Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans

by Grant Fritchey

Execution plans show you what's going on behind the scenes in SQL Server. They can provide you with a wealth of information on how your queries are being executed by SQL Server, including which indexes are getting used and where no indexes are being used at all; how the data is being retrieved, and joined, from the tables defined in your query; how aggregations in GROUP BY queries are put together and the anticipated load, and the estimated cost, that all these operations place upon the system. All this information makes the execution plan a vitally important tool in the tool belt of database administrator, database developers, report writers, developers, and pretty much anyone who writes TSQL to access data in a SQL Server database. The goal with this book was to gather as much useful information on execution plans as possible into a single location, and to organize it in such as way that it provided a clear route through the subject, right from the basics of capturing plans, through their interpretation, and then onto how to use them to understand how you might optimize your SQL queries, improve your indexing strategy, spot some common performance issues, and more.

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2008

About the author

I have over thirty years experience working in technical support, development and database administration. I'm work for Redgate Software as a Product Advocate. I am a Microsoft Data Platform MVP and AWS Community Builder. I write articles for publication at SQL Server Central and Simple-Talk. I present sessions at events, large and small, all around the world and online. I work with both SQL Server and PostgreSQL and have authored multiple books on a variety of topics related to databases and data management.