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What Are Logical and Physical Operators in Execution Plans?

Senior MS SQL
Quick Answer Logical operators are the high-level operations in the plan: Filter, Join, Aggregate, Sort. Physical operators are the specific algorithms chosen: Nested Loops (for join), Hash Match (for join or aggregate), Sort (for ordering). One logical operation maps to one physical operator รขโ‚ฌโ€ understanding both helps you read execution plans.

Answer

Logical operators represent conceptual operations (join, project, filter).

Physical operators are real engine implementations (hash join, nested loop, merge join).

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