Improving performance of Join in Query - sql

I have a sql (below) where we have to compare some fields in the main table with the existing date dimension table and filter the records which have the purchase_date as same as the last day of previous month.
So the idea was to attach the required date from the date-dim to every record of the joining set containing the purchase_date and then compare both these dates and filter. Hence, I did a cross-join to achieve this.
Option 1:
create temporary view date_dim_sub as
select
dt,
fst_day_of_mth,
lst_day_of_mth
from date_dim_tbl
where dt = add_months(${input_date}, -1);
create temporary view cust_main as
select
c.cust_nm,
c.cust_id,
c.purch_date
from customer c
cross join date_dim_sub d
where c.purch_date = d.lst_day_of_mth;
However, when I try to run the above sqls it takes an unusually long time to execute and often gets hanged, forcing us to kill the process.
I thought of using a sub-query (as below) for the date_dim, but I read somewhere that sub-queries are not recommended because sub-queries get evaluated for each row in the outer result-set resulting in performance degradation.
Option 2 (using subquery):
create temporary view cust_main as
select
c.cust_nm,
c.cust_id,
c.purch_date
from customer c
where c.purch_date <> (select lst_day_of_mth from date_dim_sub where dt = add_months(${input_date}, -1));
Is there any way we can rewrite the queries which would ameliorate performance and alleviate any possibility of query getting hanged ? We are using Spark-SQL. There is approx 10M records in the main table.
Please advise.
Thanks

Related

SQL Query - Joining and Aggregating

I need to run a query every hour against a table that joins and aggregates data from another table with millions of rows.
select f.master_con,
s.containers
from
(
select master_con
from shipped
where start_time >= a and start_time <= a+1
) f,
(
select master_con,
count(distinct container) as containers
from picked
) s
where f.master_con = s.master_con
This query above sorta works, the exact syntax may not be correct because I wrote it from memory.
In the sub query 's' I only want to count container for each master_con in the 'f' query, and I think my query runs for a long time because I'm counting container for all master_con but then joining only to master_con from 'f'
Is there a better, more efficient way to write this type of query?
(In the end, I'll sum(containers) from this query above to get total containers shipped during that hour)
Most likely, there is. Can you provide some simplified sample table structures? Additionally, the join method being used has been moving towards deprecation for some time. You should declare your joins explicitly. The below should be an improvement. Left outer join was used so that you get all of the shipper records that meet your criteria and keep them even if they aren't in the picked table. Change that to inner join if you want them gone.
SELECT shipped.master_con,
COUNT(DISTINCT picked.containers) AS containers
FROM shipped LEFT OUTER JOIN
Picked ON picked.master_con = shipped.master_con
WHERE shipped.start_time BETWEEN a AND a+1
GROUP BY shipped.master_con

How can this change be making my query slow (OR vs UNION) and can I fix it?

