Query Simplification: Graceful Degradation for Join-Order Optimization

Summary: New approach to join-order optimization: when exact planning is intractable on large queries, simplify the join graph within a time budget. Safe-first, then riskier simplifications enable optimal results, with a directing strategy and graceful degradation. (summarized by gpt-5-nano on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: 4136
Venue: SIGMOD
Year: 2009
Pagerank: 5.9553181e-05
Overall Rank: 4,734 | 67.10%
DOI: -

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Thomas Neumann

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 15 of 15 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
71	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00059446482
1,104	Cardinality Estimation Done Right: Index-Based Join Sampling	2017	CIDR	0.0001398479
1,621	Adaptive Optimization of Very Large Join Queries	2018	SIGMOD	0.00011105663
3,920	On Optimizing Operator Fusion Plans for Large-Scale Machine Learning in SystemML	2018	VLDB	6.6246708e-05
4,999	Keep It Simple: Testing Databases via Differential Query Plans	2024	SIGMOD	5.7638722e-05
5,195	Bitvector-aware Query Optimization for Decision Support Queries	2020	SIGMOD	5.6314278e-05
5,633	Ready to Leap (by Co-Design)? Join Order Optimisation on Quantum Hardware	2023	SIGMOD	5.3993005e-05
7,486	Quantum-Inspired Digital Annealing for Join Ordering	2024	VLDB	4.7135369e-05
8,149	Efficiently Computing Join Orders with Heuristic Search	2023	SIGMOD	4.5715614e-05
9,303	Engineering High-Performance Database Engines	2014	VLDB	4.3550373e-05
10,295	Hybrid Mixed Integer Linear Programming for Large-Scale Join Order Optimisation	2026	VLDB	4.1905499e-05
10,599	Accio: Bolt-on Query Federation	2025	VLDB	4.1905499e-05
10,945	Sub-optimal Join Order Identification with L1-error	2024	SIGMOD	4.1905499e-05
10,990	DPconv: Super-Polynomially Faster Join Ordering	2024	SIGMOD	4.1905499e-05
11,135	A Branch-&-Bound Algorithm for Fractional Hypertree Decomposition	2024	VLDB	4.1905499e-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
1	Access Path Selection in a Relational Database Management System	1979	SIGMOD	0.0040465394
144	Optimization of Nonrecursive Queries	1986	VLDB	0.00041430126
388	Optimization of Large Join Queries	1988	SIGMOD	0.00024654816
400	Randomized Algorithms For Optimizing Large Join Queries	1990	SIGMOD	0.00024308369
422	Measuring the Complexity of Join Enumeration in Query Optimization	1990	VLDB	0.00023654556
979	Rapid Bushy Join-order Optimization with Cartesian Products	1996	SIGMOD	0.00014871114
1,344	Dynamic Programming Strikes Back	2008	SIGMOD	0.00012477274
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
3,053	Fast, Randomized Join-Order Selection — Why Use Transformations?	1994	VLDB	7.6482987e-05

Semantically Similar Papers

Overall Rank	Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
1,575	Reverse Engineering Complex Join Queries	2013	SIGMOD	0.00011288804
8,778	SQL Query Optimization: Reordering for a General Class of Queries	1996	SIGMOD	4.4486677e-05
4,189	On the Complexity of Approximate Query Optimization	2002	PODS	6.3681294e-05
388	Optimization of Large Join Queries	1988	SIGMOD	0.00024654816
144	Optimization of Nonrecursive Queries	1986	VLDB	0.00041430126
71	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00059446482
11,710	Improving Join Reorderability with Compensation Operators	2018	SIGMOD	4.1905499e-05
4,526	Simplicity Done Right for Join Ordering	2021	CIDR	6.1079584e-05
8,149	Efficiently Computing Join Orders with Heuristic Search	2023	SIGMOD	4.5715614e-05
1,621	Adaptive Optimization of Very Large Join Queries	2018	SIGMOD	0.00011105663