Paul White continues his row goals series:
The optimizer assumes that people write a semi join (indirectly e.g. using
EXISTS) with the expectation that the row being searched for will be found. An apply semi join row goal is set by the optimizer to help find that expected matching row quickly.For anti join (expressed e.g. using
NOT EXISTS) the optimizer’s assumption is that a matching row will not be found. An apply anti join row goal is not set by the optimizer, because it expects to have to check all rows to confirm there is no match.If there does turn out to be a matching row, the apply anti join might take longer to locate this row than it would if a row goal had been used. Nevertheless, the anti join will still terminate its search as soon as the (unexpected) match is encountered.
This is a shorter article but very useful in understanding row goals, along with the rest of his series.