Hugo Kornelis has embarked on a major project:
I didn’t choose the term “Execution Plan Reference” by accident. The core of the EPR will be a full description of all that is known about every operator known to exist in execution plans: what it does, how it functions, what properties it can have, how those properties affect its behavior, and any additional information that may be relevant to understand the operator. This section will be one page for each operator. Of course, some operators are fairly simple while others are more complex, so those pages will vary in length.
Apart from that core content, I planned some generic pages. It makes no sense to repeat the explanation for properties such as Estimated Number of Rows or Number of Executions on each operator’s page, so instead I wanted to have a single page to list and describe all common properties. I also wanted an introduction page that explains the basics of reading an execution plan, lists the properties for plans as a whole, and debunks some common misconceptions.
And there will be articles with additional background. Instead of having to explain what exactly an “anti semi join” is on each of the four pages for the four join operators, I decided to create a single page describing all the logical join types. When working on Hash Match, the page, was already very long and complex before I even had a chance to start on the details of the “dynamic destaging” process that handles memory spills, so I decided to leave that for a future page. As I continue to work on the EPR, I will probably continue to create or plan separate pages for content that applies to multiple operators, or that I consider too deep and too advanced for the operator’s normal page.
This is a huge undertaking, but even in its current state, the Execution Plan Reference looks great and has tremendous potential.