SQL Server Execution Plan Primer

This presentation is a high-level introduction to execution plans in SQL Server.

Slide deck: PowerPoint (483KB) or PDF (517KB)

Demo scripts: ZIP (4KB)

A SQL Server native backup used by the demo scripts, compatible with SQL Server 2012+ (ZIP: 19MB)

Topics addressed in this session

  • Why do we care about execution plans?
  • What are the inputs to the optimizer?
  • How does the optimizer generate a plan?
  • What types of plans are there?
  • What operators do we see in execution plans?
  • What are some useful ways to execute a plan?

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