Previous Section  < Day Day Up >  Next Section

Chapter 4. Indexes

Indexes allow MySQL to quickly find and retrieve a set of records from the millions or even billions that a table may contain. If you've been using MySQL for any length of time, you've probably created indexes in the hopes of getting lighting-quick answers to your queries. And you've probably been surprised to find that MySQL didn't always use the index you thought it would.

For many users, indexes are something of a black art. Sometimes they work wonders, and other times they seem just to slow down inserts and get in the way. And then there are the times when they work fine for a while, then begin to slowly degrade.

In this chapter, we'll begin by looking at some of the concepts behind indexing and the various types of indexes MySQL provides. From there, we'll cover some of the specifics in MySQL's implementation of indexes. The chapter concludes with recommendations for selecting columns to index and the longer term care and feeding of your indexes.

    Previous Section  < Day Day Up >  Next Section