PLAN GENERATION IN DATABASE QUERY OPTIMIZERS THROUGH SPECIFICATION OF PLAN PATTERNS

Methods and systems receive a query, receive a control statement that represents at least a portion of a desired execution plan associated with the query, and produce an execution plan that conforms to the desired plan to the extent that the produced plan preserves the semantics of the query, without requiring an exhaustive search. These methods also enable realization of bushy shaped plans that are outside the scope of the optimizer search space.