• thisisfutile (3/11/2010)


    tamie.mcdonald (3/11/2010)


    Why would you cluster an index for an Identity column key?

    ...so wouldn't you want to cluster it around a logical key?

    I too have the same curiosity. It's purely academic, mainly because I'm only now getting into the fine-tuning of an existing database and while I could research other articles, these are exactly the questions I have. Hopefully a good discussion will stem from this (or some links to some of those articles I need to read... 😉 )

    I have read many articles about indexes, but there is one main group of articles that has made my opinion firm about using an identity column as the clustered index, unless there is a specific reason not to. The collection of articles i'm referring to have been written by Gail Shaw and I read them on the SQL Server Central web site. These are:

    # Part 1 - The basics of indexes[/url]

    # Part 2 - The Clustered Index[/url]

    # Part 3 - The Non-clustered index[/url]

    This is where I learnt about the importance of having a stream lined and simple clustered index, because its flow on effect regarding performance and disk space is exponential which is the crux of this Clustered Index Analyser script.

    Thanks,

    Cameron