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Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 08/06/05 14:58
(jim_geissman@countrywide.com) writes:
> One table I manage has a clustered index, and it includes some
> varchar columns. When it is initially created, all the columns
> in the clustered index are populated, and then some of the longer
> varchars are populated through update queries. If the varchar
> columns are stored outside the clustered structure, then it would
> make sense to create the clustered index before populating the
> varchar columns. Otherwise it would make sense to wait, because
> populating the varchars might cause page splits. Are varchar
> columns stored on the page along with the fixed-size columns, or
> are they managed separately with the page containing pointers
> to them?
As Hugo said, the varchar data is stored within the page.
One should be careful with having to large clustered-index keys. In
non-clustered indexes, the value of clustered-index key is used as
row locator. Thus a wide clustered key, also affects the size of
the non-clustered index.
Of course, if you don't have any non-clustered indexes on the table,
this is not much of an issue.
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Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp
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