Question

I have a table with 3 columns: a list id, name and numeric value.
The goal is to use the table to retrieve and update the numeric value for a name in various lists.

The problem is that sql refuses to create an index with the name column because it’s a string column with variable length.

Without an index selecting with a name will be inefficient, and the option of using a static length text column will be wasting a lot of storage space as names can be fairly long.

What is the best way to build this table and it’s indexes?

(running sql server 2008)

Answer 1

A regular index can’t be created on ntext or text columns (i guess your name column is of that type, or (n)varchar longer than 900 bytes). You can create full-text index on that column type.