A poorly performing database application not only costs users time, but also has an impact on other applications running on the same computer or the same network. SQL Tuning provides an essential next step for SQL developers and database administrators who want to extend their SQL tuning expertise and get the most from their database applications. There are two basic issues to focus on when tuning SQL: how to find and interpret the execution plan of an SQL statement and how to change SQL to get a specific alternate execution plan. SQL Tuning provides answers to these questions and addresses a third issue that's even more important: how to find the optimal execution plan for the query to use. Author Dan Tow outlines a timesaving method he's developed for finding the optimum execution plan--rapidly and systematically--regardless of the complexity of the SQL or the database platform being used. You'll learn how to understand and control SQL execution plans and how to diagram SQL queries to deduce the best execution plan for a query. Key chapters in the book include exercises to reinforce the concepts you've learned. SQL Tuning concludes by addressing special concerns and unique solutions to "unsolvable problems." Whether you are a programmer who develops SQL-based applications or a database administrator or other who troubleshoots poorly tuned applications, SQL Tuning will arm you with a reliable and deterministic method for tuning your SQL queries to gain optimal performance.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 15 Ratings

A Work of Genius - 2006-07-22
Reviewer Rating:
I have withdrawn my earlier review because I did not properly understand the importance of this book until the second reading. That is a difficult admission to make since my business is database performance tuning.

This book is about tuning SQL queries in a systematic and scientific manner. It is above all about determining the optimum order in which the query engine should access the tables involved. My quibble was that join order is only a part of the whole tuning problem and most of the time the query optimizer got it right anyway. While this is true, I see now that it misses the point.

The fact that the optimizer gets it right so often allows us to take join order for granted. But how do we know the optimizer got it right unless we know what the optimum join order is? That is what this book teaches, a methodology and an elegant system of notation that allows us to determine the optimum join order of the most complex query. As the author points out, the number of possible join orders increases factorially with the number of tables involved. An 8 table join has 40,320 possible join orders. That rules out trial and error for all but the simplest queries.

It turns out that analyzing and diagramming according to Tow's method gives you a deep architectural understanding of the query and the problems that face you. It gives you a plan to which you can apply the tools of the trade, indexes, code optimization, etc.

This is a book that will be on the shelf of serious performance tuning professionals for as long as SQL is the language of data manipulation.

A Real Job Saver - 2005-07-28
Reviewer Rating:
I was entangled in the web of horrible response time queries, not knowing what to do (except the darn hit ratios were maximum). In utter frustration, I was putting an index here and dropping an index there, inserting a hint here and then setting a parameter there.

Within 1 day of reading Mr. Dan Tow book, I was able to bring my biggest thorn query from 8 hours response time to just 10 minutes. Boy was I blissful. Certainly Dan Diagrams rock.

The first real SQL Tuning method. - 2006-02-27
Reviewer Rating:
I have worked with Oracle databases and SQL tuning since 1987, and the reason I recommend Dan's book so highly to anyone working with SQL is that his method is the first real method I've seen in this field. There are many approaches out there, but they all fall into the Guess & Grimacing or Checklist categories. Dan's is a REAL method, and it works for all SQL-based databases. It's so far the only SQL tuning book I can recommend. Any DBA, developer and troubleshooter working with database-centric systems should know this stuff.

Mogens

excellect condition - 2006-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
like new as described,fast shipment.

Excellent resource for the Oracle DBA - 2007-01-09
Reviewer Rating:
Dan Tow has created a marvelous resource. With complex queries, it is often uncertain what is the best query plan. Dan Tow takes the mystery out of that process. He details a methodology that will give you the best query plan with a high degree of certainty. He also provides insights into how to achive the desired query plan.

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