What does the EXPLAIN ANALYZE command show when executing an SQL query?

The EXPLAIN ANALYZE command in SQL is used to analyze the execution plan of a query. It shows how the database intends to execute the query, including the order of operations, used indexes, join methods, and other details.

The feature of EXPLAIN ANALYZE is that it not only constructs the plan but also actually executes the query, collecting statistics on the execution time of each operation and the number of rows processed. This helps to understand which parts of the query are bottlenecks and where optimization can be applied.

An example output may include:

• sequence of operations (table scans, joins)
• estimates and actual values of row counts
• execution time for each operation

Thus, EXPLAIN ANALYZE is a powerful tool for profiling and optimizing SQL queries.