Listing all indexes - sql-server

Question

I'm wondering what the simplest way to list all indexes for all tables in a database is.
Should I call sp_helpindex for each table and store the results in a temp table, or is there an easier way?
Can anyone explain why constraints are stored in sysobjects but indexes are not?

Answer 1

Here's an example of the kind of query you need:
select
i.name as IndexName,
o.name as TableName,
ic.key_ordinal as ColumnOrder,
ic.is_included_column as IsIncluded,
co.[name] as ColumnName
from sys.indexes i
join sys.objects o on i.object_id = o.object_id
join sys.index_columns ic on ic.object_id = i.object_id
and ic.index_id = i.index_id
join sys.columns co on co.object_id = i.object_id
and co.column_id = ic.column_id
where i.[type] = 2
and i.is_unique = 0
and i.is_primary_key = 0
and o.[type] = 'U'
--and ic.is_included_column = 0
order by o.[name], i.[name], ic.is_included_column, ic.key_ordinal
;
This one is somewhat specific to a certain purpose (I use it in a little C# app to find duplicate indexes and format the output so it's actually readable by a human). But you could easily adapt it to your needs.

Answer 2

You could reference sysindexes
Another trick is to look at the text of sp_helpindex to see how it reconstructs information from the underlying tables.
sp_helptext 'sp_helpindex'
I don't have a reference for this, but I believe constraints are not stored in sysobjects because they are a different kind of thing; sysindexes contains meta-data about objects in sysobjects.

Answer 3

If you need more information, here is a nice SQL script, which I use from time to time:
DECLARE #TabName varchar(100)
CREATE TABLE #temp (
TabName varchar(200), IndexName varchar(200), IndexDescr varchar(200),
IndexKeys varchar(200), IndexSize int
)
DECLARE cur CURSOR FAST_FORWARD LOCAL FOR
SELECT name FROM sysobjects WHERE xtype = 'U'
OPEN cur
FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO #TabName
WHILE ##FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN
INSERT INTO #temp (IndexName, IndexDescr, IndexKeys)
EXEC sp_helpindex #TabName
UPDATE #temp SET TabName = #TabName WHERE TabName IS NULL
FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO #TabName
END
CLOSE cur
DEALLOCATE cur
DECLARE #ValueCoef int
SELECT #ValueCoef = low FROM Master.dbo.spt_values WHERE number = 1 AND type = N'E'
UPDATE #temp SET IndexSize =
((CAST(sysindexes.used AS bigint) * #ValueCoef)/1024)/1024
FROM sysobjects INNER JOIN sysindexes ON sysobjects.id = sysindexes.id
INNER JOIN #temp T ON T.TabName = sysobjects.name AND T.IndexName = sysindexes.name
SELECT * FROM #temp
ORDER BY TabName, IndexName
DROP TABLE #temp

