Simple Adaptive Query Processing vs. Learned Query Optimizers: Observations and Analysis

Summary: Compare SOTA RL-based learned optimizers to two simple adaptive methods (on-the-fly NLJ/Hash switching and Lookahead Information Passing) implemented in PostgreSQL. Adaptive methods match or often beat RL, need no training, are interpretable, and handle complex queries RL can't. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID: hb3b8686a324cc285
Venue: VLDB
Year: 2023
Pagerank: 5.6826988e-05
Overall Rank: 6,725 | 54.93%
DOI: 10.14778/3611479.3611501
PDF: Download (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

1. Yunjia Zhang (University of Wisconsin)
2. Yannis Chronis (University of Wisconsin)
3. Jignesh M. Patel (Carnegie Mellon University)
4. Theodoros Rekatsinas (ETH Zurich)

BibTeX Citation

@article{zhang_vldb23,
        title = {{Simple Adaptive Query Processing vs. Learned Query Optimizers: Observations and Analysis}},
        author = {Zhang, Yunjia and Chronis, Yannis and Patel, Jignesh M. and Rekatsinas, Theodoros},
        journal = {PVLDB},
        series = {{VLDB} '23},
        volume = {16},
        number = {11},
        pages = {2962--2975},
        doi = {10.14778/3611479.3611501},
        url = {https://doi.org/10.14778/3611479.3611501},
        year = {2023}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 8 of 8 citing papers.

Rank	Citing Paper	Year	Venue	Pagerank
6,109	Is Your Learned Query Optimizer Behaving As You Expect? A Machine Learning Perspective	2024	VLDB	5.8676956e-05
7,827	Parachute: Single-Pass Bi-Directional Information Passing	2025	VLDB	5.4297836e-05
10,143	Still Asking: How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2025	VLDB	5.0597449e-05
10,370	An Elephant Under The Microscope: Analyzing The Interaction Of Optimizer Components In PostgreSQL	2025	SIGMOD	5.0010514e-05
10,784	Robust Predicate Transfer with Dynamic Execution	2026	VLDB	4.9605343e-05
10,812	OBELISK: Efficient Offline Query Planning with Bayesian Optimization-Informed Language Model Reasoning	2026	VLDB	4.9605343e-05
11,011	Ultron: History-Based Query Optimization at Databricks	2026	VLDB	4.9605343e-05
11,347	Robust Plan Evaluation based on Approximate Probabilistic Machine Learning	2025	VLDB	4.9605343e-05

Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 26 of 26 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	0.0023948467
15	How Good Are Query Optimizers, Really?	2016	VLDB	0.00061463175
53	Eddies: Continuously Adaptive Query Processing	2000	SIGMOD	0.00040739114
84	Learned Cardinalities: Estimating Correlated Joins with Deep Learning	2019	CIDR	0.00035920657
142	Neo: A Learned Query Optimizer	2019	VLDB	0.00029114937
149	Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans	1998	SIGMOD	0.00028910892
234	Adaptive Selectivity Estimation Using Query Feedback	1994	SIGMOD	0.00023726296
291	Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans	1994	SIGMOD	0.00021898776
320	DeepDB: Learn from Data, not from Queries!	2020	VLDB	0.00021128745
355	Bao: Making Learned Query Optimization Practical	2021	SIGMOD	0.00020146245
396	R* Optimizer Validation and Performance Evaluation for Local Queries	1986	SIGMOD	0.00019119719
453	An End-to-End Learning-based Cost Estimator	2020	VLDB	0.0001801482
457	Self-tuning Histograms: Building Histograms Without Looking at Data	1999	SIGMOD	0.00017915659
479	Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans	1989	SIGMOD	0.00017595584
690	Selectivity Estimation for Range Predicates using Lightweight Models	2019	VLDB	0.00014703258
824	Adaptive Ordering of Pipelined Stream Filters	2004	SIGMOD	0.0001360282
1,175	Balsa: Learning a Query Optimizer Without Expert Demonstrations	2022	SIGMOD	0.00011630532
1,803	SkinnerDB: Regret-Bounded Query Evaluation via Reinforcement Learning	2018	VLDB	9.5987229e-05
2,147	Quickstep: A Data Platform Based on the Scaling-Up Approach	2018	VLDB	8.9595129e-05
3,050	Configuration-Parametric Query Optimization for Physical Design Tuning	2008	SIGMOD	7.6969161e-05
3,081	Pushing Data-Induced Predicates Through Joins in Big-Data Clusters	2020	VLDB	7.6515625e-05
3,555	Astrid: Accurate Selectivity Estimation for String Predicates using Deep Learning	2021	VLDB	7.1877332e-05
3,602	Looking Ahead Makes Query Plans Robust: Making the Initial Case with In-Memory Star Schema Data Warehouse Workloads	2017	VLDB	7.1572829e-05
4,394	Lifting the Burden of History from Adaptive Query Processing	2004	VLDB	6.6084598e-05
4,415	Bitvector-aware Query Optimization for Decision Support Queries	2020	SIGMOD	6.5965677e-05
4,777	SQLite: Past, Present, and Future	2022	VLDB	6.4075995e-05

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