Platform-independent method and system for graphically presenting the evaluation of a query in a database management system

A computer readable medium containing programming instructions for graphically representing a plan for an input query for a relational database management system, the programming instructions for:

• a) receiving an input query;
• b) processing the input query to form a plurality of structured plans;
• c) selecting at least one structured plan of the plurality of structured plans;
• d) transforming the selected structured plan into a self-describing formatted file, wherein the self-describing formatted file is platform independent;
• and
• e) generating a graph representing the selected structured plan from the self-describing formatted file.

A system for graphically representing a plan for an input query to a relational database management system (RDBMS), the system comprising:

• a query compiler in the RDBMS for processing the input query and generating a plurality of structured plans for the input query;
• means for selecting at least one structured plan of the plurality of structured plans;
• a self-describing formatted file generator coupled to the query optimizer for transforming the selected structured plan into a self-describing formatted file, wherein the self-describing formatted file is platform independent;
• and
• means for generating a graph representing the selected plan from the self-describing formatted file.

A method for graphically representing a query execution plan for an input query for a relational database management system comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving an input query;
• b) compiling the input query to form a structured query execution plan;
• c) transforming the structured query execution plan into a file written in Extensible Markup Language (XML), wherein the XML file is platform independent;
• d) reading the XML file by an XML file processor;
• e) creating a plurality of nodes according to the XML file;
• f) collecting detailed information related to each node and associating the related information with each corresponding node, such that the related information is available if requested;
• and
• g) connecting the plurality of nodes with a plurality of arcs to generate a graph representing the query execution plan from the XML file.