There’s a lot of confusion around duplicate indexes and I think a lot of it has to do with how sp_helpindex (or even SSMS) display what’s in an index. What’s actually in the index – and how it’s structured – are not always what they seem. This was the original motivation behind my rewrite of [...]
Kimberly L. Tripp
Improving my SQL skills through your questions!
How can you tell if an index is REALLY a duplicate?
Posted on: July 14, 2011 11:39 am
More considerations for the clustering key – the clustered index debate continues!
Posted on: November 28, 2010 6:52 pm
OK, I've talked about the clustering key many times. Here, I thought I'd bring together one final series of details (and links) to help you really understand why I'm so adamant about DESIGNING a clustering key and not just letting SQL Server pick it for you (for example when it defaults to making the primary [...]
A new and improved sp_helpindex (jokingly sp_helpindex8)
Posted on: May 18, 2010 8:33 pm
NOTE: I've released other versions of sp_helpindex since this post. Check out the category: sp_helpindex rewrites for all of the options! OK, I first blogged about re-writing sp_helpindex here as sp_helpindex2 (April 2008). Shortly thereafter (Aug 2008), a reader found a bug and when I went digging, so did I (a couple of others). I did [...]
Filtered indexes and filtered stats might become seriously out-of-date
Posted on: September 24, 2009 9:45 am
Time flies when you're having fun, eh? This week Paul and I are in Dublin, Ireland delivering a deep technical "SQL Immersion Event" on Internals, Performance Tuning and Maintenance with our partner ProData (and having a blast – we have a really fun and very interactive group). And, today's an even more interesting day to be in [...]
Column order doesn’t matter… generally, but – IT DEPENDS!
Posted on: August 10, 2009 7:10 am
OK, for years I've been saying that SQL Server doesn't care about the order in which you define the columns of your table because internally SQL Server will re-arrange your columns to store all of the fixed width columns first and the variable columns last. In both the fixed-width portion of the row as well [...]
Companion content for Chapter 6 (Index Internals) of SQL Server 2008 Internals
Posted on: April 12, 2009 11:20 pm
Recently, the SQL Server 2008 Internals title was released (and only in the past few days have people actually received their copies)! In fact, I still haven't seen the book in person… soon though! Anyway, Kalen, Paul, Conor, Adam and I worked to create a comprehensive resource on SQL Server 2008 internals and to supplement the written [...]
