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Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: An Exercise in Utility

Summary: Challenges standard optimizer assumptions that optimizing for expected parameter values and assuming static runtime parameters yields good plans; these break under high variability. Presents a System R–style algorithm that picks plans with least expected execution cost over parameter distributions, improving robustness in variable environments. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID
1167
Venue
PODS
Year
1999
Pagerank
0.00012157634
Overall Rank
1,104 | 92.43%
DOI
10.1145/303976.303990

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{chu_pods99,
        address = {New York, NY, USA},
        series = {{PODS} '99},
        title = {{Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: An Exercise in Utility}},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/303976.303990},
        doi = {10.1145/303976.303990},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} Symposium on {Principles} of {Database} {Systems}},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        author = {Chu, Francis and Halpern, Joseph Y. and Seshadri, Praveen},
        year = {1999}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 25 of 25 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
566 Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach 2005 SIGMOD 0.00016436005
829 Proactive Re-Optimization 2005 SIGMOD 0.00013769838
866 Pay-as-you-go User Feedback for Dataspace Systems 2008 SIGMOD 0.00013519288
1,604 The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer 2010 VLDB 0.00010230973
1,645 AniPQO: Almost Non-intrusive Parametric Query Optimization for Nonlinear Cost Functions 2003 VLDB 0.00010129244
2,770 Relaxed Currency and Consistency: How to Say "Good Enough" in SQL 2004 SIGMOD 8.1458395e-05
3,506 Identifying Robust Plans through Plan Diagram Reduction 2008 VLDB 7.3581509e-05
3,513 Variance Aware Optimization of Parameterized Queries 2010 SIGMOD 7.354613e-05
3,988 Adaptive Query Processing in the Looking Glass 2005 CIDR 6.9720123e-05
4,616 On the Production of Anorexic Plan Diagrams 2007 VLDB 6.6048588e-05
4,790 A Characterization of the Sensitivity of Query Optimization to Storage Access Cost Parameters 2003 SIGMOD 6.5068083e-05
4,816 A Top-Down Approach to Achieving Performance Predictability in Database Systems 2017 SIGMOD 6.4949878e-05
4,817 Efficiently Approximating Query Optimizer Plan Diagrams 2008 VLDB 6.4944225e-05
5,222 CliffGuard: A Principled Framework for Finding Robust Database Designs 2015 SIGMOD 6.3103741e-05
5,394 Leveraging Query Logs and Machine Learning for Parametric Query Optimization 2022 VLDB 6.2336084e-05
5,537 Uncertainty Aware Query Execution Time Prediction 2014 VLDB 6.1820087e-05
5,898 On the Stability of Plan Costs and the Costs of Plan Stability 2010 VLDB 6.0471908e-05
7,829 Robust Query Processing: Mission Possible 2020 VLDB 5.5360082e-05
8,211 MONSOON: Multi-Step Optimization and Execution of Queries with Partially Obscured Predicates 2020 SIGMOD 5.4658735e-05
8,281 Efficient Top-K Processing Over Query-Dependent Functions 2008 VLDB 5.4574671e-05
8,305 PARQO: Penalty-Aware Robust Plan Selection in Query Optimization 2024 VLDB 5.4568571e-05
9,796 ROME: Robust Query Optimization via Parallel Multi-Plan Execution 2024 SIGMOD 5.21848e-05
10,151 Coresets for Robust Query Optimization 2026 PODS 5.093636e-05
10,986 PAR2QO: Parametric Penalty-Aware Robust Query Optimization 2025 VLDB 5.093636e-05
12,681 Asking the Right Questions: Model-driven Optimization using Probes 2006 PODS 5.093636e-05
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 9 of 9 cited papers.

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

Rank Cited Paper Year Venue Pagerank
1 Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System 1979 SIGMOD 0.0024089429
35 Improved Histograms for Selectivity Estimation of Range Predicates 1996 SIGMOD 0.00048481081
110 Extensible/Rule Based Query Rewrite Optimization in Starburst 1992 SIGMOD 0.0003309592
151 Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans 1998 SIGMOD 0.00029161879
289 Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans 1994 SIGMOD 0.00022278876
419 Cost-based Query Scrambling for Initial Delays 1998 SIGMOD 0.0001879684
479 Randomized Algorithms For Optimizing Large Join Queries 1990 SIGMOD 0.00017789732
698 Optimization of Large Join Queries: Combining Heuristics and Combinatorial Techniques 1989 SIGMOD 0.00014879675
770 Parametric Query Optimization 1992 VLDB 0.00014166811
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