Indexes

Indexes are a feature of databases, a feature which greatly speeds data retrieval. In return there is a small cost in the time it takes to change table content, and cost in disk space used. Databases generally require indexes to perform efficently. It is a good idea to index the tables each user has in their personal schema.

There is no documentation on the indexes used in Babase. In general, there is an index for each way the tables are commonly referenced. For example, if records are often looked up on the basis of date, there will be an index on the date. As a practical guide, there is an index on each of the columns at the endpoint of a relational line in the above entity-relationship diagrams, as well as an index on every date column with the exception of the CYCPOINTS table's Edate and Ldate columns. Almost all indexes are b-tree indexes.


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