Build your powers of index design by learning how indexes are structured in SQL Server

Why can you seek on key columns?

Where are included columns written, and how can you use them?

In this demo-based course, we’ll use undocumented commands in SQL Server to explore the secrets of a disk-based rowstore index.

Course scripts are located at https://github.com/LitKnd/SQLWorkbooks/tree/main/how_index_keys_and_includes_work

Each video offers captions in English, and a written transcript is in each lesson.

Modules

Welcome

Lesson

• Get ready to dive into indexing (3 minutes)

Learn

Lessons

• Create a test index and discover its structure (8 minutes)
• Explore the index pages and their links (10 minutes)
• Update an important key value (9 minutes)
• Index structure, illustrated (3 minutes)
• Trace buffer latches on seeks and scans (16 minutes)
• Seeks and scans, illustrated (4 minutes)

Quizzes

Lessons

• Quiz: How index keys and included columns work
• Three question video quiz