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...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsRecommended Reading
Celko J. Joe celko’s SQL for smarties: advanced SQL programming. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 2005.
Shasha D, Bonnet P. Database tuning: principles, experiments and troubleshooting techniques. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann; 2002.
Tow D. SQL tuning. Beijing: O’Reilly; 2003.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bonnet, P., Shasha, D. (2018). Application-Level Tuning. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_805
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_805
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8266-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8265-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceReference Module Computer Science and Engineering