from Hacker News

Show HN: I made a tool to visualize MySQL EXPLAIN query plans

by tpetry on 7/12/24, 4:49 PM with 8 comments

I was always confused when trying to optimize a slow MySQL query as the output of the EXPLAIN command is so cryptic and totally useless. And there wasn't any tool that could help visualize what a query does - compared to PostgreSQL which has multiple... So, I started developing such a tool for MySQL. But boy, I didn't expect how complicated this is in reality. There were so many things hiding in tiny information pieces that I had to understand. But it also confirmed me in that a tool should try to understand the EXPLAIN output and not a human as it is too easy to oversee something. After months of work, I've now finished the first iteration of my vision. Whats your opinion about it?
  • by tpetry on 7/12/24, 5:14 PM

    Oh totally forgot to mention: There‘s also an API to skip the manual steps needed on the website. So I plan on integrating it into database tools like DataGrip etc.
  • by cddotdotslash on 7/13/24, 3:46 PM

    This is nice! Did you use a library for the visualization part (the dotted background with the zoom/pan)?
  • by iambateman on 7/12/24, 5:08 PM

    This looks so cool, thanks for sharing! So grateful for little tools like this.
  • by rawfan on 7/12/24, 5:04 PM

    Great result. Can’t wait to use this on my codebase!
  • by nektro on 7/13/24, 3:08 AM

    would love to see examples
  • by PeterZaitsev on 7/12/24, 5:48 PM

    Very cool!