Is there any rule to decide what columns should be put in Included in non clustered index and in which order ~ NEW TECH

Why use the INCLUDE clause when creating an index? Is there any rule to decide what columns should be put in Included in non clustered index and in which order.

I got that for the following query :

SELECT PrimaryInformation_Id, Company_Id, LastName
FROM Employee_PrimaryInformation
WHERE Company_Id = 5

I am suggested to make index like this:

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX NC_EmpPrim
ON Employee_PrimaryInformation(PrimaryInformation_Id, Company_Id)
INCLUDE (LastName)

Yes, i know. what you think why can't we make index like this'

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX NC_EmpPrim
ON Employee_PrimaryInformation(PrimaryInformation_Id, Company_Id, LastName)

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX NC_EmpPrim
ON Employee_PrimaryInformation(Company_Id, LastName)
INCLUDE (PrimaryInformation_Id)

For your example I've added a comment.'

CREATE INDEX <name> ON <table> (KeyColList) INCLUDE (NonKeyColList)

Where:

KeyColList = Key columns = used for row restriction and processing
WHERE, JOIN, ORDER BY, GROUP BY etc
NonKeyColList = Non-key columns = used in SELECT and aggregation (e.g. SUM(col)) after selection/restriction

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