Simple question : speeding up an ORDER BY

[StevenK]

We have a SQL Server 7.0 database with a 'Company' table. One of the fields is 'CompanyName' and we have some screens in our application that show these results in this order (i.e. SELECT * FROM Company ORDER BY CompanyName). Now that we have a fully populated table we are taking a long while to run this query.
I guess if we are able to set up an index making use of the CompanyName field then this will speed up the running of the query.
This is a simple problem - hopefully someone can let me know how to speed this query up ?
Should we create a VIEW or use an INDEX ?
Thanks for any help in advance.
Steve

 

[RickCole]

Without doubt an index.

Something like Company name is generally also a good candidate for being a clustered index as well.

Rick.