The Oracle Optimizer - A conversation with Nigel Bayliss - Part 1

The Spoken Nerd

No topic quite gets emotions rolling as much as the Oracle Query Optimizer. The fact that a piece of software can determine the best way to run the myriad of potential SQL statements, no matter how poorly they sometimes might be written, never ceases to amaze me. But conversely, the moment the optimizer does not meet our expectations, we're quick to throw our toys out of the pram and rain down on it with our invective.

Thus you might expect that one of the least enviable jobs in the database world would be being the public face of the database optimizer. But since 2014, Nigel Bayliss has regularly fronted the community and shared the depth and breadth of his optimizer knowledge, whilst entertaining us with his sardonic wit on the challenges of databases and database optimizers.

In this series, I catch up with Nigel to talk about the optimizer, its various features, how it has evolved over the years and what might be coming in future.

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