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Indexes

  • August 26, 2004 at 8:35 pm

    #85235

    I am fairly new to SQL Server arena and want to understand how indexes work here. I know how to create an index. But I want to know how to use them. Does SQL Server engine decide which index to use based upon your statement. What if I want to force it to use a particular index?

  • August 27, 2004 at 2:23 am

    #520821

    Generally you should leave it to SQL server to decide which indexes will be used. If you'd like to force the usage of a specific index look in BOL for index hints. But as I said before you shouldn't really do this in a production system. I've seen serious perfomance issues in applications which used hardcoded index hints.

    M

    [font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

  • August 27, 2004 at 7:34 am

    #520862

    How would I know which index is being used for a statement. Even if I want to SQL Server to decide which one to use, is there any way for me to know that?

  • August 30, 2004 at 8:42 am

    #521071

    Paste your statement(s) into SQL Query analyzer window and click Ctrl-L

     - it will show you the estimated execution plan in the bottom window. Move mouse over every picture - and you will see a pop-up window (for "index seek" pictures you will see the index name used).

    Alex

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