varchar(120)的情况下：　

mysql> alter table sbtest change pad pad varchar(120);
Query OK, 1000000 rows affected (11.77 sec)
Records: 1000000 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

mysql> desc sbtest;
+-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| id | int(10) unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| k | int(10) unsigned | NO | MUL | 0 | |
| c | char(120) | NO | | | |
| pad | varchar(120) | YES | | NULL | |
+-------+------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

mysql> desc select * from sbtest;
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | sbtest | ALL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | 1000117 | |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> desc select count(*) from sbtest;
+----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table | type | possible_keys | key | key_len | ref | rows | Extra |
+----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
| 1 | SIMPLE | sbtest | index | NULL | k | 4 | NULL | 1000117 | Using index |
+----+-------------+--------+-------+---------------+------+---------+------+---------+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select count(*) from sbtest order by pad;
+----------+
| count(*) |
+----------+
| 1000000 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.51 sec)

mysql> show profile cpu,block io for query 17;
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+
| Status | Duration | CPU_user | CPU_system | Block_ops_in | Block_ops_out |
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+
| starting | 0.000073 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| checking permissions | 0.000013 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| Opening tables | 0.000031 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| System lock | 0.000024 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| init | 0.000026 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| optimizing | 0.000008 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| statistics | 0.000019 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| preparing | 0.000013 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| executing | 0.000011 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| Sending data | 0.510981 | 0.491925 | 0.018997 | 0 | 0 |
| end | 0.000025 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| query end | 0.000013 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| closing tables | 0.000026 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| freeing items | 0.000039 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| logging slow query | 0.000004 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
| logging slow query | 0.000110 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 8 |
| cleaning up | 0.000007 | 0.000000 | 0.000000 | 0 | 0 |
+----------------------+----------+----------+------------+--------------+---------------+

＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝有索引的情况下：＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝

alter table sbtest change pad pad varchar(60);

mysql> alter table sbtest add key(pad);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (7.60 sec)
Records: 0 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0