| title | Display and Save Execution Plans | Microsoft Docs | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ms.custom | |||||||
| ms.date | 06/13/2017 | ||||||
| ms.prod | sql-server-2014 | ||||||
| ms.reviewer | |||||||
| ms.technology | performance | ||||||
| ms.topic | conceptual | ||||||
| helpviewer_keywords |
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| ms.assetid | bcd6f094-c613-4835-ae19-4caaadb4bb17 | ||||||
| author | MikeRayMSFT | ||||||
| ms.author | mikeray | ||||||
| manager | craigg |
This section explains how to display execution plans and how to save execution plans to a file in XML format by using Microsoft [!INCLUDEssManStudioFull].
Execution plans graphically display the data retrieval methods chosen by the [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] query optimizer. Execution plans represent the execution cost of specific statements and queries in [!INCLUDEssNoVersion] using icons rather than the tabular representation produced by the SET SHOWPLAN_ALL or SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT statements. This graphical approach is very useful for understanding the performance characteristics of a query.