The Explain function
Given the heavy dynamic SQL requirements that many applications generate, it is imperative to be able to Explain a problematic SQL statement quickly and navigate to the Db2 PLAN_TABLE information.
Explain provides you with the ability to:
- View the most important information (such as access path data) quickly
- Display only the Explain data that you are interested in at a given time
- Compare access paths from different types of Explains
- Show the number of indexes in order by index access
- Highlight the indexes that are used in an Explain operation
- Highlight the key columns that are matched in an Explain operation
- Show the tables in the order that they were accessed
- Identify mismatches in data type or length during Explain processing
- Toggle between various levels of detail and related information while still displaying this data on a single panel
- Exclude information that you do not need by customizing the report layout for the Explain results
- Compare the current plan and all saved plans for the Explain package statement.
Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*