If you want to use SQL Server databases effectively, you will end up using stored procedures. Their aim is that you have optimized and compiled code that resides in a cache to improve workload performance for subsequent executions. However, you might find that it does not always work out that way. The performance of a stored procedure is heavily dependent on how the plan is chosen and cached. If the plan is not optimal for subsequent executions it could cause performance to suffer greatly. In the end, you might suffer from what is known as parameter-sniffing-problems where the optimal plan for a procedure varies based on the parameters supplied. This comprehensive course will teach you how stored procedure plan caching works and how to get SQL Server to produce the optimal plan for your stored procedure performance in a variety of circumstances. The course is applicable to SQL Server developers and anyone who is responsible for writing stored procedures that must repeatedly perform well.

The demo database provided is compatible with SQL Server 2008 through SQL Server 2014. All course demos are shown on SQL Server 2014 with references to behaviors (where different) on all versions. Optimization strategies you will learn in the course apply to SQL Server 2005 onward, and some even back to SQL Server 2000.