CREATE TABLE t1 ( id int(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment, k int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', c char(120) NOT NULL default '', pad char(60) NOT NULL default '', PRIMARY KEY (id), KEY k (k) ) charset latin1 engine=innodb; Warnings: Warning 1681 Integer display width is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Warning 1681 Integer display width is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. ANALYZE TABLE t1; Table Op Msg_type Msg_text test.t1 analyze status OK SET @@session.sort_buffer_size=32768; FLUSH STATUS; SHOW SESSION STATUS LIKE 'Sort%'; Variable_name Value Sort_merge_passes 0 Sort_range 0 Sort_rows 0 Sort_scan 0 SELECT c FROM t1 WHERE id between 2 and 1002 ORDER BY c; SHOW SESSION STATUS LIKE 'Sort%'; Variable_name Value Sort_merge_passes 0 Sort_range 1 Sort_rows 139 Sort_scan 0 SET @@session.sort_buffer_size=DEFAULT; DROP TABLE t1;