A query optimizer produces a preferred execution plan by utilizing statistics on views. These provide the optimizer with statistical information beyond that available on tables, for example, with information on the result of scalar or relational expressions. Pre-derived accurate statistics are thus available which are used to improve the accuracy of estimation and thus increase the quality and reliability of the query processor. Transformations of expressions and sub-expressions of candidate plans produce equivalent sub-expressions. Where those sub-expressions include references to views, an estimation of the cardinality and other execution statistics for the sub-expression can be made using the view statistics. This can be used to estimate the cardinality for all equivalent sub-expressions, leading to higher accuracy for the estimate.