• Jeff Moden (5/16/2012)


    Are you suggesting that if I use something like a tenth of a table that a scan is virtually guaranteed?

    If you are using a non-covering index, then absolutely yes. The tipping point (where using a noncovering index and doing key lookups is less efficient than a table scan) is somewhere around 0.5% of the total rows in the table (it's ~ number of rows = 30% of the number of pages in the table)

    There's a post on my blog "Seek or Scan" which shows this. Sorry, don't have time to find it, got to get to class.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

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