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Kaziu
Kaziu

Posted on • Updated on

🀨 What is N+1 problem?

πŸ’Ž What is it?

Simply put, a lot of SQL query executes in loop

πŸ’Ž For example

There are two tables in database

β–Ό country table

id name
1 Japan
2 Poland

β–Ό food table

id country_id name
1 1 sushi
2 1 ramen
3 1 udon
4 2 pierogi
5 2 kotlet
6 2 ziemniaki

Get country name

(I'm going to use ruby code)

# SELECT * FROM country;
Country.all.each do |country|
  put country.name
    # Japan
    # Poland
end
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Call another table in loop

# SELECT * FROM country;
Country.all.each do |country|
  put country.name
    # Japan
    # Poland

  # SELECT * FROM food WHERE country_id=1;
  # SELECT * FROM food WHERE country_id=2;
  # 😫 😭 if country table had 200 records, 200 query would be executed!!! OMG
  country.foods.each do |food|
    put food.name
      # sushi
      # ramen
      # udon
      # pierogi
      # kotlet
      # ziemniaki
  end
end
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πŸ’Ž How to solve it?

  • JOIN
  • Eager Load

JOIN

Integrate tables !

# SELECT * FROM country INNER JOIN food ON country.id=food.country_id
# πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ only 1 query !
Country.join(:food).all.each do |country|
  country.foods.each do |food|
  end
end
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Eager Load

Not integrate tables completely like JOIN, but executes SELECT at first !

# SELECT * FROM country;
# SELECT * FROM food WHERE country_id IN(1,2)
# πŸ˜€ πŸ˜€ only 2 queries !
Country.includes(:food).all.each do |country|
  country.foods.each do |food|
  end
end
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⭐ if you want to use eager load in Ruby, just use includes

πŸ’Ž Disadvantage

Memory leak because Join/Eager load need to execute huge SELECT at first


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