OUTERJOIN AND ANTIJOIN REORDERING USING EXTENDED ELIGIBILITY LISTS

An optimization technique that reorders outerjoins and antijoins with inner joins in a bottom-up optimizer of a relational database management system (RDBMS).Each join predicate is associated with a normal eligibility list (NEL) that includes tables that are referenced in the join predicate and an extended eligibility list (EEL) that includes additional tables that are referenced in conflicting join predicates. An EEL includes all the tables needed by a predicate to preserve the semantics of the original query. During join enumeration, the optimizer determines whether a join predicate's EEL is a subset of all the tables in two subplans to be merged, i.e., whose EEL is covered. If so, the two subplans are combined using the join predicate. Otherwise, the two subplans cannot be joined. Two approaches are used to reordering: without compensation and with compensation. The “without compensation” approach only allows join reorderings that are valid under associative rules. Thus, the optimizer will not combine subplans using a join predicate whose EEL is not covered. The “with compensation” approach allows two subplans to be combined using the join predicate, when a join predicate's EEL is not covered, as long as the join predicate's NEL is covered. Compensation is performed through nullification and best match. Multiple compensations may be merged and performed at any time.