SQL statements describe which information data must contain. They do not, however, describe how to read or write that data. Therefore, there has to be an instance for converting SQL statements into actual access operations. That instance is the SQL Optimizer.

Since each SQL statement has to be converted into different access operations, the runtime can vary depending on the amount of data to be processed. The SQL optimizer has the task of processing the requested data by using the most cost-efficient strategy.

The database system uses the cost-based SQL optimizer exclusively. This means that there are no rules for how to access the data. Accesses can be made to simple tables (base tables) or to multiple tables (joins or subqueries). The aim of the SQL optimizer is to find the most cost-effective plan for processing access to the tables, including those involved in the join.

The optimizer uses statistics to determine a search strategy for access to data from multiple tables.