I have a table with a column that I do not want statistics to be created or updated on. I get a better join cardinality estimate if I force the query optimizer to use density of statistics on the primary key as opposed to a statistics histogram on that column. Auto-update and auto-create statistics are on at the database level and I cannot change that.

If you want to suggest alternatives to preventing statistics creation keep in mind that the table is used in a view referenced by thousands of different queries. I do not have control over the queries that are run.

My initial strategy was to create statistics on the column with the NOCOMPUTE and SAMPLE 0 ROWS options. I was under the impression that SQL Server would not automatically create statistics on a column that already has a statistics object, but this has happened on our dev and QA servers.

New statistics were created for COL_GROUP. My NORECOMPUTE statistic was not updated. I don't know why the statistics were created and I've been unable to trigger that myself by running queries.

Is there a way to prevent SQL Server from automatically creating statistics on one column? My table only has two columns so a solution that prevents auto-stats from being created on a single table would also solve my problem.

Trace flags 4139 and 2371 are on in case it makes a difference.

If you want to play around with the table structure I've included it and sample data below:

CREATE TABLE X_NO_COLUMN_STATS(
    [COL_USER] [varchar](256) NOT NULL,
    [COL_GROUP] [int] NOT NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_X_NO_COLUMN_STATS] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [COL_USER] ASC,
    [COL_GROUP] ASC
)WITH (DATA_COMPRESSION = PAGE)
);

-- prevent stats from being updated on COL_GROUP
CREATE STATISTICS [X_NO_COLUMN_STATS__COL_GROUP] ON X_NO_COLUMN_STATS ([COL_GROUP]) WITH NORECOMPUTE, SAMPLE 0 ROWS;

BEGIN TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',104);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',106);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',107);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',108);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',110);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',111);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',112);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',113);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',114);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',116);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',117);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',118);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',121);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',123);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',124);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',125);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',126);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',129);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',132);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',137);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',139);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',140);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',144);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',145);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',147);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',152);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',153);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',154);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',155);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',162);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',163);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',165);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',168);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',169);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',170);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('CUSER1',178);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',102);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',103);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',109);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',110);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',111);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',112);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',114);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',115);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',119);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',120);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',121);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',123);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',124);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',126);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',128);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',136);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',137);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',138);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',142);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',143);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',148);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',151);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',152);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',155);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',156);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',157);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',158);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',165);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',167);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',168);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',169);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',171);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',173);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',176);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',177);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('OUSER19',178);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',104);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',108);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',109);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',111);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',112);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',113);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',114);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',116);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',117);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',118);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',121);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',123);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',124);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',125);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',126);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',129);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',132);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',137);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',139);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',140);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',144);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',145);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',147);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',152);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',154);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',155);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',162);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',163);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',165);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',168);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',169);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',170);
INSERT INTO X_NO_COLUMN_STATS VALUES ('TUSER30',178);
COMMIT TRANSACTION;

I know about sp_autostats but I need something to prevent the creation of automatic statistics. sp_autostats only prevents the statistics from being auto-updated.