Question

The application of the query has been changed, but the theory is the same.

4 tables:

states – list of states (index on state)
stores – stores, and the state they’re in (separate indexes on state, store)
store_orders – ties an order to a store (separate indexes on store, order)
order_statuses – has order and status (separate indexes on order, status)

I want to count how many orders are in each status for a particular state.

One query:

select os.order_status, count(os.order_status)
from stores sto, store_order so, order_statuses os
where sto.state = ‘PA’
and sto.store = so.store
and so.order = os.order
group by os.order_status

in the real application, a showplan here comes back with estimated I/O of around 500,000

But if I do:

select os.order_status, count(os.order_status)
from states sta, stores sto, store_order so, order_statuses os
where sta.state = ‘PA’
where sto.state = sta.state
and sto.store = so.store
and so.order = os.order
group by os.order_status

The I/O is estimated at around 2,000, and all I did to change the query was join the states table to the stores table, and specify the exact value in states instead of stores.

Isn’t the DBM still going to have to do the same searching of stores whether I specify an explicit value, or I join another table with that explicit value?

I’m trying to figure out why the estimated I/O is so much higher.

I’m no DBA, but trying to learn as much as I can, because I hit things like this all the time, and I’m never quite sure why.

Answer 1

Lazy Bob, Can you please also turn IO statistics on and then add the results to the question:

set statistics io on

showplan by itself will not give that info as you reported in the comments

also, please post exact working query – ideally, formatted correctly.

Your query says “where sta.state = ‘PA’ where sto.state = sta.state ” and obviously not something you could have run