Question

Let’s say we have a Product table, and Order table and a (junction table) ProductOrder.

ProductOrder will have an ProductID and an OrderID.
In most of our systems these tables also have an autonumber column called ID.

What is the best practice for placing the primary key (and therefor clustered key)?

• Should I keep the primary key of the ID field and create a non-clustered index for the foreign key pair (ProductID and OrderID)

• Or should I put the primary key of the foreign key pair (ProductID and OrderID) and put a non-clustered index on the ID column (if even necessary)

• Or … (smart remark by one of you :))

Answer 1

I know these words might make you cringe, but “it depends.”

It is most likely that you want the order to be based on the ProductID and/or OrderId and not the autonumber (surrogate) column since the autonumber has no natural meaning in your database. You probably want to order the join table by the same field as the parent table.

1. First understand why and how you are using the surrogate key ID
   in the first place; that will often dictate how you index it. I
   assume you are using the surrogate key because you are using some
   framework that works well with single column keys. If there is no
   specific design reason, then for a join table, I’d simplify the
   problem and just remove the autonumber ID, if it brings no other
   benefit. The primary key becomes the (ProductID, OrderID). If not,
   you need to at least make sure your index on the (ProductID,
   OrderID) tuple is unique to preserve data integrity.

2. Clustered indexes are good for sequential scans/joins when the
   query needs the results in the same order that the index is ordered.
   So, look at your access patterns, figure out by which key(s) you
   will be doing sequential, multi-row selects / scans, and by which
   key you’ll be doing random, individual row access, and create the
   clustered index on the key you’ll scan most, and the non-clustered
   key index on the key you’ll use for random access. You have to
   choose one or the other, since you cannot cluster both.

NOTE: If you have conflicting requirements, there is a technique (“trick”) that may help. If all of the columns in a query are found in an index, then that index is a candidate table for the database engine to use to satisfy the requirements of the query. You can use this fact to store data in more than one order even if they are in conflict of one another. Just be aware of the pros and cons of adding more fields to an index, and make a conscious decision after understanding nature and frequency of queries that will be processed.