MySQL 8.0终于支持降序索引了。其实，从语法上，MySQL 4就支持了，但正如官方文档所言，"they are parsed but ignored"，实际创建的还是升序索引。
无图无真相，同一个建表语句，看看MySQL 5.7和8.0的区别。
create table slowtech.t1(c1 int,c2 int,index idx_c1_c2(c1,c2 desc));
MySQL 5.7
mysql> show create table slowtech.t1\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
Table: t1
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t1` (
`c1` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`c2` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
KEY `idx_c1_c2` (`c1`,`c2`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
虽然c2列指定了desc，但在实际的建表语句中还是将其忽略了。再来看看MySQL 8.0的结果。
mysql> show create table slowtech.t1\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
Table: t1
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t1` (
`c1` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`c2` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
KEY `idx_c1_c2` (`c1`,`c2` DESC)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
c2列还是保留了desc子句。
降序索引的意义
如果一个查询，需要对多个列进行排序，且顺序要求不一致。在这种场景下，要想避免数据库额外的排序-“filesort”，只能使用降序索引。还是上面这张表，来看看有降序索引和没有的区别。
MySQL 5.7
mysql> explain select * from slowtech.t1 order by c1,c2 desc;
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-----------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-----------------------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t1 | NULL | index | NULL | idx_c1_c2 | 10 | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using index; Using filesort |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-----------------------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
MySQL 8.0
mysql> explain select * from slowtech.t1 order by c1,c2 desc;
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t1 | NULL | index | NULL | idx_c1_c2 | 10 | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using index |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
两者的对比可以看出，MySQL 8.0因为降序索引的存在，避免了“filesort”。
这其实是降序索引的主要应用场景。如果只对单个列进行排序，降序索引的意义不是太大，无论是升序还是降序，升序索引完全可以应付。还是同样的表，看看下面的查询。
MySQL 5.7
mysql> explain select * from slowtech.t1 order by c1;
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t1 | NULL | index | NULL | idx_c1_c2 | 10 | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using index |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
mysql> explain select * from slowtech.t1 order by c1 desc;
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | t1 | NULL | index | NULL | idx_c1_c2 | 10 | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using index |
+----+-------------+-------+------------+-------+---------------+-----------+---------+------+------+----------+-------------+
1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)