How to benchmark a SQL Sever Query?

Question

I'd like to know the standard way to benchmark a SQL Sever Query, preferibly I'd like to know about the tools that come with SQL Server rather than 3rd Party tools.

Answer 1

Use SQL Profiler.

For .NET applications, filter that Application name by '.NET%' and you'll omit other extraneous queries.

Answer 2

set showplan_text on will show you the execution plan (to see it graphically use CTRL + K (sql 2000) or CTRL + M (sql 2005 +)

set statistics IO on will show you the reads

set statistics time on will show you the elapsed time

Answer 3

+1 on the execution plan. From here you can see where all the time is being spent in your particular query. Eg. 85% of the time is spent table scanning a particular table, can you put an index on that table to improve it? etc etc.