Index on a varchar field.Will it work faster as int field ?

Question

If we create index for a varchar column then will it work as fast as integer column does. Please also mention the index structure of the varchar value indexing.

Jignesh Trivedi · Answer

hi it depend on size of your varchar type field. if your varchar size more than 10 then big int would be the best (as per my knowledge). BigInt is 8 bytes; the VARCHAR's can be smaller if the size of the data is small so it really depends on your data. please refer http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/questions/1796/indexing-varchar-vs-bigint.html hope this will help you to understand.

Jignesh Trivedi · Answer

Hi Performance of Index on int column is faster than index on varchar column.Int uses 4 byte whereas varchar is use n byte depending on size of data inserted. please refer below link it might help you to understand this http://lostechies.com/jimmybogard/2012/07/18/troubleshooting-sql-index-performance-on-varchar-columns/ http://sqlinsights.blogspot.in/2009/03/compare-varchar-and-int-implicit-vs.html

Santosh Yadav · Answer

Thanks for your contribution. I think you are absolutely right. Actually I have bit of confusion over there and don't know the correct answer.

Santosh Yadav · Answer

I agree with you but if we compare Bigint vs varchar then what would be the best. Thanks for your reply.