I've just been debugging a slow SQL query.
It's a join between 2 tables, with a WHERE clause conditioning on either a property of 1 table OR the other.
If I re-write it as a UNION then it's suddenly 2 orders of magnitude faster, even though those 2 queries produce identical outputs:
DECLARE #UserId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER = '0019813D-4379-400D-9423-56E1B98002CB'
SELECT *
FROM Bookings
LEFT JOIN BookingPricings ON Booking = Bookings.ID
WHERE (BookingPricings.[Owner] in (#UserId) OR Bookings.MixedDealBroker in (#UserId))
--Execution time: ~4000ms
SELECT *
FROM Bookings
LEFT JOIN BookingPricings ON Booking = Bookings.ID
WHERE (BookingPricings.[Owner] in (#UserId))
UNION
SELECT *
FROM Bookings
LEFT JOIN BookingPricings ON Booking = Bookings.ID
WHERE (Bookings.MixedDealBroker in (#UserId))
--Execution time: ~70ms
This seems rather surprising to me! I would have expected the SQL compiler to be entirely capable of identifying that the 2nd form was equivalent and would have used that compilation approach if it were available.
Some context notes:
I've checked and IN (#UserId) vs = #UserId makes no difference.
Nor does JOIN vs LEFT JOIN.
Those tables each have 100,000s records, and the filter cuts it down to ~100.
In the slow version it seems to be reading every row of both tables.
So:
Does anyone have any ideas for how this comes about.
What (if anything) can I do to fix the performance without just re-writing the query as a series of UNIONs (not viable for a variety of reasons.)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Execution Plans:
This is a common limitation of SQL engines, not just in SQL Server, but also other database systems as well. The OR complicates the predicate enough that the execution plan selected isn't always ideal. This probably relates to the fact that only one index can be seeked into per instance of a table object at a time (for the most part), or in your specific case, your OR predicate is across two different tables, and other factors with how SQL engines are designed.
By using a UNION clause, you now have two instances of the Bookings table referenced, which can individually be seeked on separately in the most efficient way possible. That allows the SQL Engine to pick a better execution plan to serve you query.
This is pretty much just one of those things that are the way they are because that's just the way it is, and you need to remember the UNION clause workaround for future encounters of this kind of performance issue.
Also, in response to your comment:
I don't understand how the difference can affect the EP, given that the 2 different "phrasings" of the query are identical?
A new execution plan is generated every time one doesn't exist in the plan cache for a given query, essentially. The way the Engine determines if a plan for a query is already cached is based on the exact hashing of that query statement, so even an extra space character at the end of the query can result in a new plan being generated. Theoretically that plan can be different. So a different written query (despite being logically the same) can surely result in a different execution plan.
There are other reasons a plan can change on re-generation too, such as different data and statistics of that data, in the tables referenced in the query between executions. But these reasons don't really apply to your question above.
As already stated, the OR condition prevents the database engine from efficiently using the indexes in a single query. Because the OR condition spans tables, I doubt that the Tuning Advisor will come up with anything useful.
If you have a case where the query you have posted is part of a larger query, or the results are complex and you do not want to repeat code, you can wrap your initial query in a Common Table Expression (CTE) or a subquery and then feed the combined results into the remainder of your query. Sometimes just selecting one or more PKs in your initial query will be sufficient.
Something like:
SELECT <complex select list>
FROM (
SELECT Bookings.ID AS BookingsID, BookingPricings.ID AS BookingPricingsID
FROM Bookings
LEFT JOIN BookingPricings ON Booking = Bookings.ID
WHERE (BookingPricings.[Owner] in (#UserId))
UNION
SELECT Bookings.ID AS BookingsID, BookingPricings.ID AS BookingPricingsID
FROM Bookings B
LEFT JOIN BookingPricings ON Booking = Bookings.ID
WHERE (Bookings.MixedDealBroker in (#UserId))
) PRE
JOIN Bookings B ON B.ID = PRE.BookingsID
JOIN BookingPricings BP ON BP.ID = PRE.BookingPricingsID
<more joins>
WHERE <more conditions>
Having just the IDs in your initial select make the UNION more efficient. The UNION can also be changed to a yet more-efficient UNION ALL with careful use of additional conditions, such as AND Bookings.MixedDealBroker <> #UserId in the second part, to avoid overlapping results.

Do I need to filter all subqueries before joining very large tables for optimization

I have three tables that I'm trying to join with over a billion rows per table. Each table has an index on the billing date column. If I just filter the left table and do the joins, will the query run efficiently or do I need to put the same date filter in each subquery?
I.E. will the first query run much slower than the second query?
select item, billing_dollars, IC_billing_dollars
from billing
left join IC_billing on billing.invoice_number = IC_billing.invoice_number
where billing.date = '2019-09-24'
select item, billing_dollars, IC_billing_dollars
from billing
left join (select * from IC_billing where IC_billing.date = '2019-09-24') on billing.invoice_number = IC_billing.invoice_number
where billing.date = '2019-09-24'
I don't want to run this without knowing whether the query will perform well as there aren't many safeguards for poor performing queries. Also, if I need to write the query in the second way, is there a way to only have the date filter in one location rather than having it show up multiple times in the query?
That depends.
Consider your query:
select b.item, b.billing_dollars, icb.IC_billing_dollars
from billing b left join
IC_billing icb
on b.invoice_number = icb.invoice_number
where b.date = '2019-09-24';
(Assuming I have the columns coming from the correct tables.)
The optimal strategy is an index on billing(date, invoice_number) -- perhaps also with item and billing_dollars to the index; and ic_billing(invoice_number) -- perhaps with IC_billing_dollars.
I can think of two situations where filtering on date in ic_billing would be useful.
First, if there is an index on (invoice_date, invoice_number), particularly a primary key definition. Then using this index is usually preferred, even if another index is available.
Second, if ic_billing is partitioned by invoice_date. In that case, you will want to specify the partition for performance.
Generally, though, the additional restriction on the invoice date does not help. In some databases, it might even hurt performance (particularly if the subquery is materialized and the outer query does not use an appropriate index).

