2. The method of claim 1 wherein the monitored data is written to a file, and the step of receiving the monitored data comprises the step of reading the file.
1. A computer-implemented method for displaying information regarding a query to a user in a graphical user interface, the method comprising the steps of: executing the query, wherein the query comprises an object oriented query execution data structure that comprises a plurality of object oriented nodes, wherein each node includes an object oriented monitor method that enables collection of monitored data from the node and an object oriented dump method that outputs the monitored data wherein a minimal set of data is collected by the node when monitoring is disabled and an extended set of data is collected by the node when monitoring is enabled, wherein enabling and disabling monitoring is performed by invoking the monitor method; receiving the monitored data in a data stream from the object oriented query execution data structure as the query executes; and displaying to a user a graphical representation of the query execution data structure that allows the user to enable monitoring of the plurality of object oriented nodes on a node-by-node basis, to view information dumped from the query execution data structure as the query executes, and to perform query debug functions using the monitored data.