Hello,

When you create a clustered index on a table, any data lookup will go all the way through the B-Tree from the root to the leaf-level node which in this case would be the actual data.

In the case of a non-clustered index on a heap, the process is much the same way, except that the leaf-level nodes will give you a reference (RID) to the data page.

Now, when you create a non-clustered index on a clustered table, my undersatnding is that the process will change in that any lookup will be made first through the non-clustered B-Tree which will give you the CLUSTERED key to perform another lookup through the clustered B-Tree in which you'll finally get to the data page that you are looking for.

My question for you guys is: is there any way to change that behavior in a way that we could force the non-clustered index on a clustered table work just as the non-clustered index on a heap? (I mean, to get the RID from the leaf-level node of the non-clustered B-Tree instead of the clustered key)

Thanks in advance for your help.