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Encyclopedia of Database Systems pp 1–3Cite as

Application-Level Tuning

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Synonyms

Query tuning; Tuning the application interface

Definition

An under-appreciated tuning principle asserts start-up costs are high; running costs are low. When applied to the application level, this principle suggests performance of a few bulk operations that manipulate and transport a lot of data rather than many small operations that act on small amounts of data. To make this concrete, this entry discusses several examples and draws lessons from each.

Historical Background

Application-level tuning is about changing the way a task is performed. This entails finding a better algorithm or finding a better way to handle the database. The first is difficult to automate, but the latter goes back to the very first use of the relational databases. Whether on disk or in main memory, databases have generally always performed best when a single statement accesses all and exactly the data needed for a task.

Foundations

Application-level tuning has the nice property that it often is a pure...

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Recommended Reading

  1. Celko J. Joe celko’s SQL for smarties: advanced SQL programming. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 2005.

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  2. Shasha D, Bonnet P. Database tuning: principles, experiments and troubleshooting techniques. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 2002.

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  3. Tow D. SQL tuning. Beijing: O’Reilly; 2003.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 1, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Philippe Bonnet

  2. Department of Computer Science, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, 10012, New York, NY, USA

    Dennis Shasha

Authors
  1. Philippe Bonnet
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  2. Dennis Shasha
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philippe Bonnet .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Dep. of Computer Science, New York Univ., 251 Mercer Street, 10012, New York, NY, USA

    Dennis Shasha

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media LLC

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Cite this entry

Bonnet, P., Shasha, D. (2016). Application-Level Tuning. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_805-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_805-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7993-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Computer SciencesReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

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