The manual is large and vast, I couldn't find the text you quoted on the page I sent. What page did you find that text on?
As well, if the key that EXPLAIN uses is multi-part, you would know from the length of the fields. You have to use some deductive reasoning, but I don't think it's really murky....*shrug* -Sheeri On 2/2/06, James Harvard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 'That other statement' that I quoted is actually just part of the paragraph > from the manual that you quoted! > > My point was that it doesn't say what units the key length is given in or > explain _how_ to determine the number of parts used. However the more I think > about it the more I see that it must be bytes, and I have posted a comment to > that effect on the manual page. > > James > > At 10:58 am -0500 2/2/06, sheeri kritzer wrote: > >according to: > >http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/explain.html > > > >"The key_len column indicates the length of the key that MySQL decided > >to use. The length is NULL if the key column says NULL. Note that the > >value of key_len enables you to determine how many parts of a > >multiple-part key MySQL actually uses." > > > >there are special exceptions to that for index_merge and range join types. > > > >The manual agrees; you are correct; it's the length of the key. Where > >did you find that other statement? It might be the index_merge join > >type's key_len... > -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]