Types of Indexes

SQL Server can create twogeneral types of indexes:

  • Regular SQL Server indexes, which are created by Transact-SQL commands and maintained automatically by SQL Server. Query Optimizer uses these indexes to speed the execution of queries.

  • Full-text indexes, which are created by system-stored procedures, managed by the Microsoft Search Service, and accessed by specific Transact-SQL extended commands. Query Optimizer doesn't use full-text indexes automatically to optimize the execution of queries.

Full-text indexes are used by specific Transact-SQL functions. This type of index is out of the scope of this book, but you can get information about them in Books Online.

This chapter covers in detail the regular SQL Server indexes because ...

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