Execution plans

Esat Erkec
How we can read a query plan

How to read an execution plan with all details

January 28, 2021 by

In this article, we will discuss how to read the SQL Server execution plan (query plan) with all aspects through an example, so we will gain some practical experience that helps to solve query performance issues. Interpreting query plans correctly is the first and major principle to troubleshoot query performance issues. When we try to find an answer to the “why is this query running slow?” question, the best starting point would be to analyze the query plan.

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Esat Erkec
Trivial query plans and contradiction detection

Explore the secrets of SQL Server execution plans

December 10, 2020 by

The SQL Server execution plan (query plan) is a set of instructions that describes which process steps are performed while a query is executed by the database engine. The query plans are generated by the query optimizer and its essential goal is to generate the most efficient (optimum) and economical query plan. Some query plans that are created by the query optimizer contain some interesting characteristics. In this article, we will go into details of these interesting query plans.

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Ahmad Yaseen

Saving your SQL Execution Plan

November 28, 2018 by

In the previous articles of this series (see the index at bottom), we discussed the characteristics of the SQL Execution Plan from multiple aspects, that include the way the SQL Execution Plan is generated by the SQL Server Query Optimizer internally, what are the different types of plans, how to identify and analyze the different components and operators of the Execution Plans, how to work with the plans using different tools and finally, tuning the performance of simple and complex T-SQL queries using the Execution Plans. In this, the last article of this series, but not the least, we will discuss where the Execution plan is stored and how to save it for future use.

Bojan Petrovic

SQL index overview and strategy

November 27, 2018 by

A SQL index is used to retrieve data from a database very fast. Indexing a table or view is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to improve the performance of queries and applications.

A SQL index is a quick lookup table for finding records users need to search frequently. An index is small, fast, and optimized for quick lookups. It is very useful for connecting the relational tables and searching large tables.

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Ahmad Yaseen

Using the SQL Execution Plan for Query Performance Tuning

November 23, 2018 by

In the previous articles of this series (see the index at bottom), we went through many aspects of the SQL Execution Plan, where we discussed how the Execution Plan is generated internally, the different types of plans, the main components and operators and how to read and analyze the plans that are generated using different tools. In this article, we will show how we can use an Execution Plan in tuning the performance of T-SQL queries.

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Ahmad Yaseen

A new SQL Execution Plan viewer

November 20, 2018 by

In the previous articles of this series (see the index at bottom), we discussed many aspects of the SQL Execution Plans, starting with the main concept of SQL Execution Plan generation, diving in the different types of the plans and showing how to analyze the components and operators of the SQL Execution Plans.

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Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Execution Plan enhancements in SSMS 18.0

November 13, 2018 by

This article will provide an overview of the SSMS 18.0 with particular focus on improvements to the SQL execution plan feature. To work with Microsoft SQL Server Database Engine, you need to have an environment to edit, debug and deploy scripts written in different languages such as T-SQL, DAX, MDX, XML and JSON. In addition, you need a GUI tool that helps you to configure, query, monitor and administrate your SQL Server instances wherever they are hosted; locally at your machine, on a remote Windows or Linux server or in the cloud. All this can be achieved using SQL Server Management Studio aka SSMS.

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Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server Execution Plan Operators – Part 4

October 29, 2018 by

In the previous articles of this series, we went through three sets of SQL Server Execution Plan operators that you will meet with while working with the different Execution Plan queries. We described the Table Scan, Clustered Index Scan, Clustered Index Seek, the Non-Clustered Index Seek, RID Lookup, Key Lookup, Sort, Aggregate – Stream Aggregate, Compute Scalar, Concatenation, Assert, Hash Match Join, Hash Match Aggregate , Merge Join and Nested Loops Join Execution Plan operators. In this article, we will dive in the fourth set of these SQL Server Execution Plan operators.

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Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server Execution Plan Operators – Part 3

October 29, 2018 by

In the previous articles of this series, we discussed a group of SQL Server Execution Plan operators that you will face when studying the SQL Execution Plan of different queries. We showed the Table Scan, Clustered Index Scan, Clustered Index Seek, the Non-Clustered Index Seek, RID Lookup, Key Lookup and Sort Execution Plan operators. In this article, we will discuss the third set of these SQL Execution Plan operators.

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Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server Execution Plan Operators – Part 2

October 26, 2018 by

In the previous article, we talked about the first set of operators you may encounter when working with SQL Server Execution Plans. We described the Non Clustered Index, Seek Execution Plan operators, Table Scan, Clustered Index Scan, and the Clustered Index Seek. In this article, we will discuss the second set of these SQL Server execution plan operators.

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