今天碰到一个很奇怪的问题，关于exists的，
第一个语句如下：
SELECT count(1)FROM APPLY tWHERE EXISTS ( SELECT r.APPLY_ID FROM RECORD r WHERE t.APPLY_ID = r.APPLY_ID );
产生的结果是：89584
第二个语句如下：
SELECT count(1)FROM APPLY tWHERE EXISTS ( SELECT max(r.FINISH_TIME) FROM RECORD r WHERE t.APPLY_ID = r.APPLY_ID );
产生的结果是：432382
确实相当奇怪，对于exist子句来说，其判断的是子查询的值是否存在，也就是说，列名，和对列名求最大值没什么区别啊。
包括MySQL官方文档中也提到
Traditionally, an EXISTS subquery starts with SELECT *, but it could begin with SELECT 5 or SELECT column1 or anything at all. MySQL ignores the SELECT list in such a subquery, so it makes no difference.
大意就是MySQL会自动忽略到SELECT的列表。
后来在自己的环境测试了一下，确实是MySQL的一个bug
测试环境：MySQL 5.6.31，5.7.14
mysql> create table t3(id int,t datetime);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.44 sec)mysql> insert into t3 values(1,'20160812');Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)mysql> select 1 from dual where exists (select id from t3 where id=2);Empty set (0.15 sec)mysql> select 1 from dual where exists (select max(id) from t3 where id=2);+---+| 1 |+---+| 1 |
很明显，id等于2的列不存在，但是第二条语句还是当做TRUE来处理了。
也确认了下两条语句的执行计划和改写后的SQL
第一个语句
mysql> EXPLAIN EXTENDED select 1 from dual where exists (select id from t3 where id=2);+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+------------------+| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+------------------+| 1 | PRIMARY | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | Impossible WHERE || 2 | SUBQUERY | t3 | NULL | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using where |+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+------------------+2 rows in set, 2 warnings (0.00 sec)mysql> show warnings;+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+| Level | Code | Message |+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+| Warning | 1681 | 'EXTENDED' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. || Note | 1003 | /* select#1 */ select 1 AS `1` from DUAL where 0 |+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
第二个语句
mysql> EXPLAIN EXTENDED select 1 from dual where exists (select max(id) from t3 where id=2);+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+----------------+| id | select_type | table | partitions | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | filtered | Extra |+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+----------------+| 1 | PRIMARY | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | No tables used || 2 | SUBQUERY | t3 | NULL | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1 | 100.00 | Using where |+----+-------------+-------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+------+----------+----------------+2 rows in set, 2 warnings (0.00 sec)mysql> show warnings;+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+| Level | Code | Message |+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+| Warning | 1681 | 'EXTENDED' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. || Note | 1003 | /* select#1 */ select 1 AS `1` from DUAL where 1 |+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
执行计划及改写后的SQL确实有所不同，看来，确实是MySQL的一个bug了。
于是，给官方提了个bug
总结
建议写exists语句时，子查询中直接用*，而不用对列进行任何函数操作，避免碰到官方bug，
事实上，对于abs，floor函数又没问题
mysql> select 1 from dual where exists (select abs(id) from t3 where id=2);Empty set (0.07 sec)mysql> select 1 from dual where exists (select floor(id) from t3 where id=2);Empty set (0.00 sec)
后续
这个确实不是一个bug，这个是符合SQL标准的。
可以参考官方的回复