TableCardinality

Question

Hi, in MS SQL 2010 What does it means TableCardinality in execution plan? I am looking at data base tuning performances

Thanks

Answer 1

Isn't it the same as Estimated Number of Rows?

Answer 2

From this article

SQL Server keeps track of table cardinality when the query plan is compiled. It does so because it will trigger an automatic recompile if the actual cardinality is substantially different from the compile time cardinality.

It would seem a reasonable guess that that is what the TableCardinality in the plan XML is (and shown in the properties window) but I haven't found anything to confirm that.