SQL Server 2016 is going to include a new feature called Live Query. The first time I saw it, I thought it was awesome. But having thought about it a few days, I’m not so sure I will ever use it. Here’s why:
First of all, I almost never use Management Studio for reading execution plans. I use SQL Sentry Plan Explorer for my execution plan reading. They process the plan and give it to me with more useful information and in a much easier to read manner.
Secondly, this feels like a toy. It seems pretty, but I don’t foresee any real value to watching partial data come in, especially because the flows are not guaranteed to be correct. These numbers are still based on estimates (as far as I can tell), so we will see some weird scenarios with one expected row churning and churning.
As long as there’s no performance hit, I don’t mind having this available, but this doesn’t touch my top ten favorite new features in 2016.
36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! 