An Introduction to SQL Indexes

In relational database systems, a database index is an extremely powerful tool for data retrieval. In this guide, you learn about unique indexes, primary keys, and composite primary keys.

What is a Database Index?

A Database Index is a data structure object associated with a database table. It is used to increase the speed of database queries (via the SQL SELECT command). In general, there are well-defined methods for deciding the types of indexes to create. This is largely governed by how tables in a database relate to one another and how data is retrieved.

Why Use Indexes?

In general, queries (or lookups) in a table via the SQL SELECT command are sequential. Sequential lookup requires starting at the top of the table and reading every row of data until the desired data is retrieved. This is extremely inefficient and can be an expensive operation in terms of speed.

Indexes, on the other hand, utilize a hash function to compute an index value. It provides direct access to the affected row (key) in the index. Once that row (key) is located in the index, the index record has a pointer directly to the table row that is required in the query. These pointers are established during index creation and index maintenance. The speed of data retrieval when using indexes is increased by orders of magnitude.

The Anatomy of a Unique Database Index

A database table can have one or more associated indexes. Indexes themselves hold row (key) values from one or more columns in a table. It also has a pointer that points to actual table rows containing these key values. The number of rows pointed to by a given key in an index is dependent on whether the index is a unique index or a non-unique index.

As the name implies, a unique index contains keys that point to only one data row in a given table. Unique indexes ensure that each row in the table contains unique values in the defined indexed table columns. Effectively, no two rows can have identical values in the indexed columns. Moreover, unique indexes are created on columns that are designated as a primary key for the table. Primary keys are defined as one or more columns that uniquely define a row in a database table.

The examples below demonstrate how primary keys and unique indexes are used in SQL. All the examples use a table named Student, in an example database named exampledb. To add the example data use the following command:

INSERT INTO Student(SSNumber, LastName, FirstName)
  VALUES
(111111111, Smith, John),
(222222222, Jones, Mary),
(333333333, Hansen, Robert);

View the data stored in the Student table:

SELECT * FROM Student;

You should see the following output:

+-----------+----------+-----------+
| SSNumber  | LastName | FirstName |
+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 111111111 | Smith    | John      |
| 222222222 | Jones    | Mary      |
| 333333333 | Hansen   | Robert    |
+-----------+----------+-----------+

Note

Unless mentioned otherwise, all the commands in this guide work well on both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

Single Column Primary Key and Index

As an example, assume that a school keeps track of its students in a table named Student. This table has associated columns named Student, SSNumber, LastName, and FirstName. From these columns, Student is the primary key column as it uniquely identifies each row of data in the Student table. Create a unique index (SSIndex) on the SSNumber column, to facilitate rapid retrieval of data from the table. The following SQL DDL command is used to perform this query:

CREATE TABLE Student ( SSNumber CHAR(9) NOT NULL, LastName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL, FirstName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (SSNumber) );

CREATE UNIQUE INDEX SSIndex ON Student (SSNumber);

Note

Both the SQL commands above are delimited by a semicolon (;), which is compatible with most relational database systems. SSNumber is specifically designated as the table’s primary key.

SSIndex only contains information that uniquely identifies data in each row of the Student table. Each row of SSIndex has a pointer to its corresponding row in the Student table. This SSIndex index allows you to avoid a sequential search of data in the table that improves performance by minimizing the time needed for the query.

To find the associated information for Robert Hansen via their SSNumber, use the SQL command included below. The command not only eliminates the sequential search of Student table but also uses the SSIndex to provide direct access to the requisite data row. This is by virtue of using a hashing function and associated index pointer.

SELECT * FROM Student WHERE SSNumber = 333333333;

The data returned should be the following:

+-----------+----------+-----------+
| SSNumber  | LastName | FirstName |
+-----------+----------+-----------+
| 333333333 | Hansen   | Robert    |
+-----------+----------+-----------+

Multi-Column Composite Primary Key and Index

This section’s examples use three tables that store data related to a tennis league. The three tables are named Player, League, and Membership. A player can play in multiple leagues, and the membership table provides that association. The three tables have the following columns associated with them:

The columns of the Player table are displayed below with PlayedID as the primary key.