Improve Netezza SQL Query That Contains Hundreds of Strings in WHERE Clause

I have a Netezza query with a WHERE clause that includes several hundred potential strings. I'm surprised that it runs, but it takes time to complete and occasionally errors out ('transaction rolled back by client'). Here's a pseudo code version of my query.
SELECT
TO_CHAR(X.I_TS, 'YYYY-MM-DD') AS DATE,
X.I_SRC_NM AS CHANNEL,
X.I_CD AS CODE,
COUNT(DISTINCT CASE WHEN X.I_FLG = 1 THEN X.UID ELSE NULL) AS WIDGETS
FROM
(SELECT
A.I_TS,
A.I_SRC_NM,
A.I_CD,
B.UID,
B.I_FLG
FROM
SCHEMA.DATABASE.TABLE_A A
LEFT JOIN SCHEMA.DATABASE.TABLE_B B ON A.UID = B.UID
WHERE
A.I_TS BETWEEN '2017-01-01' AND '2017-01-15'
AND B.TAB_CODE IN ('00AV', '00BX', '00C2', '00DJ'...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...)
) X
GROUP BY
X.I_TS,
X.I_SRC_NM,
X.I_CD
;
In my query, I'm limiting the results on B.TAB_CODE to about 1,200 values (out of more than 10k). I'm honestly surprised that it works at all, but it does most of the time.
Is there a more efficient way to handle this?
If the IN clause becomes too cumbersome, you can make your query in multiple parts. Create a temporary table containing a TAB_CODE set then use it in a JOIN.
WITH tab_codes(tab_code) AS (
SELECT '00AV'
UNION ALL
SELECT '00BX'
--- etc ---
)
SELECT
TO_CHAR(X.I_TS, 'YYYY-MM-DD') AS DATE,
X.I_SRC_NM AS CHANNEL,
--- etc ---
INNER JOIN tab_codes Q ON B.TAB_CODES = Q.tab_code
If you want to boost performance even more, consider using a real temporary table (CTAS)
We've seen situations where it's "cheaper" to CTAS the original table to another, distributed on your primary condition, and then querying that table instead.
If im guessing correctly , the X.I_TS is in fact a ‘timestamp’, and as such i expect it to contain many different values per day. Can you confirm that?
If I’m right the query can possibly benefit from changing the ‘group by X.I._TS,...’ to ‘group by 1,...’
Furthermore the ‘Count(Distinct Case...’ can never return anything else than 1 or NULL. Can you confirm that?
If I’m right on that, you can get rid of the expensive ‘DISTINCT’ by changing it to ‘MAX(Case...’
Can you follow me :)

sql, query optimisation with and inner join?

I'm trying to optimise my query, it has an inner join and coalesce.
The join table, is simple a table with one field of integer, I've added a unique key.
For my where clause I've created a key for the three fields.
But when I look at the plan it still says it's using a table scan.
Where am I going wrong ?
Here's my query
select date(a.startdate, '+'||(b.n*a.interval)||' '||a.intervaltype) as due
from billsndeposits a
inner join util_nums b on date(a.startdate, '+'||(b.n*a.interval)||'
'||a.intervaltype) <= coalesce(a.enddate, date('2013-02-26'))
where not (intervaltype = 'once' or interval = 0) and factid = 1
order by due, pid;
Most likely your JOIN expression cannot use any index and it is calculated by doing a NATURAL scan and calculate date(a.startdate, '+'||(b.n*a.interval)||' '||a.intervaltype) for every row.
BTW: That is a really weird join condition in itself. I suggest you find a better way to join billsndeposits to util_nums (if that is actually needed).
I think I understand what you are trying to achieve. But this kind of join is a recipe for slow performance. Even if you remove date computations and the coalesce (i.e. compare one date against another), it will still be slow (compared to integer joins) even with an index. And because you are creating new dates on the fly you cannot index them.
I suggest creating a temp table with 2 columns (1) pid (or whatever id you use in billsndeposits) and (2) recurrence_dt
populate the new table using this query:
INSERT INTO TEMP
SELECT PID, date(a.startdate, '+'||(b.n*a.interval)||' '||a.intervaltype)
FROM billsndeposits a, util_numbs b;
Then create an index on recurrence_dt columns and runstats. Now your select statement can look like this:
SELECT recurrence_dt
FROM temp t, billsndeposits a
WHERE t.pid = a.pid
AND recurrence_dt <= coalesce(a.enddate, date('2013-02-26'))
you can add a exp_ts on this new table, and expire temporary data afterwards.
I know this adds more work to your original query, but this is a guaranteed performance improvement, and should fit naturally in a script that runs frequently.
Regards,
Edit
Another thing I would do, is make enddate default value = date('2013-02-26'), unless it will affect other code and/or does not make business sense. This way you don't have to work with coalesce.