You have a user_table and a usage_details table. You want to find the rows corresponding to users who live in Nebraska (about 10% of all users) and join that subset with their usage details. Which of the following approaches is generally more efficient?

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Question restatement: You have a user_table and a usage_details table. You want to find the rows corresponding to users who live in Nebraska (about 10% of all users) and join that subset with their usage details. Which of the following approaches is generally more efficient?

Option provided: First filter the user table for Nebraska, then join with usage_details.

Analysis:
- The core efficiency principle here is to minimize the amount of data moved and processed in the join operation. If only about 10% of users live in Nebraska, applying a predicate on the user_table to select Nebraska first reduces the number of rows that participate in the subsequent join. This tends to produce smaller intermediate results and less I/O, which often translates to faster query execution.
- Consider how the database engine handles predicates: filtering before the join allows the optimizer to push down the Nebraska predicate and operate on a smaller dataset, leveraging index structures on the user_table (e.g., an index on location or state) if available. This can lead to an efficient semi-join-like behavior where only matching user rows are joined to their usage_details.
- Contrast with a hypothetical alternative (not provided here but worth understanding): joining all users with usage_details first and then filtering for Nebraska would require processing the entire user set and all their related usage_details, which could be substantially more expensive in terms of I/O and memory usage, especially if usage_details is large or the join is not highly selective.
- Real-world considerations include ensuring there are appropriate indexes on the predicate column in user_table (such as an index on state or city) and on the join key between user_table and usage_details (e.g., user_id). If the Nebraska filter is highly selective (10%), and there is a good index, predicate-pushdown followed by join is typically the most efficient approach.
- Edge considerations: if there are many-to-one or one-to-many relationships, writing the query to first reduce the user set can avoid duplicating large usage_details rows unnecessarily. The exact performance also depends on distribution, statistics, and the database's optimizer, but the described approach aligns with common best practices for selective filtering before joins.

In summary, filtering the user table to Nebraska first and then performing the join generally reduces the data volume early, leverages available indexes, and tends to yield better performance than joining all users and then filtering. This reasoning assumes the Nebraska subset is sufficiently selective and that proper indexing exists to support efficient predicate evaluation and the join.

ECON3310001.1251 Quiz 11: Creating Databases

You have a user_table and a usage_details table. You want to find the rows corresponding to users who live in Nebraska (about 10% of all users) and join that subset with their usage details. Which of the following approaches is generally more efficient?

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