Definition of MySQL Index
MySQL INDEX can be said as a data organization in a database table that helps to progress the speed of the several operations taking place in MySQL and helps to optimize the database. We implement INDEX in MySQL to create indexes using one or multiple columns in a table database to have quick data access and make the performance better for organizing the data values in a specific proper manner.
MySQL INDEX denotes the indexing process to build the indexes on a database that provides the basis for quick casual lookups and proficient ordering to fetch the rows using indexes properly using phpMyAdmin. If we see practically, then Indexes holds the Primary key or Index field and also a pointer to every row into the actual database table. So, we can conclude that indexes are a kind of table.
How does Index Work in MySQL?
Usually, MySQL Indexes can be generated easily via phpMyAdmin in local server like WAMP, XAMPP or live server on cPanel. Most of the MySQL indexes such as UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, FULLTEXT, INDEX are warehoused in B-trees. B-tree can be defined as a self-balancing data arrangement tree that stores data in a sorted style and allows sequential access, searches, inserts, and removals on the basis of logarithmic time. It is advantageous for file systems and databases that are involved to read and write blocks of information.
In MySQL, INDEX performs the succeeding works:
- It can help to locate the indexing information very fast within a database or table.
- Here, indexing in MySQL will create an innermost catalog which is stored by the MySQL service. It uses a catalog of table rows as it can indicate within a decimal of time using the least effort.
- It works initially by sorting the data and then works to allot identification for every row in the table.
- Indexes support to examine rows corresponding a WHERE clause with particular column values very quickly so if the index is not functioning correctly, then we must use the REINDEX command to operate and rebuild the indexes of table columns to continue the access of data.
- Eliminates rows from concern if there is any choice between more than one Indexes, by selective method indexing, and thus supports the re-indexing also.
- These Indexes are put together on the top of the tables to perform executions, so INDEX in MySQL can also be termed as a table which comprises of records arrangement technique.
- Indexing also permits fetching rows from other related tables in RDBMS when performing JOINS and their queries properly.
How to Create an Index in MySQL?
We use the below simple syntax to complement MySQL INDEX in a MySQL Database table:
CREATE INDEX [Index_Name] ON [TableName] ([ColumnName of the TableName]);
Here, the given arguments are explained as below:
- Index_Name is said to be the name of the index
- TableName is the name of the particular table
- ColumnName defines the column where the indexing is to be done in the table mentioned above.
We can form a Unique Index on the table so that no two records have identical index value. The syntax is:
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX [Index_Name] ON [TableName] ([ColumnName of the TableName]);
To outlook the MySQL indexes, we use the below syntax:
SHOW INDEXES FROM TableName IN DatabaseName;
For using MySQL INDEX let us first create particular indexes on tables and explain them to know in brief about the topic. Initially, we have taken a table named Books in the database with fields BookID, BookName, Language&Price. It holds a few data as follows:
Now, the query below will discover the book whose language is English in the language column using WHERE:
SELECT BookID, BookName FROM Books WHERE Language= ‘English’;
If you want to know how MySQL performed this query internally, then we apply the EXPLAIN query to the start of the previous query as follows:
EXPLAIN SELECT BookID, BookName FROM Books WHERE Language= 'English';
Here, the server has to test the whole table containing 8 rows to execute the query.
Let us now add an index for language column by the below statement:
CREATE INDEX Language ON Books(Language);
After running the query, again use the EXPLAIN statement to view the result now.
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The result is clear, now only 4 rows are scanned using the index created and not the whole table which is indicated in the key column.
For example, let us view the index created on the table Books using the query below:
SHOW INDEXES FROM Books;
Thus, Index can make things easy to handle as there can be millions of records in a table, and without Index, the data access can be time taking process.
How to Alter Index in MySQL?
Note that we can define indexes for a table later even if the table is already created in a database with MySQL ALTER query:
We can write the index using the following four statements:
- ALTER Table TableName ADD PRIMARY KEY (ColumName);
- ALTER Table TableName ADD UNIQUE Index_Name (ColumName);
- ALTER Table TableName ADD INDEX Index_Name (ColumName);
- ALTER Table TableName ADD FULLTEXT Index_Name (ColumName);
For example,
ALTER TABLEBooks ADD INDEX book_lang (Language);
How to Delete Index in MySQL?
Again, to delete an index we apply the following SQL statement:
DROP INDEX [Index_Name] ON [TableName] ([ColumnName of the TableName]);
This command to drop an index removes the defined indexes on a given table already. Like,
DROP INDEX Book_lang ON Books;
For deleting any Index we can also use ALTER and DROP commands together as follows:
ALTER TABLE Books DROP INDEX Language;
To verify the changes to confirm whether they are applied to the tables or not, we can use the SHOW INDEXES query as above.
Conclusion
MYSQL Indexes cannot be seen by the normal users because the indexes are just applied to speed up the MySQL statements and also used the Database Search Engine to discover the table records very rapidly. The table in the database having indexes takes more time while using INSERT and UPDATE queries but it is fast when we use a SELECT query on the tables. This is because when we insert or update any record then we need to insert or update the values of the index also.
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