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Creating Indexes (Database Engine)

This topic describes major index creation tasks and provides implementation and performance guidelines to consider before you create an index.

Index Creation Tasks

The following tasks make up our recommended strategy for creating indexes:

  1. Design the index.

    Index design is a critical task. Index design includes determining which columns to use, selecting the index type (for example, clustered or nonclustered), selecting appropriate index options, and determining filegroup or partition scheme placement. For more information, see Designing Indexes.

  2. Determine the best creation method. Indexes are created in the following ways:

    • By defining a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint on a column by using CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE

      The SQL Server Database Engine automatically creates a unique index to enforce the uniqueness requirements of a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint. By default, a unique clustered index is created to enforce a PRIMARY KEY constraint, unless a clustered index already exists on the table, or you specify a unique nonclustered index. By default, a unique nonclustered index is created to enforce a UNIQUE constraint unless a unique clustered index is explicitly specified and a clustered index on the table does not exist.

      Index options and index location, filegroup or partition scheme, can also be specified.

      An index created as part of a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint is automatically given the same name as the constraint name. For more information, see PRIMARY KEY Constraints and UNIQUE Constraints.

    • By creating an index independent of a constraint by using the CREATE INDEX statement, or New Index dialog box in SQL Server Management Studio Object Explorer

      You must specify the name of the index, table, and columns to which the index applies. Index options and index location, filegroup or partition scheme, can also be specified. By default, a nonclustered, nonunique index is created if the clustered or unique options are not specified. To create a filtered index, use the optional WHERE clause. For more information, see Filtered Index Design Guidelines.

  3. Create the index.

    Whether the index will be created on an empty table or one that contains data is an important factor to consider. Creating an index on an empty table has no performance implications at the time the index is created; however, performance will be affected when data is added to the table.

    Creating indexes on large tables should be planned carefully so database performance is not hindered. The preferred way to create indexes on large tables is to start with the clustered index and then build any nonclustered indexes. Consider setting the ONLINE option to ON when you create indexes on existing tables. When set to ON, long-term table locks are not held enabling queries or updates to the underlying table to continue. For more information, see Performing Index Operations Online.

Implementation Considerations

The following table lists the maximum values that apply to clustered, nonclustered, spatial, filtered, and XML indexes. Unless specified, the limitations apply to all index types.

Maximum index limits

Value

Additional information

Clustered indexes per table

1

 

Nonclustered indexes per table

999

Includes nonclustered indexes created by PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraints, and filtered indexes, but not XML indexes.

XML indexes per table

249

Includes primary and secondary XML indexes on xml data type columns.

Indexes on XML Data Type Columns

Spatial indexes per table

249

Working with Spatial Indexes (Database Engine)

Number of key columns per index

16*

Clustered index is limited to 15 columns if the table also contains a primary XML index or any spatial indexes.

Maximum Size of Index Keys.

Index key record size

900 bytes*

Does not apply to XML indexes or spatial indexes.

For a table to support spatial indexes, the maximum index key record size is 895 bytes.

Maximum Size of Index Keys.

*You can avoid index key column and record size limitations of nonclustered indexes by including nonkey columns in the index. For more information, see Index with Included Columns.

Data Types

Generally, any column in a table or view can be indexed. The following table lists data types that have restricted index participation.

Data type

Index participation

Additional information

CLR user-defined type

Can be indexed if the type supports binary ordering.

Working with CLR User-defined Types

Large object (LOB) data types: image, ntext, text, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary(max), and xml

Cannot be an index key column. However, an XML column can be a key column in a primary or secondary XML index on a table.

Can participate as nonkey (included) columns in a nonclustered index except for image, ntext, and text.

Can participate if part of a computed column expression.

Index with Included Columns

Indexes on XML Data Type Columns

Computed columns

Can be indexed. This includes computed columns defined as method invocations of a CLR user-defined type column, as long as the methods are marked deterministic.

Computed columns derived from LOB data types can be indexed either as a key or nonkey column as long as the computed column data type is allowed as an index key column or nonkey column.

Creating Indexes on Computed Columns

Varchar columns pushed off-row

The index key of a clustered index cannot contain varchar columns that have existing data in the ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA allocation unit. If a clustered index is created on a varchar column and the existing data is in the IN_ROW_DATA allocation unit, subsequent insert or update actions on the column that would push the data off-row will fail.

Table and Index Organization

Row-Overflow Data Exceeding 8 KB

geometry

Can be indexed with multiple spatial indexes.

Types of Spatial Data

Additional Considerations

The following are some additional considerations for creating an index:

  • You can create an index, if you have CONTROL or ALTER permission on the table.

  • When created, the index is automatically enabled and available for use. You can remove access to an index by disabling it. For more information, see Disabling Indexes.

Disk Space Requirements

The amount of disk space required to store the index depends on the following factors:

Performance Considerations

The time taken to physically create an index is largely dependent on the disk subsystem. Important factors to consider are the following:

  • The recovery model of the database. The bulk-logged recovery model provides greater performance and reduced log-space consumption during the index creation operation than full recovery. However, bulk-logged recovery reduces the flexibility for point-in-time recovery. For more information, see Choosing a Recovery Model for Index Operations.

  • The RAID (redundant array of independent disks) level used to store the database and transaction log files. Generally, RAID levels that use striping will have better I/O bandwidth.

  • Number of disks in the disk array, if RAID was used. More drives in the array increases data transfer rates proportionally.

  • Where the intermediate sort runs of the data is stored. Using the SORT_IN_TEMPDB option can reduce the time that is required to create an index when tempdb is on a different set of disks than the user database. For more information, see tempdb and Index Creation.

  • Creating the index offline or online.

    When an index is created offline (the default), exclusive locks are held on the underlying table until the transaction creating the index has completed. The table is inaccessible to users while the index is being created.

    Except for XML and spatial indexes, you can specify that the index be created online. When the online option is set to ON, long-term table locks are not held, enabling queries or updates to the underlying table to continue while the index is being created. Although we recommend online index operations, you should evaluate your environment and specific requirements. It may be better to run index operations offline. In doing this, users have restricted access the data during the operation, but the operation finishes faster and uses fewer resources. For more information, see Performing Index Operations Online.

To create a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint when you create a table

To create a PRIMARY KEY or UNIQUE constraint on an existing table

To create an index

Change History

Updated content

Updated the nonclustered index limit to 999.