MySQL command Explain ignore LIMIT?

Question

I use MySQL server version 5.5.14 and now I am trying this simple SQL query with Explain command:

EXPLAIN SELECT id, name, thumb FROM `twitter_profiles` LIMIT 10;

and it shows me this result:

+----+-------------+-------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+-------+-------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref  | rows  | Extra |
+----+-------------+-------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+-------+-------+
|  1 | SIMPLE      | tp    | ALL  | NULL          | NULL | NULL    | NULL | 40823 |       |
+----+-------------+-------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+-------+-------+
1 row in set (0.02 sec)

My question is why it scans whole table instead of taking the first 10 rows as I specified in LIMIT clause?

MySQL command Explain ignore LIMIT?

2 Answers