Indexed Property in tables

Question

Can someone please clarify something for me...

What exactly is the benefit in indexing a field within a table? If it is to store info and "speed up" the db, how much faster are we talking? Otherwise im confused as to what its benefit is. Seems like it causes pains more than speed.

Thanks,

VR,

jshot

Answer 1

Hi,

You could try thinking of index similar to a table of contents or the index pages in a book. If you want to find a topic in a book, you could go through the pages one by one to find what you're looking for or consult the TOC or Index pages to quickly find the location of the topic you are interested to read.

A table index does the same function for your database. So, in a nutshell, it "speeds" up certain operations - like locating a specific record.

However, using too many index could also harm the performance of your database. So, there is a balance on how many index you need and also on which fields are good candidates for indexing.

Hope it helps (a little)...

Answer 2

Fair enough... makes perfect sense. thanks DBG.

Answer 3

Fair enough... makes perfect sense. thanks DBG.

Hi,

Here's a quick article on indexing:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Create-and-use-an-index-to-improve-performance-0A8E2AA6-735C-4C3A-9DDA-38C6C4F1A0CE

Hope it helps...