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Aaron Pines's avatar
Aaron Pines
Copper Contributor
Oct 02, 2018

Excel & SQL Server Execution Plans and Perforamnce

Does Excel (2016) create or cause SQL Server to create an execution/query plan in SQL Server?  Since Excel is creating the query that is hitting the DB, it should already be optimized, so does a query using Excel's built-in Data>Existing Connections process create any sort of performance drain on SQL Server?  I'm being told that every time the worksheet opens and the data is refreshed, SQL Server is running the query as if it's never seen it before, causing a performance/cost drain on the DB?  They are proposing a stored procedure in SQL Server when a refresh-able query in Excel seems to do the trick.

excel
  • Wyn Hopkins's avatar
    Wyn Hopkins
    MVP
    Oct 03, 2018
    Hi Aaron, was the query created with Power Query?

    Your query will impact the server and amount if work the server will perform is dependent on how you've connected and, if using Power Query, how you've built your query

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