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4
Selecting Indexes
Give no decision till both sides thou’st heard.
—Phocylides (6th century
B.C.)
he B+tree, as we described in detail in Chapter 2, has evolved to become the most
popular indexing method for relational databases, replacing many other methods
used in the past. However, the task of index selection for a database is still a complex one,
walking the fine line between art and science. Decisions still must be made re-garding
which keys and non-key attributes to index, equality vs. range queries, composite indexes
with many keys, and index main-tenance. This chapter helps clarify these decisions.
4.1 Indexing Concepts and Terminology
Indexes are one of the primary tools used in database management systems (DBMSs) to
deliver high performance ...