Microsoft KB Archive/45667

= INFO: SQL Clustered and Non-Clustered Index Sort Work Area =

Article ID: 45667

Article Last Modified on 2/14/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft SQL Server 4.21a Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q45667



SUMMARY
The following information discusses how the &quot;sort work area&quot; associated with clustered and non-clustered indexes is created and stored within SQL Server.



MORE INFORMATION
When a clustered index is created on a table that already contains data, a new copy of the table's data is created in the same database. When the new copy is completed, the old copy is deallocated and the &quot;sort work area&quot; becomes the new table. As a result, when a clustered index is created, there must be enough unreserved space in the database to hold a second entire copy of the table.

When a non-clustered index is created, data space in the TEMPDB database is used as the &quot;sort work area.&quot; The area in TEMPDB is released when the sort is completed.

In both cases SQL Server will NOT allocate temporary storage from free disk space.

Keywords: kbinfo kbother KB45667

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