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Databases & SQL vocabulary · Indexes and Query Performance

Query tuning

Meaning in databases & SQL, with examples

nounCommon term

In databases & SQL, query tuning means: The work of making slow queries faster by studying their execution plans and then adding indexes, rewriting SQL or changing database settings.

In Turkish: sorgu iyileştirme, sorgu optimizasyonu, performans ayarı

How it is used

A core DBA and senior developer skill, also called query optimization or performance tuning. You tune a query, and the usual cycle is: measure, read the plan, change one thing, measure again. Fixing the query is usually better than adding hardware.

Example sentences

  1. After a week of query tuning, the nightly batch finishes in 20 minutes instead of three hours.

  2. Before we buy a bigger server, let's try some query tuning.

Common collocations

  • query tuning
  • tune a query
  • performance tuning
  • query optimization
  • execution planThe 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.
  • slow queryA query that takes longer than an agreed limit to finish, slowing down the application and using up database resources.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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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