Column Store index scan/seek operator in SQL Server execution plan

The Columnstore Index Scan and Columnstore Index Seek operators appear in execution plans when SQL Server accesses data from a columnstore index. Columnstore indexes are optimized for analytical queries on large datasets and use a columnar storage format, which is different from traditional row-based storage.

Icon of this operator

See the example

For the demo here we are creating a table, creating column store index and inserting some records into this table.

CREATE TABLE sales              (                           saleid    INT,                           productid INT,                           saledate  DATE,                           quantity  INT,                           price     DECIMAL(10, 2)              );   DECLARE @a INT,   @b       INT; SET @a=100000; SET @b=1;   WHILE @b<=@a BEGIN   INSERT INTO sales               (                           saleid,                           productid,                           saledate,                           quantity,                           price               )   SELECT @b,          101,          '2022-01-01',          10,          100.00   SET @b=@b+1; END; -- Create a columnstore indexCREATE columnstore INDEX csix_sales ON sales (saleid, productid, saledate, quantity, price);

Inserted 100k records into this table.

Let’s run the below query.

See the execution plan