A pattern can be identified in at least part of a query whose definition is received in a query request. The identified pattern can be matched with a set of pre-defined patterns, each of which has associated therewith at least one pre-compiled query execution sub-component of a plurality of pre-compiled query execution sub-components retained in a library. A plan for executing the query can be generated, for example by incorporating the pre-compiled query execution sub-component associated with the matched pattern into the plan based on a pseudo code representation of the plan derived from the definition.