Last month, I described how to use the new SQL Server 2005 sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats() function to detect fragmentation. This month, I'll tell you how SQL Server can most efficiently remove that fragmentation.

Keep in mind that fragmentation isn't always a bad thing.The biggest performance penalty from having fragmented data arises when an application needs to perform an ordered scan on that data.The more the logical order differs from the physical order, the greater the cost of scanni...