What is an Index in an SQL Server Database?
15218-Jul-2024
Updated on 18-Jul-2024
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Ashutosh Kumar Verma
18-Jul-2024SQL Server Index
An index in a SQL database is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval in a database table at the expense of additional space and reduced performance in write operations
Example-
Suppose you have a table
Employee
with the columnsemp_id
,name
,age
, anddepartment_id
. If you frequently search for employees based on theiremp_id
, creating an index on theemp_id
column can greatly speed up those search operasThis SQL statement creates an index named
idemployee_id
in theemp_id
column of theEmployee
table.The database engine can use the
idemployee_id
index to quickly find rows whereemp_id
is equal to1001
, rather than scanning the entireEmployees
table sequentially.Also, Read: What are SQL Stored Procedures in the Database?