Is Execution/Min in SQL Server Management Studio's Expensive Queries the number of executions or just an estimate?

Question

We are occasionally seeing a query come up as over 11,000 in Activity Monitor under Expensive Queries.

I see that in the code a query is being executed in a loop, which I realize is not the best approach (I didn't write it but might need to fix it).

I do not think the loop is creating 11,000 iterations, more like 20 at a time. So my question is that if code executes 20 queries in say 1/550 sec, would that appear as 11,000 executions per min? Or does Activity Monitor really mean the query is really executed 11,000 times?

DataTable JobsDT = new DataTable();
DataTable oqDT = new DataTable();
DataTable ePickupDT = new DataTable();
DataTable upDT = new DataTable();
JobsDT = Q.SelectRecords("SELECT [Quote]... etc etc etc" + ((Filters.Length > 0) ? Filters : "") + ") ORDER BY " + SortBy + " " + SortDirection);
    oqDT=...;
    ePickupDT=...;
    upDT=...;

//Merge the datatables
DT.Merge(JobsDT);
DT.Merge(oqDT);
DT.Merge(ePickupDT);
DT.Merge(upDT);

//Build cart header
Cart += "<table id='CurrentOrdersDiv' style='font-family: Arial; font-size: small;' width='100%' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0'>";

//Build cart body
for (int row = 0; row < DT.Rows.Count; row++)
{
    try { Adjustment = (Q.SelectRecords("SELECT [PriceAdjustment] FROM [Media] WHERE [PriceAdjustment] > 0 AND [Quote] = " + Convert.ToInt32(DT.Rows[row]["Quote"])).Rows.Count > 0) ? true : false; } catch { }
    //Create flags
}

Answer 1

I don't know this for sure, but I don't think Execution/Min "extrapolates". So in your example, if 20 queries occurred in a fraction of a second (and didn't occur again during that minute), I think Execution/Min would only be averaged towards 20. You could check sys.dm_exec_query_stats.execution_count to see if the 11000 number makes sense.

Perhaps your code only executes around 20 queries per run, but is run very frequently?