+----------+-----------+-----------+
| PlayedID | LastName  | FirstName |
+----------+-----------+-----------+

The columns of the League table are displayed below with LeagueId as the primary key.

+----------+------------+------------+
| LeagueId | LeagueName | SkillLevel |
+----------+------------+------------+

The columns of the Membership table are displayed below

+----------+-----------+
| PlayedID | LeagueId  |
+----------+-----------+

The steps below show you how to create the Player, League, and Membership tables.

1. From the Player table, the PlayedID column uniquely identifies each row of data. Create the Player table followed by a unique index on the PlayerId column.

    CREATE TABLE Player (
      PlayedID INT NOT NULL,
      LastName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
      FirstName VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
      PRIMARY KEY (PlayedID)
    );
   
    CREATE UNIQUE INDEX PlayerIndex ON Player (PlayedID);
   

2. From the League table, the LeagueId column uniquely identifies each row of data. Create the League table followed by a unique index on the LeagueId column. Following is the SQL command to perform this operation:

    CREATE TABLE League (
      LeagueId INT NOT NULL,
      LeagueName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
      SkilLevel VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
      PRIMARY KEY (LeagueId)
    );
   
    CREATE UNIQUE INDEX LeagueIndex ON League (LeagueId);
   

3. From the Membership table, both the PlayedID and LeagueId columns uniquely identify each row of data; which is the composite primary key. Create the Membership table followed by a unique composite index on the PlayedID and LeagueId columns.

    CREATE TABLE Membership (
      PlayerId INT NOT NULL,
      LeagueId INT NOT NULL,
      PRIMARY KEY(PlayerId, LeagueId)
    );
   
    CREATE UNIQUE INDEX MembershipIndex ON Membership (PlayerId, LeagueId);
   

The MembershipIndex is a hash-generated index consisting of the Composite Key(PlayedId and LeagueId). It has pointers to the data rows that it represents. The use of such an index facilitates rapid, direct-access data retrieval, as opposed to linear sequential data retrieval. For example, to determine all the players associated with “Men’s Doubles” from several records in each of the tables above, you can issue the following SQL command:

SELECT Player.LastName, Player.Firstname
FROM Player, Membership
WHERE Membership.LeagueId = 2
AND Membership.PlayerId = Player.PlayerId

The following data is returned:

+----------+-----------+
| LastName | FirstName |
+----------+-----------+
| Smith    | John      |
| Hansen   | Robert    |
+-----------+----------+

Without the use of the MembershipIndex and PlayerIndex, the query above would execute significantly slower.

Non-Unique Indexes

A non-unique index contains entries that may point to one or more rows for any given key values. For example, to search by a person’s name, it is necessary to create a non-unique composite index on a table for both FirstName and LastName. Since the combination of FirstName and LastName cannot be guaranteed to be unique, the resulting index created on those two columns effectively generates a non-unique index.

Database Performance Degradation Issue Using Indexes

While indexes assist query execution speed, they need to be updated whenever indexed columns change or when table rows are added or deleted from the database. This can be detrimental to the database’s performance. It’s important to keep in mind the amount of inserting, deleting, and modification required of your indexes during transactional database usage. Consider what is important for you in the database application; the speed of query execution or the speed of data manipulation. The answer to that question lies in how the database application is used, how often it impacts the design of the database, and the number of indexes created.

Conclusion

Creating and using database indexes generates rapid query retrieval responses and eliminates sequential row lookups from tables. However, index maintenance through data manipulation can have detrimental performance impacts on a database. Database designers need to be aware of the trade-offs involved when using database indexes and keep in mind optimization for overall database performance.