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: ha33445cacecb46d3
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2025
Pagerank: 4.9769913e-05
Overall Rank: 11,250 | 24.39%
DOI: 10.14778/3725688.3725698
PDF: Download (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

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
15	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00061067652
23	Spark SQL: Relational Data Processing in Spark	2015	SIGMOD	0.00055384955
31	Hive - A Warehousing Solution Over a Map-Reduce Framework	2009	VLDB	0.00049821554
71	DuckDB: an Embeddable Analytical Database	2019	SIGMOD	0.00037724477
273	Extensible Query Processing in Starburst	1989	SIGMOD	0.00022498382
361	Bao: Making Learned Query Optimization Practical	2021	SIGMOD	0.00020000855
379	Apache Calcite: A Foundational Framework for Optimized Query Processing Over Heterogeneous Data Sources	2018	SIGMOD	0.00019507406
790	Cosette: An Automated Prover for SQL	2017	CIDR	0.00013971102
1,607	The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer	2010	VLDB	0.00010085995
1,680	Axiomatic Foundations and Algorithms for Deciding Semantic Equivalences of SQL Queries	2018	VLDB	9.9000396e-05
1,890	WeTune: Automatic Discovery and Verification of Query Rewrite Rules	2022	SIGMOD	9.4234723e-05
1,930	Detecting Logic Bugs of Join Optimizations in DBMS	2023	SIGMOD	9.3522789e-05
2,963	Proving Query Equivalence Using Linear Integer Arithmetic	2023	SIGMOD	7.8035846e-05
3,297	Automated Verification of Query Equivalence Using Satisfiability Modulo Theories	2019	VLDB	7.4421962e-05
4,619	QueryVis: Logic-based Diagrams help Users Understand Complicated SQL Queries Faster	2020	SIGMOD	6.4965731e-05
6,004	MOCHA: A Tool for Visualizing Impact of Operator Choices in Query Execution Plans for Database Education	2022	VLDB	5.914455e-05
6,664	Speeding Up End-to-end Query Execution via Learning-based Progressive Cardinality Estimation	2023	SIGMOD	5.715134e-05
6,763	Guided automated learning for query workload re-optimization	2019	VLDB	5.6870172e-05
8,346	Databases will Visualize Queries too	2011	VLDB	5.3488022e-05
8,624	A Demonstration of DLBD: Database Logic Bug Detection System	2023	VLDB	5.2997911e-05
10,035	QO-Insight: Inspecting Steered Query Optimizers	2023	VLDB	5.0901047e-05
11,801	DHive: Query Execution Performance Analysis via Dataflow in Apache Hive	2023	VLDB	4.9769913e-05

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1	8,346	Databases will Visualize Queries too	2011	VLDB
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4	1,607	The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer	2010	VLDB
5	7,233	QueryScope: Visualizing Queries for Repeatable Database Tuning	2008	VLDB
6	4,619	QueryVis: Logic-based Diagrams help Users Understand Complicated SQL Queries Faster	2020	SIGMOD
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