Query Plans

SQL is the language for interacting with databases, and like all computer languages, there are many ways to achieve the right result. And like other software languages, some ways will be better and more efficient than others. What sets SQL and database programming apart from most other computer programming is the vast amount of data that is regularly dealt with, and how other factors that are not immediately obvious can impact the SQL query code you write.

This lesson looks at ways that you can see how the SQL Server engine views your queries and how it intends to execute them. Using that information, we look at other factors like table and index design that can positively or negatively impact your query execution.

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Learning Objectives

• Understand what impacts query performance when using SQL
• Learn how the SQL Server engine processes queries
• Use execution plans to see how a query is executed
• Instruct the query engine
• Understand how different query types can be used
• Learn how to design tables to make queries more efficient
• Use database file configuration to improve performance
• Understand how database compression can impact performance

Intended Audience

This lesson is aimed at database administrators, data engineers, or anyone who wants to learn how to improve database query execution.

Prerequisites

To get the most out of this lesson, you should be familiar with SQL query syntax, SQL data types, and SQL table structure.

Resources

https://github.com/cloudacademy/azure-sql-query-tuning-dp-300