SQL Performance Explained Review: The Best Book on Indexes?
An honest review of SQL Performance Explained by Markus Winand: what it teaches about indexes, who it is for, and whether to buy the book or read it free online.
Indexes
5 Best SQL Performance Tuning Books (Including 2 Free Ones)
The best books for SQL performance tuning: indexes, execution plans and troubleshooting slow SQL Server queries. Two of them are free ebooks.
SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide
A practical, step-by-step process for slow SQL Server queries: describe the symptom, check what’s running and blocking, read the plan, fix indexes and statistics, and measure the result.
Missing Indexes in SQL Server: How to Find Them, and When Not to Add Them
SQL Server suggests missing indexes in the execution plan and the DMVs, but copying them blindly creates duplicates and slows writes. Here’s how to find them, read them, and decide.
Index Seek vs Index Scan: Why SQL Server Ignores Your Index
You created an index but SQL Server still scans the table. Here are the 8 most common reasons, from functions on columns to implicit conversions, with the fix for each.
How to Read a SQL Server Execution Plan (Beginner’s Guide)
Execution plans look confusing at first. Learn to read a SQL Server plan step by step: right to left, arrow thickness, cost percentages, the operators that matter, and a real example.
Eager Index Spool in SQL Server: What It Means and How to Fix It
Seeing an Index Spool (Eager Spool) in your SQL Server execution plan? Here is what it means, why SQL Server builds a temporary index on every run, and the one index that makes it disappear.
SQL Indexes Explained Simply: What They Are and When to Use Them
Learn what SQL indexes are, how they speed up queries, which columns to index, and when an index can slow you down.