Category: Internals

Gail Shaw explains how operators like sort can reduce the actual row count:

A non-blocking operator is one that consumes and produces rows at the same time. Nested loop joins are non-blocking operators.

A blocking operator is one that requires that all rows from the input have been consumed before a single row can be produced. Sorts are blocking operators.

Some operators can be somewhere between the two, requiring a group of rows to be consumed before an output row can be produced. Stream aggregates are an example here.

Gail ends by explaining that this is why “Which way do you read an execution plan, right-to-left or left-to-right?” has a correct answer:  both ways.  This understanding of blocking, non-blocking, and partially-blocking operators will also help you optimize Integration Services data flows by making you think in terms of streams.

Kenneth Fisher is looking for the database page tied to a particular row:

It’s not one of those things you have to do frequently but every now and again you need to know what page a particular row is on. It’s not terribly difficult. There is a virtual column called %%physloc%%, but unfortunately it’s not terribly useful on it’s own.

Finding a record’s page probably isn’t something you want to do every day; this is more one of those “once in a great while” activities which can help with troubleshooting.