Indexes in SQL are special data structures designed to optimize the speed of data retrieval operations from database tables.
There are two types of indexes in SQL: clustered index and non-clustered index.
A clustered index determines the physical order of data in a table, while a non-clustered index creates a separate structure with pointers to the physical data.
Clustered indexes are efficient for range queries and faster retrieval for queries filtering on the clustered index column, while non-clustered indexes improve performance for queries on non-primary key columns.