Overview of Query Optimization

From: Danny Wyatt (danny@cs.washington.edu)
Date: Mon May 24 2004 - 09:37:44 PDT

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    Also like the first paper, this paper covered the same ground as the
    previous few lectures. It is a good introduction to query planning and
    how complex of a problem it is. I liked his presentation of optimal
    query plan selection in the familiar terms of a search through a state
    space with well-defined state transition operators. It seems like more
    complex queries than those supported by System R have been integrated
    into this overall approach by adding new state change operators based on
    new logical (algebraic) equivalences that allow for new physical query
    plans, e.g., the pulling out of joins from outer joins, the
    generalization of "interesting order" to "physical properties", and
    techniques learned from semijoins for handling multi-block queries.

    Again, also like the first paper, I don't have much to comment on. This
    seemed like a decent overview to me, but I'm new to query planning so I
    don't know whether he's left out anything important. I was dismayed to
    see that he says (section 7.4) that he has not covered is the on-line
    construction of a plan as subplans execute. This was a new direction
    pointed out in the Goetz Graefe paper, and I was hoping to see what's
    become of it. I suppose that in the 10 years between then and now not
    enough has been done with it to raise it to the level of interest
    required for inclusion in a short overview.


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