Estimate Full-Text Index Size

Question

Is there a way to estimate the size of a full-text index in SQL Server 2008? Obviously it depends on the amount of data being indexed. For example, if I have one column (of type varchar(50)) in the full-text index, and I have 10,000 rows, what will the size of the full-text index be?

The reason I'm wondering is because, with the limited database size on shared web hosts, I want to make sure that a full-text index won't eat up all my space.

I've spent a lot of time searching for the answer, and haven't found it, so I'd very much appreciate any help.

Answer 1

Create an index and see how big it is in relation to the underlying data.

If you really want to avoid just creating an index, put a subset of your data into a test table and create an index on that:

select top 10 percent *
into dbo.testtable
from T
order by newid()

This query is expensive.