Abstract
Numerous structures for database query optimizers have been proposed. Many of those proposals aimed at automating the construction of query optimizers from some kind of specification of optimizer behavior. These specification frameworks do a good job of partitioning and modularizing the kinds of information needed to generate a query optimizer. Most of them represent at least part of this information in a rule-like form. Nevertheless, large portions of these specifications still take a procedural form.
The contributions of this work are threefold. We present a language for specifying optimizers that captures a larger portion of the necessary information in a declarative manner. This language is in turn based on a model of query rewriting where query expressions carry annotations that are propagated during query transformation and planning. This framework is reminiscent of inherited and synthesized attributes for attribute grammars, and we believe it is expressive of a wide range of information: logical and physical properties, both desired and delivered, cost estimates, optimization contexts, and control strategies. Finally, we present a mechanism for processing optimizer specifications that is based on compile-time reflection. This mechanism proves to be succinct and flexible, allowing modifications of the specification syntax, incorporation of new capabilities into generated optimizers, and retargeting the translation to a variety of optimization frameworks.
We report on an implementation of our ideas using the CRML reflective functional language and on optimizer specifications we have written for several query algebras.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Fegaras, L., Maier, D., Sheard, T. (1993). Specifying rule-based query optimizers in a reflective framework. In: Ceri, S., Tanaka, K., Tsur, S. (eds) Deductive and Object-Oriented Databases. DOOD 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 760. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57530-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57530-8_9
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