http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlqueryprocessing/archive/2006/10/06/Viewing-and-Interpreting-Showplan-XML.aspxAs mentioned in our previous blog posting, SQL Server 2005 supports Showplan generation in XML format. XML-based Showplans provide greater flexibility in viewing query plans and saving them to files as compared to legacy Showplans. In addition to theen-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlqueryprocessing/archive/2006/10/06/Viewing-and-Interpreting-Showplan-XML.aspx#2064922Tue, 10 Apr 2007 01:26:09 GMT91d46819-8472-40ad-a661-2c78acb4018c:2064922Tips, Tricks, and Advice from the SQL Server Query Processing Team<p>The star join optimization technique is an index based optimization designed for data warehousing scenarios</p>