The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer

Summary: Picasso profiles industrial query optimizers through plan diagrams over relational selectivity spaces. It exposes plan instability and robust-plan opportunities under cardinality-estimation errors, supporting optimizer debugging, redesign, research, and teaching. (summarized by gpt-5.6-luna on Jul 24 2026)

Paper ID: 10177
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2010
Pagerank: 0.00010230973
Overall Rank: 1,604 | 89.00%
DOI: 10.14778/1920841.1920901

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Jayant R. Haritsa (Indian Institute of Science)

BibTeX Citation

@article{haritsa_vldb10,
        title = {{The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer}},
        author = {Haritsa, Jayant R.},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '10},
        volume = {3},
        number = {2},
        pages = {1517--1520},
        doi = {10.14778/1920841.1920901},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.14778/1920841.1920901},
        year = {2010}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 13 of 13 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
18	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00059284255
2,078	Query Optimization in Microsoft SQL Server PDW	2012	SIGMOD	9.2078209e-05
4,817	Efficiently Approximating Query Optimizer Plan Diagrams	2008	VLDB	6.4944225e-05
5,059	Steering Query Optimizers: A Practical Take on Big Data Workloads	2021	SIGMOD	6.3807509e-05
5,881	MOCHA: A Tool for Visualizing Impact of Operator Choices in Query Execution Plans for Database Education	2022	VLDB	6.0529753e-05
8,174	Databases will Visualize Queries too	2011	VLDB	5.4738201e-05
8,494	POLAR: Adaptive and Non-invasive Join Order Selection via Plans of Least Resistance	2024	VLDB	5.4142129e-05
8,636	Adaptive Code Generation for Data-Intensive Analytics	2021	VLDB	5.3954959e-05
9,315	ProcAnalyzer: Effective Code Analyzer for Tuning Imperative Programs in SAP HANA	2020	SIGMOD	5.289545e-05
9,846	QO-Insight: Inspecting Steered Query Optimizers	2023	VLDB	5.2094004e-05
10,108	An Elephant Under The Microscope: Analyzing The Interaction Of Optimizer Components In PostgreSQL	2025	SIGMOD	5.1347137e-05
10,301	Towards Selecting Informative Alternative Relational Query Plans for Database Education	2026	SIGMOD	5.093636e-05
10,834	QOVIS: Understanding and Diagnosing Query Optimizer via a Visualization-assisted Approach	2025	VLDB	5.093636e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 10 of 10 cited papers.

Citations counted here include only citations to other VLDB/SIGMOD/CIDR/PODS papers in this database.

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
100	LEO - DB2's LEarning Optimizer	2001	VLDB	0.00034385207
151	Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans	1998	SIGMOD	0.00029161879
984	Analyzing Plan Diagrams of Database Query Optimizers	2005	VLDB	0.00012825643
1,104	Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: An Exercise in Utility	1999	PODS	0.00012157634
1,321	Parametric Query Optimization for Linear and Piecewise Linear Cost Functions	2002	VLDB	0.00011162369
1,645	AniPQO: Almost Non-intrusive Parametric Query Optimization for Nonlinear Cost Functions	2003	VLDB	0.00010129244
1,795	Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: What Can We Expect?	2002	PODS	9.738718e-05
3,506	Identifying Robust Plans through Plan Diagram Reduction	2008	VLDB	7.3581509e-05
4,616	On the Production of Anorexic Plan Diagrams	2007	VLDB	6.6048588e-05
5,898	On the Stability of Plan Costs and the Costs of Plan Stability	2010	VLDB	6.0471908e-05

Semantically Similar Papers

#	Overall Rank	Paper	Year	Venue
1	13,737	Extreme Visualisation of Query Optimizer Search Spaces	2009	SIGMOD
2	1,071	Lightweight Graphical Models for Selectivity Estimation Without Independence Assumptions	2011	VLDB
3	7,098	QueryScope: Visualizing Queries for Repeatable Database Tuning	2008	VLDB
4	9,846	QO-Insight: Inspecting Steered Query Optimizers	2023	VLDB
5	7,448	Interactive Plan Hints for Query Optimization	2009	SIGMOD
6	10,834	QOVIS: Understanding and Diagnosing Query Optimizer via a Visualization-assisted Approach	2025	VLDB
7	984	Analyzing Plan Diagrams of Database Query Optimizers	2005	VLDB
8	5,329	SeeDB: Visualizing Database Queries Efficiently	2014	VLDB
9	3,506	Identifying Robust Plans through Plan Diagram Reduction	2008	VLDB
10	4,817	Efficiently Approximating Query Optimizer Plan Diagrams	2008	VLDB