How to Optimize SQL Queries? A Comparison Between Split, Holistic, and Hybrid Approaches

Summary: Contrasts split vs holistic query optimization across full QEP decisions (join orders, access methods, physical operator implementations), highlighting stark optimization-time vs plan-quality tradeoffs. Proposes a top-k hybrid that recovers holistic optima with optimization time near split, validated experimentally in the mutable research DB. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: 14012
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2025
Pagerank: 4.2332427e-05
Overall Rank: 9,956 | 30.81%
DOI: 10.14778/3749646.3749663

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Luca Gretscher
2. Jens Dittrich

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 1 of 1 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
10,271	OBELISK: Efficient Offline Query Planning with Bayesian Optimization-Informed Language Model Reasoning	2026	VLDB	4.1905499e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 17 of 17 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	0.0040465394
59	Efficiently Compiling Efficient Query Plans for Modern Hardware	2011	VLDB	0.0006445664
71	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00059446482
329	Neo: A Learned Query Optimizer	2019	VLDB	0.00027301488
422	Measuring the Complexity of Join Enumeration in Query Optimization	1990	VLDB	0.00023654556
503	Worst-case Optimal Join Algorithms	2012	PODS	0.00021517145
904	Fundamental Techniques for Order Optimization	1996	SIGMOD	0.00015425636
979	Rapid Bushy Join-order Optimization with Cartesian Products	1996	SIGMOD	0.00014871114
1,825	Analysis of Two Existing and One New Dynamic Programming Algorithm for the Generation of Optimal Bushy Join Trees without Cross Products	2006	VLDB	0.00010392367
2,053	Optimal Top-Down Join Enumeration	2007	SIGMOD	9.682841e-05
2,781	Flow-Loss: Learning Cardinality Estimates That Matter	2021	VLDB	8.1282042e-05
2,999	A Combined Framework for Grouping and Order Optimization	2004	VLDB	7.7460195e-05
4,336	Avoiding Sorting and Grouping In Processing Queries	2003	VLDB	6.2716355e-05
5,087	Accelerating Queries with Group-By and Join by Groupjoin	2011	VLDB	5.7032118e-05
8,149	Efficiently Computing Join Orders with Heuristic Search	2023	SIGMOD	4.5715614e-05
9,466	Memory Efficient Scheduling of Query Pipeline Execution	2022	CIDR	4.3314303e-05
11,151	mutable: A Modern DBMS for Research and Fast Prototyping	2023	CIDR	4.1905499e-05

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Overall Rank	Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
3,276	Configuration-Parametric Query Optimization for Physical Design Tuning	2008	SIGMOD	7.2880761e-05
2,867	Optimization of Queries with User-defined Predicates	1996	VLDB	7.9931252e-05
439	Query Optimization for Parallel Execution	1992	SIGMOD	0.00023183237
6,372	Optimization of Conjunctive Predicates for Main Memory Column Stores	2016	VLDB	5.0878306e-05
1,064	Analyzing Plan Diagrams of Database Query Optimizers	2005	VLDB	0.00014348262
2,281	Adopting Worst-Case Optimal Joins in Relational Database Systems	2020	VLDB	9.122455e-05
2,051	Optimization of Multi-Way Join Queries for Parallel Execution	1991	VLDB	9.6871984e-05
144	Optimization of Nonrecursive Queries	1986	VLDB	0.00041430126
9,662	Efficient Query Re-optimization with Judicious Subquery Selections	2023	SIGMOD	4.3056334e-05
454	An Overview of Query Optimization in Relational Systems	1998	PODS	0.00022796106