US Patent 7490110 Predictable query execution through early materialization

A method for predictable query execution through early materialization is provided. The method deals with the problem of cardinality misestimation in query execution plans, by pre-executing sub-plans on a query execution plan that have questionable estimates and collecting statistics on the output of these sub-plans. If needed, the overall query execution plan is changed in light of these statistics, before optimizing and executing the remainder of the query.