In the last post, there was a quick how to enable plans, and why you might (see T-SQL Tip 8). One of the most common things you can see in an execution plan is a SCAN. What this means is SQL Server went to an object and had a start point and an end point to look through. The most common start and end points are the first and last pages in the table. Unless you wanted every record this is less than ideal. For ranges, think inequalities, you often can get a scan with more appropriately defined start and end points. Most of the time though, you will want to eliminate scans using well defined indexes and filters. Spoiler alert, tip 10 will be about those indexes.
