Execution Plans vs Materialized Views

Developers should learn about execution plans when working with relational databases to diagnose and improve slow-running queries, especially in performance-critical applications like e-commerce or data analytics meets developers should use materialized views when dealing with slow, complex queries in read-heavy applications, such as reporting dashboards, data analytics, or caching frequently accessed data. Here's our take.

Execution Plans

Nice Pick

Developers should learn about execution plans when working with relational databases to diagnose and improve slow-running queries, especially in performance-critical applications like e-commerce or data analytics

Pros

• Understanding execution plans helps identify bottlenecks such as full table scans or missing indexes, enabling targeted optimizations that reduce query execution time and resource consumption
• Related to: sql-optimization, database-indexing

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Materialized Views

Developers should use materialized views when dealing with slow, complex queries in read-heavy applications, such as reporting dashboards, data analytics, or caching frequently accessed data

Pros

• They are ideal for scenarios where real-time data is not critical, as they reduce database load and latency by serving precomputed results
• Related to: postgresql, oracle-database

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Execution Plans is a concept while Materialized Views is a database. We picked Execution Plans based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Execution Plans wins

Based on overall popularity. Execution Plans is more widely used, but Materialized Views excels in its own space.