database-indexing-strategy

Database Indexing Strategy

Table of Contents

• Overview
• When to Use
• Quick Start
• Reference Guides
• Best Practices

Overview

Design comprehensive indexing strategies to improve query performance, reduce lock contention, and maintain data integrity. Covers index types, design patterns, and maintenance procedures.

When to Use

• Index creation and planning
• Query performance optimization through indexing
• Index type selection (B-tree, Hash, GiST, BRIN)
• Composite and partial index design
• Index maintenance and monitoring
• Storage optimization with indexes
• Full-text search index design

Quick Start

B-tree Indexes (Default):

-- Standard equality and range queries
CREATE INDEX idx_users_email ON users(email);
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_created_at ON orders(created_at DESC);

-- Composite indexes for multi-column queries
CREATE INDEX idx_orders_user_status
ON orders(user_id, status)
WHERE cancelled_at IS NULL;

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide	Contents
PostgreSQL Index Types	PostgreSQL Index Types
MySQL Index Types	MySQL Index Types
Single Column Indexes	Single Column Indexes, Composite Indexes, Partial/Filtered Indexes, Expression Indexes

Best Practices

✅ DO

• Follow established patterns and conventions
• Write clean, maintainable code
• Add appropriate documentation
• Test thoroughly before deploying

❌ DON'T

• Skip testing or validation
• Ignore error handling
• Hard-code configuration values