Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Chapter 2: Tools of the Trade
Note that you have to actually click the Execution Plan tab for it to come up and that your query results
are still displayed in the way you selected. The Show Estimated Execution plan option gives you the
same output as an Include Actual Execution Plan does with two exceptions:
❑ You get the plan immediately rather than after your query executes.
❑ Although what you see is the actual plan for the query, all the cost information is estimated and
the query is not actually run. Under Include Actual Execution, the query is physically executed
and the cost information you get is actual rather than estimated.
Note that the plan in Figure 2-13 is an extremely simple execution plan. More complex queries may
show a variety of branching and parallel operations.
The Available Databases Combo Box
Finally, take another look at the Available Databases combo box. In short, this is where you select the
default database that you want your queries to run against for the current window (we changed AdventureWorks2008
to be our default database earlier). Initially, the Query window will start with whatever
the default database is for the user that’s logged in (for sa, that is the master database unless someone
has changed it on your system). You can then change it to any other database that the current login has
permission to access. Since we’re using the sa user ID, every database on the current server should have
an entry in the Available Databases combo box.
The Object Explorer
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This useful little tool enables you to navigate your database, look up object names, and even perform
actions like scripting and looking at the underlying data.
In the example in Figure 2-14, I’ve expanded the database node all the way down to the listing of tables in
the AdventureWorks2008 database. You can drill down even farther to see individual columns (including
data type and similar properties) of the tables — a very handy tool for browsing your database.
Figure 2-14