title: Why does my indexed column appear not to have statistics?
body: <p>I'm using SQL Server and I'm currently trying to debug some queries where the optimizer has chosen a poor execution plan and I noticed for one of my indexed columns that when I run the command:</p>
  
  <pre><code>DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS ("tablename", columnname);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>for this indexed column, the database returns:</p>
  
  <p><strong>Could not locate statistics 'columnname' in the system catalogs.</strong></p>
  
  <p>According to this page:
  <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190397.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190397.aspx</a></p>
  
  <p>"The query optimizer creates statistics for indexes on tables or views when the index is created."</p>
  
  <p>I also have AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS on.</p>
  
  <p>Should I have to manually have to run a CREATE STATISTICS for this column?  If so, since it's an index shouldn't it already have statistics for the column?</p>