Index Selection

Determining which indexes to define on a table involves performing a detailed query analysis. This involves examining the search clauses to see what columns are referenced, knowing the bias of the data to determine the usefulness of the index, and ranking the queries in order of importance and frequency of execution. You have to be careful not to examine individual queries and develop indexes to support one query, without considering the other queries that are executed on the table as well. You need to come up with a set of indexes that works for the best cross-section of your queries.

TIP

A useful tool to help you identify your frequently executed and critical queries is SQL Profiler. I've found SQL Profiler to be invaluable ...

Get Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Unleashed, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.