using index |
+----+--------------------+------------------+--------+-----------------+-------+---------+------------+---------+--------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

从上面的信息可以看出，在执行此查询时会扫描两百多万行，难道是没有创建索引吗，看一下

show index from abc_number_phone;
+------------------+------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
| Table | Non_unique | Key_name | Seq_in_index | Column_name | Collation | Cardinality | Sub_part | Packed | Null | Index_type | Comment | Index_comment |
+------------------+------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
| abc_number_phone | 0 | PRIMARY | 1 | number_phone_id | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_phone | 0 | phone | 1 | phone | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_phone | 0 | phone | 2 | number_id | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_phone | 1 | number_id | 1 | number_id | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_phone | 1 | created_by | 1 | created_by | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_phone | 1 | modified_by | 1 | modified_by | A | 36879 | NULL | NULL | YES | BTREE | | |
+------------------+------------+-------------+--------------+-----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
6 rows in set (0.06 sec)

show index from abc_number_prop;
+-----------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
| Table | Non_unique | Key_name | Seq_in_index | Column_name | Collation | Cardinality | Sub_part | Packed | Null | Index_type | Comment | Index_comment |
+-----------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
| abc_number_prop | 0 | PRIMARY | 1 | number_prop_id | A | 311268 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_prop | 1 | number_id | 1 | number_id | A | 311268 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_prop | 1 | created_by | 1 | created_by | A | 311268 | NULL | NULL | | BTREE | | |
| abc_number_prop | 1 | modified_by | 1 | modified_by | A | 311268 | NULL | NULL | YES | BTREE | | |
+-----------------+------------+-------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+---------------+
4 rows in set (0.15 sec)

从上面的输出可以看出，这两张表在 number_id 字段上创建了索引的。

看看子查询本身有没有问题。

desc select number_id from abc_number_phone where phone = '82306839';
+----+-------------+------------------+------+---------------+-------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------------+------+---------------+-------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | abc_number_phone | ref | phone | phone | 66 | const | 6 | Using where; Using index |
+----+-------------+------------------+------+---------------+-------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec

没有问题，只需要扫描几行数据，索引起作用了。查询出来看看

select number_id from abc_number_phone where phone = '82306839';
+-----------+
| number_id |
+-----------+
| 8585 |
| 10720 |
| 148644 |
| 151307 |
| 170691 |
| 221897 |
+-----------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

直接把子查询得到的数据放到上面的查询中

select * from abc_number_prop where number_id in (8585, 10720, 148644, 151307, 170691, 221897);
67 rows in set (0.03 sec)

速度也快，看来MySQL在处理子查询的时候是不够好。我在 MySQL 5.1.42  和 MySQL 5.5.19 都进行了尝试，都有这个问题。

根据网上这些资料的建议，改用 join 来试试。

修改前：select * from abc_number_prop where number_id in (select number_id from abc_number_phone where phone = '82306839');
修改后：select a.* from abc_number_prop a inner join abc_number_phone b on a.number_id = b.number_id where phone = '82306839';

select a.* from abc_number_prop a inner join abc_number_phone b on a.number_id = b.number_id where phone = '82306839';

67 rows in set (0.00 sec)

效果不错，查询所用时间几乎为 0。看一下 MySQL 是怎么执行这个查询的

desc select a.* from abc_number_prop a inner join abc_number_phone b on a.number_id = b.number_id where phone = '82306839';
+----+-------------+-------+------+-----------------+-----------+---------+-----------------+------+--------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------+-----------------+-----------+---------+-----------------+------+--------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | b | ref | phone,number_id | phone | 66 | const | 6 | Using where; Using index |
| 1 | SIMPLE | a | ref | number_id | number_id | 4 | eap.b.number_id | 3 | |
+----+-------------+-------+------+-----------------+-----------+---------+-----------------+------+--------------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

小结：当子查询速度慢时，可用 JOIN 来改写一下该查询来进行优化。