QOVIS: Understanding and Diagnosing Query Optimizer via a Visualization-assisted Approach

Summary: QOVIS reconstructs transformation logic among thousands of plans produced by optimizers, visualizing operator-level changes to pinpoint root causes of optimizer bugs. Validated on Spark/Hive/DuckDB; a 24-participant study shows substantial debugging speedups. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: 14016
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2025
Pagerank: 5.093636e-05
Overall Rank: 10,834 | 25.67%
DOI: 10.14778/3725688.3725698

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

No non-self incoming citations found for this paper in this database.

Authors

1. Zhengxin You (Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Southern University of Science and Technology)
2. Qiaomu Shen (Beijing Institute of Technology, Zhuhai)
3. Man Lung Yiu (Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
4. Bo Tang (Southern University of Science and Technology)

BibTeX Citation

@article{you_vldb25,
        title = {{QOVIS: Understanding and Diagnosing Query Optimizer via a Visualization-assisted Approach}},
        author = {You, Zhengxin and Shen, Qiaomu and Yiu, Man Lung and Tang, Bo},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '25},
        volume = {18},
        number = {6},
        pages = {1677--1690},
        doi = {10.14778/3725688.3725698},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.14778/3725688.3725698},
        year = {2025}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 0 of 0 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 22 of 22 cited papers.

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

Rank	Cited Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
18	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00059284255
24	Spark SQL: Relational Data Processing in Spark	2015	SIGMOD	0.00054865648
32	Hive - A Warehousing Solution Over a Map-Reduce Framework	2009	VLDB	0.00050111008
103	DuckDB: an Embeddable Analytical Database	2019	SIGMOD	0.00034161428
268	Extensible Query Processing in Starburst	1989	SIGMOD	0.00022788687
378	Bao: Making Learned Query Optimization Practical	2021	SIGMOD	0.00019638121
445	Apache Calcite: A Foundational Framework for Optimized Query Processing Over Heterogeneous Data Sources	2018	SIGMOD	0.00018336751
910	Cosette: An Automated Prover for SQL	2017	CIDR	0.00013285905
1,604	The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer	2010	VLDB	0.00010230973
1,829	Axiomatic Foundations and Algorithms for Deciding Semantic Equivalences of SQL Queries	2018	VLDB	9.6671311e-05
1,982	WeTune: Automatic Discovery and Verification of Query Rewrite Rules	2022	SIGMOD	9.3573897e-05
2,044	Detecting Logic Bugs of Join Optimizations in DBMS	2023	SIGMOD	9.2663577e-05
3,327	Automated Verification of Query Equivalence Using Satisfiability Modulo Theories	2019	VLDB	7.518491e-05
3,769	Proving Query Equivalence Using Linear Integer Arithmetic	2023	SIGMOD	7.1403543e-05
4,721	QueryVis: Logic-based Diagrams help Users Understand Complicated SQL Queries Faster	2020	SIGMOD	6.5444379e-05
5,881	MOCHA: A Tool for Visualizing Impact of Operator Choices in Query Execution Plans for Database Education	2022	VLDB	6.0529753e-05
6,543	Speeding Up End-to-end Query Execution via Learning-based Progressive Cardinality Estimation	2023	SIGMOD	5.8461929e-05
6,938	Guided automated learning for query workload re-optimization	2019	VLDB	5.733869e-05
8,174	Databases will Visualize Queries too	2011	VLDB	5.4738201e-05
8,482	A Demonstration of DLBD: Database Logic Bug Detection System	2023	VLDB	5.4161786e-05
9,846	QO-Insight: Inspecting Steered Query Optimizers	2023	VLDB	5.2094004e-05
11,485	DHive: Query Execution Performance Analysis via Dataflow in Apache Hive	2023	VLDB	5.093636e-05

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1	8,174	Databases will Visualize Queries too	2011	VLDB
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5	1,604	The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer	2010	VLDB
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8	5,329	SeeDB: Visualizing Database Queries Efficiently	2014	VLDB
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