How Functions Can Make Performance Tuning SQL Server Queries Harder

Sensational

---

I’ve posted quite a bit about how cached plans can be misleading.

I’m gonna switch that up and talk about how an actual plan can be misleading, too.

In plans that include calling a muti-statement table valued function, no operator logs the time spent in the function.

Here’s an example:

SELECT TOP (100)
     p.Id AS [Post Link],
     vs.up,
     vs.down
FROM dbo.VoteStats() AS vs --The function
JOIN dbo.Posts AS p
    ON vs.postid = p.Id
WHERE vs.down > vs.up_multiplier
AND   p.CommunityOwnedDate IS NULL
AND   p.ClosedDate IS NULL
ORDER BY vs.up DESC

When I run the query, it drags on for 30-ish seconds, but the plan says that it only ran for about 2.7 seconds.

But there it is in Query Time Stats! 29 seconds. What gives?

Estimations

---

If we look at the estimated plan for the function, we can see quite a thick arrow pointing to the table variable we populate for our results.

That process is all part of the query, but it doesn’t show up in any of the operators. It really should.

More specifically, I think it should show up right here.

Thanks for reading!

Going Further

---

If this is the kind of SQL Server stuff you love learning about, you’ll love my training. Blog readers get 25% off the Everything Bundle — over 100 hours of performance tuning content. Need hands-on help? I offer consulting engagements from targeted investigations to ongoing retainers. Want a quick sanity check before committing to a full engagement? Schedule a call — no commitment required.