Bad performance of SQL query due to ORDER BY clause - sql

Question

I have a query joining 4 tables with a lot of conditions in the WHERE clause. The query also includes ORDER BY clause on a numeric column. It takes 6 seconds to return which is too long and I need to speed it up. Surprisingly I found that if I remove the ORDER BY clause it takes 2 seconds. Why the order by makes so massive difference and how to optimize it? I am using SQL server 2005. Many thanks.
I cannot confirm that the ORDER BY makes big difference since I am clearing the execution plan cache. However can you shed light at how to speed this up a little bit? The query is as follows (for simplicity there is "SELECT *" but I am only selecting the ones I need).
SELECT *
FROM View_Product_Joined j
INNER JOIN [dbo].[OPR_PriceLookup] pl on pl.siteID = NodeSiteID and pl.skuid = j.skuid
LEFT JOIN [dbo].[OPR_InventoryRules] irp on irp.ID = pl.SkuID and irp.InventoryRulesType = 'Product'
LEFT JOIN [dbo].[OPR_InventoryRules] irs on irs.ID = pl.siteID and irs.InventoryRulesType = 'Store'
WHERE (((((SiteName = N'EcommerceSite') AND (Published = 1)) AND (DocumentCulture = N'en-GB')) AND (NodeAliasPath LIKE N'/Products/Cats/Computers/Computer-servers/%')) AND ((NodeSKUID IS NOT NULL) AND (SKUEnabled = 1) AND pl.PriceLookupID in (select TOP 1 PriceLookupID from OPR_PriceLookup pl2 where pl.skuid = pl2.skuid and (pl2.RoleID = -1 or pl2.RoleId = 13) order by pl2.RoleID desc)))
ORDER BY NodeOrder ASC

Answer 1

Why the order by makes so massive difference and how to optimize it?
The ORDER BY needs to sort the resultset which may take long if it's big.
To optimize it, you may need to index the tables properly.
The index access path, however, has its drawbacks so it can even take longer.
If you have something other than equijoins in your query, or the ranged predicates (like <, > or BETWEEN, or GROUP BY clause), then the index used for ORDER BY may prevent the other indexes from being used.
If you post the query, I'll probably be able to tell you how to optimize it.
Update:
Rewrite the query:
SELECT *
FROM View_Product_Joined j
LEFT JOIN
[dbo].[OPR_InventoryRules] irp
ON irp.ID = j.skuid
AND irp.InventoryRulesType = 'Product'
LEFT JOIN
[dbo].[OPR_InventoryRules] irs
ON irs.ID = j.NodeSiteID
AND irs.InventoryRulesType = 'Store'
CROSS APPLY
(
SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM OPR_PriceLookup pl
WHERE pl.siteID = j.NodeSiteID
AND pl.skuid = j.skuid
AND pl.RoleID IN (-1, 13)
ORDER BY
pl.RoleID desc
) pl
WHERE SiteName = N'EcommerceSite'
AND Published = 1
AND DocumentCulture = N'en-GB'
AND NodeAliasPath LIKE N'/Products/Cats/Computers/Computer-servers/%'
AND NodeSKUID IS NOT NULL
AND SKUEnabled = 1
ORDER BY
NodeOrder ASC
The relation View_Product_Joined, as the name suggests, is probably a view.
Could you please post its definition?
If it is indexable, you may benefit from creating an index on View_Product_Joined (SiteName, Published, DocumentCulture, SKUEnabled, NodeOrder).