Can someone explain this two - Index Key Column VS Index Included Column?
Currently, I have an index that has 4 Index Key Column and 0 Included Column.
Thanks
Can someone explain this two - Index Key Column VS Index Included Column?
Currently, I have an index that has 4 Index Key Column and 0 Included Column.
Thanks
Index key columns are part of the b-tree of the index. Included columns are not.
Take two indexes:
CREATE INDEX index1 ON table1 (col1, col2, col3) CREATE INDEX index2 ON table1 (col1) INCLUDE (col2, col3)
index1
is better suited for this kind of query:
SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE col1 = x AND col2 = y AND col3 = z
Whereas index2
is better suited for this kind of query:
SELECT col2, col3 FROM table1 WHERE col1 = x
In the first query, index1
provides a mechanism for quickly identifying the rows of interest. The query will (probably) execute as an index seek, followed by a bookmark lookup to retrieve the full row(s).
In the second query, index2
acts as a covering index. SQL Server doesn't have to hit the base table at all, since the index provides all the data it needs to satisfy the query. index1
could also act as a covering index in this case.
If you want a covering index, but don't want to add all columns to the b-tree because you don't seek on them, or can't because they aren't an allowed datatype (eg, XML), use the INCLUDE clause.
Let's think about the book. Every page in the book has the page number. All information in this book is presented sequentially based on this page number. Speaking in the database terms, page number is the clustered index. Now think about the glossary at the end of the book. This is in alphabetical order and allow you to quickly find the page number specific glossary term belongs to. This represents non-clustered index with glossary term as the key column.
Now assuming that every page also shows "chapter" title at the top. If you want to find in what chapter is the glossary term, you have to lookup what page # describes glossary term, next - open corresponding page and see the chapter title on the page. This clearly represents key lookup - when you need to find the data from non-indexed column, you have to find actual data record (clustered index) and look at this column value. Included column helps in terms of performance - think about glossary where each chapter title includes in addition to glossary term. If you need to find out what chapter the glossary term belongs - you don't need to open actual page - you can get it when you lookup the glossary term.
So included column are like those chapter titles. Non clustered Index (glossary) has addition attribute as part of the non-clustered index. Index is not sorted by included columns - it just additional attributes that helps to speed up the lookup (e.g. you don't need to open actual page because information is already in the glossary index).
Example:
Create Table Script
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Profile]( [EnrollMentId] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL, [FName] [varchar](50) NULL, [MName] [varchar](50) NULL, [LName] [varchar](50) NULL, [NickName] [varchar](50) NULL, [DOB] [date] NULL, [Qualification] [varchar](50) NULL, [Profession] [varchar](50) NULL, [MaritalStatus] [int] NULL, [CurrentCity] [varchar](50) NULL, [NativePlace] [varchar](50) NULL, [District] [varchar](50) NULL, [State] [varchar](50) NULL, [Country] [varchar](50) NULL, [UIDNO] [int] NOT NULL, [Detail1] [varchar](max) NULL, [Detail2] [varchar](max) NULL, [Detail3] [varchar](max) NULL, [Detail4] [varchar](max) NULL, PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ( [EnrollMentId] ASC )WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY] ) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY] GO SET ANSI_PADDING OFF GO
Stored procedure script
CREATE Proc [dbo].[InsertIntoProfileTable] As BEGIN SET NOCOUNT ON Declare @currentRow int Declare @Details varchar(Max) Declare @dob Date set @currentRow =1; set @Details ='Let''s think about the book. Every page in the book has the page number. All information in this book is presented sequentially based on this page number. Speaking in the database terms, page number is the clustered index. Now think about the glossary at the end of the book. This is in alphabetical order and allow you to quickly find the page number specific glossary term belongs to. This represents non-clustered index with glossary term as the key column. Now assuming that every page also shows "chapter" title at the top. If you want to find in what chapter is the glossary term, you have to lookup what page # describes glossary term, next - open corresponding page and see the chapter title on the page. This clearly represents key lookup - when you need to find the data from non-indexed column, you have to find actual data record (clustered index) and look at this column value. Included column helps in terms of performance - think about glossary where each chapter title includes in addition to glossary term. If you need to find out what chapter the glossary term belongs - you don''t need to open actual page - you can get it when you lookup the glossary term. So included column are like those chapter titles. Non clustered Index (glossary) has addition attribute as part of the non-clustered index. Index is not sorted by included columns - it just additional attributes that helps to speed up the lookup (e.g. you don''t need to open actual page because information is already in the glossary index).' while(@currentRow <=200000) BEGIN insert into dbo.Profile values( 'FName'+ Cast(@currentRow as varchar), 'MName' + Cast(@currentRow as varchar), 'MName' + Cast(@currentRow as varchar), 'NickName' + Cast(@currentRow as varchar), DATEADD(DAY, ROUND(10000*RAND(),0),'01-01-1980'),NULL, NULL, @currentRow%3, NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL, 1000+@currentRow,@Details,@Details,@Details,@Details) set @currentRow +=1; END SET NOCOUNT OFF END GO
Using the above SP you can insert 200000 records at one time.
You can see that there is a clustered index on column “EnrollMentId”.
Now Create a non-Clustered index on “ UIDNO” Column.
Script
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NonClusteredIndex-20140216-223309] ON [dbo].[Profile] ( [UIDNO] ASC )WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY] GO
Now Run the following Query
select UIDNO,FName,DOB, MaritalStatus, Detail1 from dbo.Profile --Takes about 30-50 seconds and return 200,000 results.
Query 2
select UIDNO,FName,DOB, MaritalStatus, Detail1 from dbo.Profile where DOB between '01-01-1980' and '01-01-1985' --Takes about 10-15 seconds and return 36,479 records.
Now drop the above non-clustered index and re-create with following script
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NonClusteredIndex-20140216-231011] ON [dbo].[Profile] ( [UIDNO] ASC, [FName] ASC, [DOB] ASC, [MaritalStatus] ASC, [Detail1] ASC )WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY] GO
It will throw the following error
Msg 1919, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Column 'Detail1' in table 'dbo.Profile' is of a type that is invalid for use as a key column in an index.
Because we can not use varchar(Max) datatype as key column.
Now Create a non-Clustered Index with included columns using following script
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [NonClusteredIndex-20140216-231811] ON [dbo].[Profile] ( [UIDNO] ASC ) INCLUDE ( [FName], [DOB], [MaritalStatus], [Detail1]) WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF, DROP_EXISTING = OFF, ONLINE = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY] GO
Now Run the following Query
select UIDNO,FName,DOB, MaritalStatus, Detail1 from dbo.Profile --Takes about 20-30 seconds and return 200,000 results.
Query 2
select UIDNO,FName,DOB, MaritalStatus, Detail1 from dbo.Profile where DOB between '01-01-1980' and '01-01-1985' --Takes about 3-5 seconds and return 36,479 records.
Included columns don't form part of the key for the index, but they do exist on the index. Essentially the values will be duplicated, so there is a storage overhead, but there is a greater chance that your index will cover (i.e. be selected by the query optimizer for) more queries. This duplication also improves performance when querying, since the database engine can return the value without having to look at the table itself.
Only nonclustered indexes can have included columns, because in a clustered index, every column is effectively included.