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Databases & SQL vocabulary · Indexes and Query Performance

Execution plan

Meaning in databases & SQL, with examples

/ˌɛksɪˈkjuːʃən plæn/nounCore term

In databases & SQL, execution plan means: The step-by-step strategy the database chooses to run a query, showing which indexes it uses, how tables are joined and how many rows it expects.

In Turkish: yürütme planı, sorgu planı, execution plan

How it is used

Also called a query plan. You get it with EXPLAIN in PostgreSQL and MySQL (EXPLAIN ANALYZE also runs the query and shows real times) or with the estimated and actual plan views in SQL Server. Reading plans is a core skill for tuning slow queries.

Example sentences

  1. The execution plan shows a sequential scan on a ten-million-row table.

  2. Can you share the execution plan from production, not from your laptop?

Common collocations

  • read an execution plan
  • query plan
  • EXPLAIN ANALYZE
  • actual execution plan
  • estimated plan
  • query optimizerThe part of a database engine that looks at a query and the table statistics and picks the cheapest way to run it, producing the execution plan.
  • indexAn extra data structure built on one or more columns that lets the database find rows quickly without reading the whole table, like the index at the back of a book.
  • full table scanReading every row of a table to find the ones a query needs, instead of jumping straight to them through an index.
  • query tuningThe work of making slow queries faster by studying their execution plans and then adding indexes, rewriting SQL or changing database settings.
  • slow queryA query that takes longer than an agreed limit to finish, slowing down the application and using up database resources.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Indexes and Query Performance

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