SELECT FROM inner query slowdown - sql

Question

We have two very similar queries, one takes 22 seconds the other takes 6 seconds. Both use an inner select, have the exact same outer columns and outer joins. The only difference is the inner select that the outer query is using to join in on.
The inner query when run alone executes in 100ms or less in both cases and returns the EXACT SAME data.
Both queries as a whole have a lot of room for improvement, but this particular oddity is really puzzling to us and we just want to understand why. To me it would seem the inner query should be executed once in 100ms then the outer stuff happens. I have a feeling the inner select may be executed multiple times.
Query that takes 6 seconds:
SELECT {whole bunch of column names}
FROM (
SELECT projectItems.* FROM projectItems
WHERE projectItems.isActive = 1
ORDER BY projectItemsID ASC
OFFSET 0 ROWS FETCH NEXT 1 ROWS ONLY
) projectItems
LEFT JOIN categories
ON projectItems.fk_category = categories.categoryID
...{more joins}
Query that takes 22 seconds:
SELECT {whole bunch of column names}
FROM (
SELECT projectItems.* FROM projectItems
WHERE projectItems.isActive = 1
AND projectItemsID = 6539
) projectItems
LEFT JOIN categories
ON projectItems.fk_category = categories.categoryID
...{more joins}

Answer 1

For every row in your projectItems table, in the second function, you search two columns instead of one. If projectItemsID isn't the primary key or if it isn't indexed, it takes longer to parse an extra column.'
If you look at the sizes of the tables and the number of rows each query returns, you can calculate how many comparisons need to be made for each of the queries.

Answer 2

I believe that you're right that the inner query is being run for every single row that is being left joined with categories.
I can't find a proper source on it right now, but you can easily test this by doing something like this and comparing the run times. Here, we can at least be sure that the inner query is only running one time. (sorry if any syntax is incorrect, but you'll get the general idea):
DECLARE #innerQuery TABLE ( [all inner query columns here] )
INSERT INTO #innerQuery
SELECT projectItems.* FROM projectItems
WHERE projectItems.isActive = 1
AND projectItemsID = 6539
SELECT {whole bunch of field names}
FROM #innerQuery as IQ
LEFT JOIN categories
ON IQ.fk_category = categories.categoryID
...{more joins}