Why use the INCLUDE clause when creating an index?

Posted by Cory on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Cory
Published on 2009-08-20T18:27:18Z Indexed on 2010/05/07 11:18 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 166

While studying for the 70-433 exam I noticed you can create a covering index in one of the following two ways.

CREATE INDEX idx1 ON MyTable (Col1, Col2, Col3)

-- OR --

CREATE INDEX idx1 ON MyTable (Col1) INCLUDE (Col2, Col3)

The INCLUDE clause is new to me. Why would you use it and what guidelines would you suggest in determining whether to create a covering index with or without the INCLUDE clause?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about sql-server

Related posts about sql-server-2005