SQL Server: Clustering by timestamp; pros/cons

Posted by Ian Boyd on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Ian Boyd
Published on 2010-04-21T17:20:33Z Indexed on 2010/04/21 19:03 UTC
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I have a table in SQL Server, where i want inserts to be added to the end of the table (as opposed to a clustering key that would cause them to be inserted in the middle). This means I want the table clustered by some column that will constantly increase.

This could be achieved by clustering on a datetime column:

CREATE TABLE Things (
    ...
    CreatedDate datetime DEFAULT getdate(),
    [timestamp] timestamp,        

    CONSTRAINT [IX_Things] UNIQUE CLUSTERED (CreatedDate)
)

But I can't guaranteed that two Things won't have the same time. So my requirements can't really be achieved by a datetime column.

I could add a dummy identity int column, and cluster on that:

CREATE TABLE Things (
    ...
    RowID int IDENTITY(1,1),
    [timestamp] timestamp,        

    CONSTRAINT [IX_Things] UNIQUE CLUSTERED (RowID)
)

But you'll notice that my table already constains a timestamp column; a column which is guaranteed to be a monotonically increasing. This is exactly the characteristic I want for a candidate cluster key.

So I cluster the table on the rowversion (aka timestamp) column:

CREATE TABLE Things (
    ...
    [timestamp] timestamp,        

    CONSTRAINT [IX_Things] UNIQUE CLUSTERED (timestamp)
)

Rather than adding a dummy identity int column (RowID) to ensure an order, I use what I already have.

What I'm looking for are thoughts of why this is a bad idea; and what other ideas are better.

Note: Community wiki, since the answers are subjective.

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