MySql speed of executing max(), min(), sum() on relatively large database

I have a relatively large database (130.000+ r开发者_开发百科ows) of weather data, which is accumulating very fast (every 5minutes a new row is added). Now on my website I publish min/max data for day, and for the entire existence of my weatherstation (which is around 1 year).

Now I would like to know, if I would benefit from creating additional tables, where these min/max data would be stored, rather than let the php do a mysql query searching for day min/max data and min/max data for the entire existence of my weather station. Would a query for max(), min() or sum() (need sum() to sum rain accumulation for months) take that much longer time then a simple query to a table, that already holds those min, max and sum values?

That depends on weather your columns are indexed or not. In case of MIN() and MAX() you can read in the MySQL manual the following:

MySQL uses indexes for these operations:

To find the MIN() or MAX() value for a specific indexed column key_col. This is optimized by a preprocessor that checks whether you are using WHERE key_part_N = constant on all key parts that occur before key_col in the index. In this case, MySQL does a single key lookup for each MIN() or MAX() expression and replaces it with a constant.

In other words in case that your columns are indexed you are unlikely to gain much performance benefits by denormalization. In case they are NOT you will definitely gain performance.

As for SUM() it is likely to be faster on an indexed column but I'm not really confident about the performance gains here.

Please note that you should not be tempted to index your columns after reading this post. If you put indices your update queries will slow down!

Yes, denormalization should help performance a lot in this case.

There is nothing wrong with storing calculations for historical data that will not change in order to gain performance benefits.

While I agree with RedFilter that there is nothing wrong with storing historical data, I don't agree with the performance boost you will get. Your database is not what I would consider a heavy use database.

One of the major advantages of databases is indexes. They used advanced data structures to make data access lightening fast. Just think, every primary key you have is an index. You shouldn't be afraid of them. Of course, it would probably be counter productive to make all your fields indexes, but that should never really be necessary. I would suggest researching indexes more to find the right balance.

As for the work done when a change happens, it is not that bad. An index is a tree like representation of your field data. This is done to reduce a search down to a small number of near binary decisions.

For example, think of finding a number between 1 and 100. Normally you would randomly stab at numbers, or you would just start at 1 and count up. This is slow. Instead, it would be much faster if you set it up so that you could ask if you were over or under when you choose a number. Then you would start at 50 and ask if you are over or under. Under, then choose 75, and so on till you found the number. Instead of possibly going through 100 numbers, you would only have to go through around 6 numbers to find the correct one.

The problem here is when you add 50 numbers and make it out of 1 to 150. If you start at 50 again, your search is less optimized as there are 100 numbers above you. Your binary search is out of balance. So, what you do is rebalance your search by starting at the mid-point again, namely 75.

So the work a database is just an adjustment to rebalance the mid-point of its index. It isn't actually a lot of work. If you are working on a database that is large and requires many changes a second, you would definitely need to have a strong strategy for your indexes. In a small database that gets very few changes like yours, its not a problem.