SQL Query Performance Basics

What this solves

Speed up a 50-day PO audit query. This pattern is useful when the business question is clear but a generic tutorial is too abstract.

The rule

Reduce rows early, select only needed columns and join on compatible indexed keys.

SELECT PO, Material, Status
FROM Orders
WHERE EventDate >= DATEADD(day,-50,CURRENT_TIMESTAMP);

Real-work checklist

1. Define the business key and expected grain before writing the formula, query or markup.
2. Test the pattern on a small known sample where you can verify the answer manually.
3. Check missing values, duplicates and data types before trusting a large result.
4. Scale to the real file or database only after the logic is proven.

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