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PLAN function [Miscellaneous]

Returns the long plan optimization strategy of a SQL statement, as a string.

PLAN( string-expression, [ cursor-type ], [ update-status ] )

string-expression    The SQL statement, which is commonly a SELECT statement but which may also be an UPDATE or DELETE statement.

cursor-type    A string. cursor-type can be asensitive (default), insensitive, sensitive, or keyset-driven.

update-status    A string parameter accepting one of the following values indicating how the optimizer should treat the given cursor:

• EXPLANATION function [Miscellaneous]
• GRAPHICAL_PLAN function [Miscellaneous]

• SQL/2003    Vendor extension.

The following statement passes a SELECT statement as a string parameter and returns the plan for executing the query.

SELECT PLAN(
   'SELECT * FROM Departments WHERE DepartmentID > 100' );

This information can help with decisions about indexes to add or how to structure your database for better performance.

The following statement returns a string containing the textual plan for an INSENSITIVE cursor over the query SELECT * FROM Departments WHERE DepartmentID > 100;.

SELECT PLAN(
   'SELECT * FROM Departments WHERE DepartmentID > 100',
   'insensitive',
   'read-only' );

In Interactive SQL, you can view the plan for any SQL statement on the Plan tab in the Results pane.