sp_indexes (Transact-SQL)

Returns index information for the specified remote table.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

sp_indexes [ @table_server = ] 'table_server' 
     [ , [@table_name = ] 'table_name' ] 
     [ , [ @table_schema = ] 'table_schema' ] 
     [ , [ @table_catalog = ] 'table_db' ] 
     [ , [ @index_name = ] 'index_name' ] 
     [ , [ @is_unique = ] 'is_unique' ]

Arguments

• [ @table_server = ] 'table_server'
  Is the name of a linked server running SQL Server 2005 for which table information is being requested. table_server is sysname, with no default.

• [ @table_name = ] 'table_name'
  Is the name of the remote table for which to provide index information. table_name is sysname, with a default of NULL. If NULL, all tables in the specified database are returned.

• [ @table_schema = ] 'table_schema'
  Specifies the table schema. In the SQL Server environment, this corresponds to the table owner. table_schema is sysname, with a default of NULL.

• [ @table_catalog = ] 'table_db'
  Is the name of the database in which table_name resides. table_db is sysname, with a default of NULL. If NULL, table_db defaults to master.

• [ @index_name = ] 'index_name'
  Is the name of the index for which information is being requested. index is sysname, with a default of NULL.

• [ @is_unique = ] 'is_unique'
  Is the type of index for which to return information. is_unique is bit, with a default of NULL, and can be one of the following values.

  Value	Description
  1	Returns information about unique indexes.
  0	Returns information about indexes that are not unique.
  NULL	Returns information about all indexes.

Result Sets

Column name	Data type	Description
TABLE_CAT	sysname	Name of the database in which the specified table resides.
TABLE_SCHEM	sysname	Schema for the table.
TABLE_NAME	sysname	Name of the remote table.
NON_UNIQUE	smallint	Whether the index is unique or not unique: 0 = Unique 1 = Not unique
INDEX_QUALIFER	sysname	Name of the index owner. Some DBMS products allow for users other than the table owner to create indexes. In SQL Server, this column is always the same as TABLE_NAME.
INDEX_NAME	sysname	Name of the index.
TYPE	smallint	Type of index: 0 = Statistics for a table 1 = Clustered 2 = Hashed 3 = Other
ORDINAL_POSITION	int	Ordinal position of the column in the index. The first column in the index is 1. This column always returns a value.
COLUMN_NAME	sysname	Is the corresponding name of the column for each column of the TABLE_NAME returned.
ASC_OR_DESC	varchar	Is the order used in collation: A = Ascending D = Descending NULL = Not applicable SQL Server always returns A.
CARDINALITY	int	Is the number of rows in the table or unique values in the index.
PAGES	int	Is the number of pages to store the index or table.
FILTER_CONDITION	nvarchar(4000)	SQL Server does not return a value.

Permissions

Requires SELECT permission on the schema.

Examples

The following example returns all index information from the Employees table of the AdventureWorks database on the Seattle1 linked server.

EXEC sp_indexes @table_server = 'Seattle1', 
   @table_name = 'Employee', 
   @table_schema = 'HumanResources',
   @table_catalog = 'AdventureWorks'

See Also

Reference

Distributed Queries Stored Procedures (Transact-SQL)
sp_catalogs (Transact-SQL)
sp_column_privileges (Transact-SQL)
sp_foreignkeys (Transact-SQL)
sp_linkedservers (Transact-SQL)
sp_tables_ex (Transact-SQL)
sp_table_privileges (Transact-SQL)
System Stored Procedures (Transact-SQL)

Other Resources

User-Schema Separation

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance