What alternative do I have to a Left Join in this query? - sql-server

Question

I have this query that is used in a SSRS report that someone else created. The left join is the cause of the problem. If I change it to an inner join I get results (not the correct results) in about 15 seconds. With the Left Join I end up canceling the query after 20 minutes. I added an index to both Budgets.Professionals and Transactions.Professionals with no change in performance. Is there a way to rewrite the query and not use the Left Join?
SELECT
profs.ProfName as orig
,profs.Initials
,DATEPART(year, TransDate) as [Year]
,SUM(CASE WHEN IsFlatFee = 'Y' OR COALESCE(MT.Admin, 'N') = 'Y'
THEN 0.0
ELSE Units * (aph.assignedpercent/100) * isnull(B.rate, 0.0)
END) AS ctp
,SUM(CASE WHEN IsFlatFee = 'Y' OR COALESCE(MT.Admin, 'N') = 'Y'
THEN 0
ELSE Units
END * (aph.assignedpercent/100)) AS worked_hours
,SUM(Value * (aph.assignedpercent/100)) AS worked_value
, 0 AS billed_hours
,0 AS billed_value
,0 AS billed_netamt
, 0.0 as paid
, 0.0 as wo
FROM Transactions Trans
INNER JOIN Matters Matts ON Trans.matters = Matts.matters
INNER JOIN MatterTypes MT ON Matts.mattertype = MT.mattertypesdesc
and MT.Admin <> 'Y'
INNER JOIN Components Comps ON Comps.components = Trans.components
and Comps.CompType = 'F'
INNER JOIN AssignedProfsHistory APH on APH.Matters = Trans.Matters
and APH.AssignedType = 'Originating'
and Trans.TransDate between APH.EffectiveDate and
ISNULL(EndDate,'12/31/2099')
INNER JOIN Professionals profs on profs.Professionals = APH.Professionals
and profs.ProfType = 'Member'
and profs.IsActive = 'Y'
and profs.IsBillable = 'Y'
**LEFT join** (SELECT Budgets.Professionals as timekeeper, Budgets.Amount as
rate, Budgets.PeriodDate
FROM Matters Matts
INNER JOIN Budgets ON Matts.matters = Budgets.matters
and cast(Budgets.PeriodDate as Date) <= '2017-12-31'
AND MONTH('2017-12-31') = MONTH(Budgets.PeriodDate)
WHERE Matts.MatterID = '99999-99.003') as B
*on B.timekeeper = Trans.Professionals*
and YEAR(B.PeriodDate) = DATEPART(year, TransDate)
WHERE cast(transdate as DATE) between dateadd(day, 1, DATEADD(year, -3,
'2017-12-31')) and '2017-12-31'
GROUP BY profs.ProfName, profs.Initials, DATEPART(year, TransDate)

Answer 1

As Sean and Aaron said. There are too many things that are potentially an issue.
You seem (I'm guessing from column names) that you are joining on text columns mattertypesdesc for one. In fact most of the work is done against text columns. Even Matts.MatterID is textual. This may not be possible in your scenario but it would perform better if the tables had integer primary keys and you join on those.
Anyway, guessing aside.... You might get a quick win if you replace your sub query in the left join with a temp table.
so before you existing query just do ...
SELECT Budgets.Professionals as timekeeper, Budgets.Amount as rate, Budgets.PeriodDate
INTO #t
FROM Matters Matts
INNER JOIN Budgets ON Matts.matters = Budgets.matters
and cast(Budgets.PeriodDate as Date) <= '2017-12-31'
AND MONTH('2017-12-31') = MONTH(Budgets.PeriodDate)
WHERE Matts.MatterID = '99999-99.003'
then in your exisintg query, replace the subquery with
SELECT ...
...
...
LEFT JOIN #t as B
ON B.timekeeper = Trans.Professionals
....

Answer 2

You can also try with the APPLY operator... remove left join & it's on condition, use outer apply and include on conditions inside the outer apply script like
AND budgets.timekeeper = trans.professionals
AND year(budgets.perioddate) = datepart(year, transdate)
Sample
OUTER APPLY
(
SELECT budgets.professionals AS timekeeper,
budgets.amount AS rate,
budgets.perioddate
FROM matters matts
INNER JOIN budgets
ON matts.matters = budgets.matters
AND cast(budgets.perioddate AS date) <= '2017-12-31'
AND month('2017-12-31') = month(budgets.perioddate)
AND budgets.timekeeper = trans.professionals
AND year(budgets.perioddate) = datepart(year, transdate)
WHERE matts.matterid = '99999-99.003'
) AS b

Answer 3

Thanks everyone who responded. I took your suggestions and I was able to come up with a solution. The query that I had to kill after running for 2 hrs now finishes in about 14 seconds.
I ended up creating a cte at the beginning of the script.
;with cte as
(SELECT Transactions FROM Transactions t
WHERE cast(t.TransDate as DATE) between dateadd(day, 1, DATEADD(year, -3,
#EndDate)) and #EndDate)
Then I linked the CTE to Transactions.
FROM Transactions Trans
INNER JOIN cte ON cte.Transactions = Trans.Transactions
I then was able to remove the 'where' clause that was causing the issue.
WHERE cast(transdate as DATE) between dateadd(day, 1, DATEADD(year, -3,
#EndDate)) and #EndDate