I'm trying to find out if there is a way to influence how stardog executes sparql queries as they are without doing optimization or reordering in the backend. In other words is there a way to force a query plan? I know for example in Postgres (e.g. explain analyze) there is such a way and other functions. I know of the query hints (Query Hints | Stardog Documentation Latest) but these are "just" recommendations for the optimizer nothing that forces the plan right?
While it's true that the Stardog optimiser does not have to follow the query hints, they strongly influence the query execution plan (if used correctly). For example, the group.joins hint allows you to force the optimiser to use a particular order of joins or at least prevent some joins from happening early in the execution. Usually it's enough.
Let us know if you're struggling to change the query plan of a specific query.