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Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: An Exercise in Utility

Summary: Challenges standard optimizer assumptions that optimizing for expected parameter values and assuming static runtime parameters yields good plans; these break under high variability. Presents a System R–style algorithm that picks plans with least expected execution cost over parameter distributions, improving robustness in variable environments. (summarized by gpt-5-mini on Feb 09 2026)

Paper ID
hb4cd1dc4b5ae38d0
Venue
PODS
Year
1999
Pagerank
0.00011898749
Overall Rank
1,124 | 92.47%
DOI
10.1145/303976.303990

Incoming Non-self Citations Over Time

Authors

BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{chu_pods99,
        address = {New York, NY, USA},
        series = {{PODS} '99},
        title = {{Least Expected Cost Query Optimization: An Exercise in Utility}},
        url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/303976.303990},
        doi = {10.1145/303976.303990},
        booktitle = {Proceedings of the {ACM} {SIGMOD} Symposium on {Principles} of {Database} {Systems}},
        publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
        author = {Chu, Francis and Halpern, Joseph Y. and Seshadri, Praveen},
        year = {1999}
}

Incoming Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 25 of 25 citing papers.

Rank Citing Paper Year Venue Pagerank
568 Towards a Robust Query Optimizer: A Principled and Practical Approach 2005 SIGMOD 0.00016221103
838 Proactive Re-Optimization 2005 SIGMOD 0.00013528646
890 Pay-as-you-go User Feedback for Dataspace Systems 2008 SIGMOD 0.00013212032
1,604 The Picasso Database Query Optimizer Visualizer 2010 VLDB 0.00010086711
1,622 AniPQO: Almost Non-intrusive Parametric Query Optimization for Nonlinear Cost Functions 2003 VLDB 0.00010038595
2,839 Relaxed Currency and Consistency: How to Say "Good Enough" in SQL 2004 SIGMOD 7.9381931e-05
3,406 Variance Aware Optimization of Parameterized Queries 2010 SIGMOD 7.3151509e-05
3,531 Identifying Robust Plans through Plan Diagram Reduction 2008 VLDB 7.2065332e-05
4,069 Adaptive Query Processing in the Looking Glass 2005 CIDR 6.8080574e-05
4,674 On the Production of Anorexic Plan Diagrams 2007 VLDB 6.4584193e-05
4,876 Efficiently Approximating Query Optimizer Plan Diagrams 2008 VLDB 6.357646e-05
4,916 A Characterization of the Sensitivity of Query Optimization to Storage Access Cost Parameters 2003 SIGMOD 6.3450917e-05
4,932 A Top-Down Approach to Achieving Performance Predictability in Database Systems 2017 SIGMOD 6.3369302e-05
5,062 Leveraging Query Logs and Machine Learning for Parametric Query Optimization 2022 VLDB 6.2791511e-05
5,324 CliffGuard: A Principled Framework for Finding Robust Database Designs 2015 SIGMOD 6.1645235e-05
5,670 Uncertainty Aware Query Execution Time Prediction 2014 VLDB 6.0266818e-05
5,999 On the Stability of Plan Costs and the Costs of Plan Stability 2010 VLDB 5.9034324e-05
7,975 Robust Query Processing: Mission Possible 2020 VLDB 5.3985544e-05
8,361 MONSOON: Multi-Step Optimization and Execution of Queries with Partially Obscured Predicates 2020 SIGMOD 5.3310744e-05
8,412 PARQO: Penalty-Aware Robust Plan Selection in Query Optimization 2024 VLDB 5.3211467e-05
8,473 Efficient Top-K Processing Over Query-Dependent Functions 2008 VLDB 5.3148581e-05
8,550 ROME: Robust Query Optimization via Parallel Multi-Plan Execution 2024 SIGMOD 5.3030089e-05
9,767 PAR2QO: Parametric Penalty-Aware Robust Query Optimization 2025 VLDB 5.115551e-05
10,446 Coresets for Robust Query Optimization 2026 PODS 4.9605343e-05
13,019 Asking the Right Questions: Model-driven Optimization using Probes 2006 PODS 4.9605343e-05
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Outgoing Citations (Sorted by Pagerank)

Showing 9 of 9 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
37 Improved Histograms for Selectivity Estimation of Range Predicates 1996 SIGMOD 0.00047654188
109 Extensible/Rule Based Query Rewrite Optimization in Starburst 1992 SIGMOD 0.00032702871
149 Efficient Mid-Query Re-Optimization of Sub-Optimal Query Execution Plans 1998 SIGMOD 0.00028910892
291 Optimization of Dynamic Query Evaluation Plans 1994 SIGMOD 0.00021898776
426 Cost-based Query Scrambling for Initial Delays 1998 SIGMOD 0.00018432573
489 Randomized Algorithms For Optimizing Large Join Queries 1990 SIGMOD 0.00017402488
714 Optimization of Large Join Queries: Combining Heuristics and Combinatorial Techniques 1989 SIGMOD 0.00014578551
792 Parametric Query Optimization 1992 VLDB 0.00013903954
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