Simple MySQL Index

I have a single table which I would like to search on a unique column
varchar(15) that may have some nulls. Employee social club member no,
some employees have a number and others don't. Those that do have a number
will all have a unique number.

I had added an index using:
ALTER TABLE employees ADD INDEX(emp_socialclubno);

However when I run:
mysql> explain select employeeid from employees where
emp_socialclubno=103833988;
+----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len |
ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | properties | ALL | emp_socialclubno | NULL | NULL |
NULL | 170361 | Using where |
+----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

So this indicates that even though the emp_socialclubno column has an index
it is not being used when this column is searched ?

Is this right or am I missing something ?

Thanks in advance...

McMurphy wrote:
> I have a single table which I would like to search on a unique column
> varchar(15) that may have some nulls. Employee social club member no,
> some employees have a number and others don't. Those that do have a number
> will all have a unique number.
>
> I had added an index using:
> ALTER TABLE employees ADD INDEX(emp_socialclubno);
>
> However when I run:
> mysql> explain select employeeid from employees where
> emp_socialclubno=103833988;
> +----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
> | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len |
> ref | rows | Extra |
> +----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
> | 1 | SIMPLE | properties | ALL | emp_socialclubno | NULL | NULL |
> NULL | 170361 | Using where |
> +----+-------------+------------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
> 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
>
> So this indicates that even though the emp_socialclubno column has an index
> it is not being used when this column is searched ?
>
> Is this right or am I missing something ?
>
> Thanks in advance...


looks like your query is for table employees but the explain is run on
properties. these are two different tables!!!