[SOLVED] speed up script

[jakebur01]

Is their any way I could speed this up to where it will display a lot faster?

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "", "");
mysql_select_db("jhearnsberger", $db);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT isbn, description, title, author FROM books ");

// WHERE catid <> 'TBP'
while($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$catid = $myrow['isbn'];
$title = $myrow['isbn'].' '.$myrow['description'].' '.$myrow['title'].' '.$myrow['author'];
$url = "show_book.php?isbn=$catid";
//echo "<small>";

//echo  $myrow['isbn'].' '.$myrow['description'].' '.$myrow['title'].' '.$myrow['author'];
?>
  <a href="<?php echo $url; ?>"><?php echo $title; ?></a><br /> 

[techiefreak05]

If that's going slow. some thing's wrong. I have plenty of scripts that are a lot bigger than that, and they are pretty fast for their size.

[jakebur01]

It's pulling from a large table.

[JSHINER]

When my tables grew larger, and my script started slowing down, I indexed the columns I used to query the table. That sped things up considerably.

[jakebur01]

What does it mean to index the columns?

[mrjcfreak]

You know books are all indexed by ISBN number? People by social security numbers? If you index a table column it makes that the 'primary key' by which the database recognises each entry (row)- it's important to index the right column - it has to be unique, so a sequential bookID or even ISBN is the best idea- and then do as much manipulation as possible using this identifier.

 

Your question is more system management related than php related.

As mentioned indexing will speed things up; how you commit SQL queries is the most important thing for performance in situations like this. It's not a case of writing a "faster php script".

 

Checking dumb things like whether your database is being stored on a really fragmented slice or on a bad drive would be a good idea. Intelligent use of tables (based on which table columns are most important etc), shrewd queries and initial set up will all have more effect than any tweaking you can do with the PHP- other than put more load on the DB for sorting, matching etc.