T-SQL query plan to help choose best form of query?

Question

I have a simple data logging table with two data columns A and B for which I want to generate the sum of A+B. However either or both A and B could be null. The table also has a timestamp column which is the primary key

I can see several ways to skin this cat, but I was curious to know what the preferred method might be to sum the data over a range of timestamps:

1. SUM(Coalesce(A,0)+Coalesce(B,0))

2. SUM(Coalesce(A+B,A,B,0))

3. Coalesce( Sum(A), 0) + Coalesce( SUM(B), 0)

I get the following results from the Execution planner:

Form Select    Compute Scalar  Stream Aggregate  Compute Scaler Clustered Index Seek
  1     0%          0%                11%             1%                 87%    
  2     0%          0%                11%             1%                 87%    

Form Select    Compute Scalar  Compute Scaler Stream Aggregate  Clustered Index Seek
  3     0%          0%                0%             12%                 88%    

I have never delved into query plans very much before so I am not sure how to interpret the numbers. Would it be fair to say that in general the more pushed to the right hand side the overall percentages are skewed then the better? Making Form 3 superior to 1 and 2?

Answer 1

Optimize for the expected case.

Here, if both A and B have values most of the time, then #2 should do better because the coalesce will hit that first value and stop. If A or B are NULL very often you might do a little better with #1. The key here, as always, is to try both and profile actual times on actual data.