PowerShell to fetch a SQL Execution Plan

December 7, 2010

With PowerShell becoming the scripting language of choice for many people, I’ve occasionally wondered about using it to analyse execution plans. After all, an execution plan is just XML, and PowerShell is just one tool which will very easily handle xml.

The thing is – there’s no Get-SqlPlan cmdlet available, which has frustrated me in the past. Today I figured I’d make one.

I know that I can write T-SQL to get an execution plan using SET SHOWPLAN_XML ON, but the problem is that this must be the only statement in a batch. So I used go, and a couple of newlines, and whipped up the following one-liner:

function Get-SqlPlan([string] $query, [string] $server, [string] $db)       
{ return ([xml] (invoke-sqlcmd -MaxCharLength 9999999 -Server $server -Database $db -Query "set showplan_xml on;`ngo`n$query").Item( 0)) }

1 2	function Get-SqlPlan([string] $query, [string] $server, [string] $db) { return ([xml] (invoke-sqlcmd -MaxCharLength 9999999 -Server $server -Database $db -Query "set showplan_xml on;`ngo`n$query").Item( 0)) }

(but please bear in mind that I have the SQL Snapins installed, which provides invoke-sqlcmd)

To use this, I just do something like:

$plan = get-sqlplan "select name from Production.Product" "." "AdventureWorks"

1	$plan = get-sqlplan "select name from Production.Product" "." "AdventureWorks"

And then find myself with an easy way to navigate through an execution plan!

At some point I should make the function more robust, but this should be a good starter for any SQL PowerShell enthusiasts (like Aaron Nelson) out there.

This Post Has 4 Comments

SQLvariant December 7, 2010 Reply

This is Excellent Rob. Thanks for throwing it together!!
juerg November 5, 2012 Reply

Hi
thanks for the script, however e.g. trying to get the plan for AdventureWorks2012.dbo.uspGetBillOfMaterials I get
Error: "Unexpected end of file has occurre
d. The following elements are not closed: OutputList, RelOp, QueryPlan, StmtSimple, Statements, Stor
edProc, StmtSimple, Statements, Batch, BatchSequence, ShowPlanXML. Line 1, position 4001."
At D:\Projekte\Wincasa\QVReporting_home\CreateExecutionPlan.ps1:6 char:109
+ { return ([xml] (invoke-sqlcmd -Server $server -Database $db -Query "set showplan_xml on;ngon$qu
ery").Item <<<< ( 0)) }
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [], RuntimeException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : RuntimeException
any idea?
Thanks
Rob Farley November 14, 2012 Reply

Hi juerg,
Make sure the file contains the right combinations of brackets, braces and parentheses, and has no extra characters in there.
Rob
Rob Farley February 17, 2014 Reply

Oh Juerg,
The error you got is just because the plan is larger than the 4000 characters that are being returned. If you use "-MaxCharLength 9999999" this should work better.
Rob