统计信息
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 允许创建有关值在列中的分布情况的统计信息。该统计信息可供查询处理器用来确定最佳的查询评估策略。在创建索引时,SQL Server 会自动存储有关值在索引列中的分布情况的统计信息。SQL Server 中的查询优化器使用这些统计信息估算使用该索引进行查询的成本。另外,当 AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS 数据库选项设置为 ON(默认值)时,SQL Server 自动为没有列索引用于谓词的列创建统计信息。
Sometimes sp_helpindex tablename returns entries like: (ex. _WA_Sys_test_status_6CD31A51) in addition to the user created indices. But these are not visible in enterprise manager when we check the indices for a particular table. These aren't indexes.
It is system generated statistics over a non-indexed column. They are generated because you have the "Auto create statistics" option turned ON in the database property.(Or sp_dboption 'auto create statistics'). Generally these are harmless and its good to have them. But in case if you need to drop them use:
DROP STATISTICS '_WA_Sys_test_status_6CD31A51'.
More details can be had from the BooksOnLine topic 'Statistics'. Just to add on to the above example you can create a dummy table with say 1000 records without creating any indexexs. If you query for this table in the sysindexes table you willfind a single entry denoting it is a heap. Now access this table on some columns data as a range scan. You will find that SQL Server sees that this table doesn;t have indexes and hence would create such statistics for its internal purpose.