sys.index_columns (Transact-SQL)

Contains one row per column that is part of a sys.indexes index or unordered table (heap).

Column name	Data type	Description
object_id	int	ID of the object the index is defined on.
index_id	int	ID of the index in which the column is defined.
index_column_id	int	ID of the index column. index_column_id is unique only within index_id.
column_id	int	ID of the column in object_id. 0 = Row Identifier (RID) in a nonclustered index. column_id is unique only within object_id.
key_ordinal	tinyint	Ordinal (1-based) within set of key-columns. 0 = Not a key column, or is an XML index. Columns of type xml are not comparable, so an XML index does not induce an ordering on the underlying column values. Since an XML index is, therefore not a key, the key_ordinal value will always be 0.
partition_ordinal	tinyint	Ordinal (1-based) within set of partitioning columns. 0 = Not a partitioning column.
is_descending_key	bit	1 = Index key column has a descending sort direction. 0 = Index key column has an ascending sort direction.
is_included_column	bit	1 = Column is a nonkey column added to the index by using the CREATE INDEX INCLUDE clause. 0 = Column is not an included column.

See Also