8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein displaying a progress indicator for each of the plurality of query plan operators comprises: displaying a number of rows flowing through each of the plurality of query plan operators in the query execution plan.
1. A computer-implemented method for query problem determination, wherein the computer performs the following functions comprising: receiving a database query; creating a query execution plan for problem determination of the database query, the query execution plan comprising a plurality of query plan operators; executing the query execution plan; displaying a progress indicator for each of the plurality of query plan operators during execution of the query execution plan in response to progress information; communicating progress information to a query progress analyzer for performing debugging operations; and performing debugging operations during execution of the query execution plan by a query progress analyzer, wherein performing the debugging operations comprises: skipping at least a portion of the query execution plan; pausing execution of the query execution plan at a designated point; inspecting the query execution plan including one or more of looking up variables in the query execution plan and stepping through the query execution plan to inspect different portions of the query execution for problem determination, while the query execution is paused; resuming execution of the query execution plan from the designated point; and providing updated progress information to update display of the progress indicator, wherein upon the query execution plan's invocation, a wrapper function intervenes and jumps into debugging logic which increments a counter for the current query plan operator, and executes any additional instructions corresponding to the query plan operator, wherein the additional instructions include graphically displaying the progress as an enhancement to a query explain tool, wherein the query explain tool would poll the current status of the actual cardinalities processed for each part of the query execution plan and utilizing the existing explain facility.