Answer 4

Here is a script that will return SQL statements to recreate all the indexes in a database.
SELECT ' CREATE ' +
CASE
WHEN I.is_unique = 1 THEN ' UNIQUE '
ELSE ''
END +
I.type_desc COLLATE DATABASE_DEFAULT + ' INDEX ' +
I.name + ' ON ' +
SCHEMA_NAME(T.schema_id) + '.' + T.name + ' ( ' +
KeyColumns + ' ) ' +
ISNULL(' INCLUDE (' + IncludedColumns + ' ) ', '') +
ISNULL(' WHERE ' + I.filter_definition, '') + ' WITH ( ' +
CASE
WHEN I.is_padded = 1 THEN ' PAD_INDEX = ON '
ELSE ' PAD_INDEX = OFF '
END + ',' +
'FILLFACTOR = ' + CONVERT(
CHAR(5),
CASE
WHEN I.fill_factor = 0 THEN 100
ELSE I.fill_factor
END
) + ',' +
-- default value
'SORT_IN_TEMPDB = OFF ' + ',' +
CASE
WHEN I.ignore_dup_key = 1 THEN ' IGNORE_DUP_KEY = ON '
ELSE ' IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF '
END + ',' +
CASE
WHEN ST.no_recompute = 0 THEN ' STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF '
ELSE ' STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = ON '
END + ',' +
' ONLINE = OFF ' + ',' +
CASE
WHEN I.allow_row_locks = 1 THEN ' ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON '
ELSE ' ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = OFF '
END + ',' +
CASE
WHEN I.allow_page_locks = 1 THEN ' ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON '
ELSE ' ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = OFF '
END + ' ) ON [' +
DS.name + ' ] ' + CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) + ' GO' [CreateIndexScript]
FROM sys.indexes I
JOIN sys.tables T
ON T.object_id = I.object_id
JOIN sys.sysindexes SI
ON I.object_id = SI.id
AND I.index_id = SI.indid
JOIN (
SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT IC2.object_id,
IC2.index_id,
STUFF(
(
SELECT ' , ' + C.name + CASE
WHEN MAX(CONVERT(INT, IC1.is_descending_key))
= 1 THEN
' DESC '
ELSE
' ASC '
END
FROM sys.index_columns IC1
JOIN sys.columns C
ON C.object_id = IC1.object_id
AND C.column_id = IC1.column_id
AND IC1.is_included_column =
0
WHERE IC1.object_id = IC2.object_id
AND IC1.index_id = IC2.index_id
GROUP BY
IC1.object_id,
C.name,
index_id
ORDER BY
MAX(IC1.key_ordinal)
FOR XML PATH('')
),
1,
2,
''
) KeyColumns
FROM sys.index_columns IC2
--WHERE IC2.Object_id = object_id('Person.Address') --Comment for all tables
GROUP BY
IC2.object_id,
IC2.index_id
) tmp3
)tmp4
ON I.object_id = tmp4.object_id
AND I.Index_id = tmp4.index_id
JOIN sys.stats ST
ON ST.object_id = I.object_id
AND ST.stats_id = I.index_id
JOIN sys.data_spaces DS
ON I.data_space_id = DS.data_space_id
JOIN sys.filegroups FG
ON I.data_space_id = FG.data_space_id
LEFT JOIN (
SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT IC2.object_id,
IC2.index_id,
STUFF(
(
SELECT ' , ' + C.name
FROM sys.index_columns IC1
JOIN sys.columns C
ON C.object_id = IC1.object_id
AND C.column_id = IC1.column_id
AND IC1.is_included_column =
1
WHERE IC1.object_id = IC2.object_id
AND IC1.index_id = IC2.index_id
GROUP BY
IC1.object_id,
C.name,
index_id
FOR XML PATH('')
),
1,
2,
''
) IncludedColumns
FROM sys.index_columns IC2
--WHERE IC2.Object_id = object_id('Person.Address') --Comment for all tables
GROUP BY
IC2.object_id,
IC2.index_id
) tmp1
WHERE IncludedColumns IS NOT NULL
) tmp2
ON tmp2.object_id = I.object_id
AND tmp2.index_id = I.index_id
WHERE I.is_primary_key = 0
AND I.is_unique_constraint = 0
--AND T.name NOT LIKE 'mt_%'
--AND I.name NOT LIKE 'mt_%'
--AND I.Object_id = object_id('Person.Address') --Comment for all tables
--AND I.name = 'IX_Address_PostalCode' --comment for all indexes

Answer 5

I do not have a clear explanation why indexes are not stored in sys.objects. But I would like to contribute to find a simple way to list all indexes for all tables and views in a database. The following query retrieves all indexes including their type and also their object id and object type.
use /*Enter here your database*/
go
select A.Object_id,B.name,B.type,B.type_desc, A.index_id,A.type,A.type_desc
from sys.indexes A left join sys.objects B on A.object_id=B.object_id
where B.type = 'U' or B.type='V' /*filtering on U or V to retrieve tables and views only*/
order by B.name ASC /*Optional sorting*/

Answer 6

I've written this code to iterate through all the databases in your server and push it to a table in a database named Maintenance. You should create this database first and then create a table in that database with the following fields:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[DBCC_Stats](
[ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
[DatabaseName] [varchar](50) NULL,
[SchemaName] [nvarchar](128) NULL,
[TableName] [sysname] NOT NULL,
[StatName] [nvarchar](128) NULL,
[modification_counter] [bigint] NULL,
[rows] [bigint] NULL,
[rows_sampled] [bigint] NULL,
[% Rows Sampled] [bigint] NULL,
[last_updated] [datetime2](7) NULL,
[DateEntered] [datetime] NULL,
CONSTRAINT [PK_DBCC_Stats] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
[ID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[DBCC_Stats] ADD CONSTRAINT [DF_DBCC_Stats_DateEntered] DEFAULT (getdate()) FOR [DateEntered]
To use the stored procedure below you'd pass in the server name.
usp_Execute_Stats '[YourServerName]'
`CREATE PROCEDURE usp_Execute_Stats
#ServerName varchar(100)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE #strSQL varchar(max)
SET #strSQL='USE ?
SELECT ''' + '?' + ''' AS DatabaseName,OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(obj.object_id) SchemaName, obj.name TableName,
stat.name StatName, modification_counter,
[rows], rows_sampled, rows_sampled* 100 / [rows] AS [% Rows Sampled],
last_updated
FROM ' + #ServerName + '.' + '?' + '.sys.objects AS obj
INNER JOIN ' + #ServerName + '.' + '?' + '.sys.stats AS stat ON stat.object_id = obj.object_id
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_db_stats_properties(stat.object_id, stat.stats_id) AS sp
WHERE obj.is_ms_shipped = 0
ORDER BY modification_counter DESC'
INSERT INTO Maintenance.dbo.vwDBCC_Stats
EXEC sp_MSforeachdb #strSQL
--Delete older logs
DELETE Maintenance.dbo.DBCC_Stats
--WHERE DatabaseName IN('Master','Model','MSDB','TempDB')
WHERE [DateEntered] < getdate()-14
END`