What is indexing when talking about database?

Question

Thank you so much!! ^^

Answer 1

Indexing is simply rearranging you files or information for better efficiency. If you index your files, searches are faster. If you index other information, it increases the speed of your database operations. Sync or swim!

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Answer 2

A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of operations on a database table. Indices can be created using one or more columns of a database table, providing the basis for both rapid random lookups and efficient access of ordered records.

The disk space required to store the index is typically less than that required by the table (since indices usually contain only the key-fields according to which the table is to be arranged, and excludes all the other details in the table), yielding the possibility to store indices in memory that might be too small for the entire table.

Answer 3

In layman term, indexing in database is like index pages in a book.

If you want to find some information in a book. Instead of reading chapters by chapters, you use the index pages to look for the relevent word/words and the pages that these words are located.

In short, it helps the database to locate your data faster when you query for data.