11Apr 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Server Execution Plans Published… Again

T-SQL
My first book is finally in print. OK. I know. It sounds funny. But my first book was printed in only a limited print run from Red Gate, most of which they gave away at Tech Ed last year. Then they offered it for free in an electronic form. Very few people got a printed copy. Well, if you were waiting around for the dead tree version, it's here! Thanks again to Tony Davis & Brad McGehee for all the work they did. It just wouldn't have been possible without them.
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19Mar 2009 by Grant Fritchey 13 Comments

Execution Plan Estimated Operator Cost

Uncategorized
I've said it over and over again, the costs on operators in execution plans, even in actual execution plans are estimates.  You need to understand that when looking at your execution plans. It's vital because you need to be able to distinguish between the truly costly parts of a plan and the less costly parts of a plan. Don't believe me? Take a look at this picture and see if you can spot the discrepancy: Spot it yet? Add up the costs for the operators visible in the part of the plan... Yep 125%.  And there's more to the plan that I'm not showing. I think this one must total near 200%. The statistics are up to date and there's no consistency errors in the database. These estimates are just off sometimes.…
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29Sep 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans at PDC

PASS, SQL Server, T-SQL
I just got word that Red Gate has printed more copies of the book that they'll be distributing at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference that's taking place in LA. I just wish we had a 2008 version of the book now because, while most of it is still applicable, there's more that can be done with execution plans now. Have I mentioned I think the missing index information that's displayed with the statement text in the graphical execution plan in SQL Server 2008 is pretty slick? Well it is. I hope they're going to distribute it at the PASS Summit this year too. I think they are, but I don't know that for a fact.
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15Sep 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Video Lessons

SQL Server, T-SQL
A while back, I wrote a book, Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans. Because of it, I had some conversations with Steve Jones & Andy Warren. For a SQL Server geek, heady company. Anyway, they asked me what my plans are for the book. Plans? I wrote it. I thought that was the plan. But they meant lessons, licensing and all that kind of stuff. I didn't have a clue, but they did. A few weeks ago I flew down to Florida and recorded a bunch of short video lesson plans derived from the book and from discussions with Andy Warren. It was a blast. They've now been published over at JumpstartTV. I hope you find them useful. I had a blast doing them and learned a lot from Andy and…
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09Jul 2008 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Serious Error

T-SQL
When I wrote the book "Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans" I knew I was going to get things wrong. Several people have pointed out things over the last couple of months. They've all been in the details. None of them were serious errors of fact. Andy Warren just found a huge one. In the section on Table Hints I detail how to apply an INDEX() hint. It's on page 123 in the electronic version or 124 of the first print version. I state that index number starts at 0 with the clustered index. That's just flat wrong. A clustered index is always 1. A 0 indicates a heap. Other indexes will have values greater than 1. If you were to supply a 0 to the INDEX() hint, as shown in the book, it forces either…
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02Jul 2008 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Code from "Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans"

T-SQL
This is the complete code listing from the book "Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans." You need a copy of AdventureWorks. Please note, AdventureWorks changes. It changed three times while I wrote the book. These changes can be very subtle causing variations in statistics which will make some of the queries generate execution plans in a different manner than what was published in the book. Some of these changes can be pretty radical causing the queries to not work at all. Also, the book went through quite a few edits including rearranging the order in which sections appear. This listing is the order in which things were written and it might vary from the book. In other words, caveat emptor, your mileage may vary, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle…
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