SQL Server Execution Plans - Grant Fritchey - SQLServerCentral.com

Chapter 3: Text and XML Execution Plans for Basic QueriesWe'll use the same execution plan that we evaluated as a text plan. Then, I'll show youhow to retrieve estimated plans from the plan cache and retrieve information out of themdirectly, using XQuery, which is a much more useful exercise.We can issue the SHOWPLAN_XML command in order to start capturing an estimatedexecution plan in the XML format (remember that any statements that follow thecommand will not be executed). We can then execute the required statement and thenimmediately deactivate SHOWPLAN_XML so that SQL Server will execute any subsequentstatements we issue.SET SHOWPLAN_XML ON;GOSELECT c.CustomerID ,a.City ,s.Name ,st.NameFROM Sales.Customer AS cJOIN Sales.Store AS s ON c.StoreID = s.BusinessEntityIDJOIN Sales.SalesTerritory AS st ON c.TerritoryId = st.TerritoryIDJOIN Person.BusinessEntityAddress AS beaON c.CustomerID = bea.BusinessEntityIDJOIN Person.Address AS a ON bea.AddressID = a.AddressIDJOIN Person.StateProvince AS spON a.StateProvinceID = sp.StateProvinceIDWHERE st.Name = 'Northeast'AND sp.Name = 'New York';GOSET SHOWPLAN_XML OFF;GOListing 3.9Being able to wrap individual statements in this manner is a great way to capture anexecution plan for an isolated statement within the larger set of statements that can makeup many of the more complex queries. When you run the query above, you won't seeresults, but rather a link.128