How to: Delete Indexes

Indexes can slow INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE performance. If you find that an index hinders overall performance or you no longer need it, you can delete it.

Note

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.

To delete an index

  1. In Server Explorer, select the database table with indexes you want to delete.

  2. From the Database menu, click Open Table Definition.

  3. From the Table Designer menu, click Indexes/Keys.

  4. In the Indexes/Keys dialog box, select the index you want to delete.

  5. Click Delete.

    The index is deleted from the database when you save your table.

    Note

    If you delete an index in Table Designer but you do not want to delete it from the database you can close the table without saving changes. This will also discard all other changes made since the table was last saved.

See Also

Reference

Indexes/Keys Dialog Box

Other Resources

Working with Indexes

Working with Keys