Query Plan

Definitions

1. The execution strategy chosen by the database's query optimizer for a SQL statement. Shows which indexes are used, join order and method (nested loop, hash, merge), scan type (sequential vs index), and estimated vs actual row counts. Accessed via EXPLAIN (plan) or EXPLAIN ANALYZE (plan + execution). Essential for debugging slow queries.

   In plain English: The database's step-by-step plan for executing your SQL query, showing how it finds and combines data.

   Example: "EXPLAIN ANALYZE shows the query is doing a sequential scan on a 10M row table — add an index on the WHERE clause column."

Related Terms

• Query
• Table
• Connection Pooling
• N+1 Query Problem
• Index Scan vs Seq Scan
• Upsert
• Database Trigger
• Partitioning
• Left Join
• Query Cache
• Query Engine
• Query Optimizer
• RDBMS