Indexing in DBMS

Indexing in DBMS is a technique that uses data structures to optimize the

searching time of a database query. It helps in faster query results and quick
data retrieval from the database. Indexing makes database performance
better. It also consumes lesser space in the main memory.

o The index is a type of data structure. It is used to locate and access the data in a
database table quickly.

Index structure:
Indexes can be created using some database columns.

o The first column of the database is the search key that contains a copy of the primary
key or candidate key of the table. The values of the primary key are stored in sorted
order so that the corresponding data can be accessed easily.
o The second column of the database is the data reference. It contains a set of pointers
holding the address of the disk block where the value of the particular key can be
found.
Indexing Methods

Ordered indices
The indices are usually sorted to make searching faster. The indices which are
sorted are known as ordered indices.

Example: Suppose we have an employee table with thousands of record and

each of which is 10 bytes long. If their IDs start with 1, 2, 3....and so on and we
have to search student with ID-543.

o In the case of a database with no index, we have to search the disk block from starting
till it reaches 543. The DBMS will read the record after reading 543*10=5430 bytes.
o In the case of an index, we will search using indexes and the DBMS will read the record
after reading 542*2= 1084 bytes which are very less compared to the previous case.

Primary Index

o If the index is created on the basis of the primary key of the table, then it is known as
primary indexing. These primary keys are unique to each record and contain 1:1
relation between the records.
o As primary keys are stored in sorted order, the performance of the searching
operation is quite efficient.
 o The primary index can be classified into two types:

1. Dense index.
2. Sparse index.

Dense index

o The dense index contains an index record for every search key value in the data file. It
makes searching faster.
o In this, the number of records in the index table is same as the number of records in
the main table.
o It needs more space to store index record itself. The index records have the search key
and a pointer to the actual record on the disk.

Sparse index

o In the data file, index record appears only for a few items. Each item points to a block.
o In this, instead of pointing to each record in the main table, the index points to the
records in the main table in a gap.
Clustering Index
o A clustered index can be defined as an ordered data file. Sometimes the index is
created on non-primary key columns which may not be unique for each record.
o In this case, to identify the record faster, we will group two or more columns to get
the unique value and create index out of them. This method is called a clustering
index.
o The records which have similar characteristics are grouped, and indexes are created
for these group.

Example: suppose a company contains several employees in each department. Suppose we

use a clustering index, where all employees which belong to the same Dept_ID are considered
within a single cluster, and index pointers point to the cluster as a whole. Here Dept_Id is a
non-unique key.
The previous schema is little confusing because one disk block is shared by records which
belong to the different cluster. If we use separate disk block for separate clusters, then it is
called better technique.

Secondary Index
In the sparse indexing, as the size of the table grows, the size of mapping also grows. These
mappings are usually kept in the primary memory so that address fetch should be faster. Then
the secondary memory searches the actual data based on the address got from mapping. If
the mapping size grows then fetching the address itself becomes slower. In this case, the
sparse index will not be efficient. To overcome this problem, secondary indexing is
introduced.

In secondary indexing, to reduce the size of mapping, another level of indexing is introduced.
In this method, the huge range for the columns is selected initially so that the mapping size
of the first level becomes small. Then each range is further divided into smaller ranges. The
mapping of the first level is stored in the primary memory, so that address fetch is faster. The
mapping of the second level and actual data are stored in the secondary memory (hard disk).
For example:

o If you want to find the record of roll 111 in the diagram, then it will search the highest
entry which is smaller than or equal to 111 in the first level index. It will get 100 at this
level.
o Then in the second index level, again it does max (111) <= 111 and gets 110. Now using
the address 110, it goes to the data block and starts searching each record till it gets
111.
o This is how a search is performed in this method. Inserting, updating or deleting is also
done in the same manner.

Advantages of Indexing
 Indexing helps in faster query results or quick data retrieval.
 Indexing helps in faster sorting and grouping of records
 Some Indexing uses sorted and unique keys which helps to retrieve sorted queries
even faster.
 Index tables are smaller in size so require lesser memory.
 As Index tables are smaller in size, they are stored in the main memory.
  Since CPU speed and secondary memory speed have a large difference, the CPU uses
this main memory index table to bridge the gap of speeds.
 Indexing helps in better CPU utilization and better performance.

Conclusion
 Indexing is a technique that uses data structures to optimize the searching time of a
database query.
 Index table contains two columns namely Search Key and Data Pointer or Reference.
 There are three types of indexing namely Ordered, Single-level, and multi-level.
 Single Level Indexing is divided into three types namely Primary (index table is
created using primary keys), Secondary (index table is created using candidate keys),
and Clustered (index table is created using non-key values).
 Ordered Indexing is divided into two types namely dense (index table contains
records for every search key value of the database) and sparse (do not include
search key for every record).
 Multi-level Indexing uses B+ Trees to store data pointers.
 Indexing helps in faster data retrieval and better performance.