SQL query plan cache overview

The plan cache is a repository that contains the access plans for queries that were optimized by the query engine. The purpose of the plan cache is to facilitate the reuse of a query access plan at some future stage when the same query, or a similar query, is executed. Once an access plan is created, it is available for use by all users and all queries, regardless of where the query originates. Furthermore, when an access plan is tuned, when creating an index for example, all queries can benefit from this updated access plan. This eliminates the need to reoptimize the query, resulting in greater efficiency faster processing time.

You can view the properties of the SQL plan cache from the SQL Query Plan Cache Snapshots folder.

For more information, see Database Performance and Query Optimization in the Information Center Link to Information center.