very large table 3 billion records indexing issue

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very large table 3 billion records indexing issue

Author

Topic

MrBloom
Starting Member

36 Posts

Posted - 2013-07-28 : 04:12:50

Hi

I have a table with almost 3 billion records
the are 4 columns
ID (varchar), start (int), end(int), value (varchar)

ID and start compounded together can make the record unique but ID can be a mix of alphanumerics so is set as a varchar.

the main query I would like to run is fairly simple.


SELECT   ID, start,  [end] , value
  FROM MYTable
  WHERE ID  = 'somevalue' AND  start >= someint and [end] <= someint

This query is usually run through several times in a batch script where different ID, start and end values are
passed to the query and the results are selected into a temp table.

I'm not sure about the best index to build on this table to make the query run the most efficiently. Whether to build a clustered or non clustered index on ID, start, end.
Or even to reload the table with a unique identity column and partition on this.

thanks

visakh16
Very Important crosS Applying yaK Herder

52326 Posts

Posted - 2013-07-28 : 11:46:27

Clustered on id,start,end combination should be enough

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srimami
Posting Yak Master

160 Posts

Posted - 2013-08-08 : 05:03:18

It depends on your where condition that is being used in queries. Visakhs's suggestion would work based on the query you provided but if other users are querying on Data Column then I would suggest you go with Clustered Index on Date column and NCL on remaining columns.

Thanks,
Sri.

SwePeso
Patron Saint of Lost Yaks

30421 Posts

Posted - 2013-08-08 : 06:31:42

Creating a clustered index on a 3 billion row table will take time and a lot of log file space.
At least 1.5-2 hours to complete.

Which indexes do you already have on the table?

Microsoft SQL Server MVP, MCT, MCSE, MCSA, MCP, MCITP, MCTS, MCDBA

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