Let us continue our question of the day series with day twenty-one.

What is an execution plan?

Contrary to popular belief the execution plan is not a swinging rope or a firing squad, although with some developers, nevermind.  The SQL Server query optimizer devises a plan of execution for your query in order to try to return the efficient results in the quickest manner possible.  Keep in mind that the engine does not always choose the absolute best plan, it strives to choose the best plan in quickest amount of time using complex calculations.

Enjoy!