Clustered
Clustered indexes sort and store the data rows in the table based on their key values. Because the data rows are stored in sorted order on the clustered index key, clustered indexes are efficient for finding rows. There can only be one clustered index per table, because the data rows themselves can only be sorted in one order. The data rows themselves form the lowest level of the clustered index.
The only time the data rows in a table are stored in sorted order is when the table contains a clustered index. If a table has no clustered index, its data rows are stored in a heap.
Nonclustered
Nonclustered indexes have a structure completely separate from the data rows. The lowest rows of a nonclustered index contain the nonclustered index key values and each key value entry has pointers to the data rows containing the key value. The data rows are not stored in order based on the nonclustered key.
The pointer from an index row in a nonclustered index to a data row is called a row locator. The structure of the row locator depends on whether the data pages are stored in a heap or are clustered. For a heap, a row locator is a pointer to the row. For a table with a clustered index, the row locator is the clustered index key.
The only time the rows in a table are stored in any specific sequence is when a clustered index is created on the table. The rows are then stored in sequence on the clustered index key. If a table only has nonclustered indexes, its data rows are stored in a unordered heap.
Indexes can be unique, which means no two rows can have the same value for the index key. Otherwise, the index is not unique and multiple rows can share the same key value.
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