Confirmed on 5.6.15-56-log Percona XtraDB Cluster mysql> show global variables like '%version%'; +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Variable_name | Value | +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | innodb_version | 5.6.15-rel63.0 | | protocol_version | 10 | | slave_type_conversions | | | version | 5.6.15-56-log | | version_comment | Percona XtraDB Cluster (GPL), Release 25.5, Revision 759, wsrep_25.5.r4061 | | version_compile_machine | x86_64 | | version_compile_os | Linux | +-------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ mysql> use test Database changed mysql> CREATE TABLE update_test (a INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, b INT, c INT, INDEX (b,c)); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.16 sec) mysql> INSERT INTO update_test (b, c) VALUES (1, 1), (1, 2), (1,3), (2, 2), (2,3), (2,4), (2, 5), (5, 5), (6,6), (7,7); Query OK, 10 rows affected (0.01 sec) Records: 10 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql> SELECT * FROM update_test WHERE b = 1 ORDER BY c LIMIT 2; +---+------+------+ | a | b | c | +---+------+------+ | 2 | 1 | 1 | | 4 | 1 | 2 | +---+------+------+ 2 rows in set (0.03 sec) mysql> SHOW SESSION STATUS LIKE 'Sort%'; +-------------------+-------+ | Variable_name | Value | +-------------------+-------+ | Sort_merge_passes | 0 | | Sort_range | 0 | | Sort_rows | 0 | | Sort_scan | 0 | +-------------------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> explain SELECT * FROM update_test WHERE b = 1 ORDER BY c LIMIT 2; +----+-------------+-------------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | update_test | ref | b | b | 5 | const | 3 | Using where; Using index | +----+-------------+-------------+------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+--------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql> UPDATE update_test SET a = a + 13 WHERE b = 1 ORDER BY c LIMIT 2; Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.69 sec) Rows matched: 2 Changed: 2 Warnings: 0 mysql> SHOW SESSION STATUS LIKE 'Sort%'; +-------------------+-------+ | Variable_name | Value | +-------------------+-------+ | Sort_merge_passes | 0 | | Sort_range | 1 | | Sort_rows | 2 | | Sort_scan | 0 | +-------------------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql> EXPLAIN UPDATE update_test SET a = a + 13 WHERE b = 1 ORDER BY c LIMIT 2; +----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------------+ | id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra | +----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------------+ | 1 | SIMPLE | update_test | range | b | b | 5 | const | 3 | Using where; Using filesort | +----+-------------+-------------+-------+---------------+------+---------+-------+------+-----------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)