Database Indexing Strategies - Part 2

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In this article, we continue the exploration of effective database indexing strategies that we kicked off in the July 6 issue. We’ll discuss how indexing is used in non-relational databases and round off our discussion on general database indexing strategies with practical use cases and best practices.

Indexing in Non-relational Databases

In the July 6 issue, we focused on indexing use cases for relational databases where records are stored as individual rows. There are other popular types of databases where some forms of indexing are also used. We will briefly discuss how indexing is used in the other common form of databases - NoSQL.

NoSQL, LSM Tree, and Indexing

NoSQL databases are a broad class of database systems, designed for flexibility, scalability, and the ability to handle large volumes of structured and unstructured data. A popular data structure used in some types of NoSQL databases, notably key-value and wide-column stores, is the Log-Structured Merge-tree (LSM Tree). Unlike traditional B-Tree-based index structures, LSM Trees are optimized for write-intensive workloads, making them ideal for applications where the rate of data ingestion is high.

An LSM Tree is, in itself, a type of index. It maintains data in separate structures, each of which is a sorted tree-based index. The smaller structure resides in memory (known as a MemTable), while the larger one is stored on disk (called SSTables). Write operations are first made in the MemTable. When the MemTable reaches a certain size, its content is flushed to disk as an SSTable. The real magic of LSM Trees comes into play during read operations. While the read path is more complex due to data being spread across different structures, the LSM Tree employs techniques such as Bloom Filters and Partition Indexes to locate the required data rapidly.

Secondary Index for LSM Tree-based Databases

The LSM tree is an efficient way to perform point lookups and range queries on primary keys. However, performing a query on a non-primary key requires a full table scan which is inefficient.

This is where a secondary index is useful. A secondary index, as the name suggests, is an index that is created on a field other than the primary key field. Unlike the primary index where data is indexed based on the key, in a secondary index, data is indexed based on non-key attributes. It provides an alternative path for the database system to access the data, allowing for more efficient processing of queries that do not involve the key.

Creating a secondary index in an LSM Tree-based database involves creating a new LSM Tree, where the keys are the values of the field on which the index is created, and the values are the primary keys of the corresponding records. When a query is executed that involves the indexed field, the database uses the secondary index to rapidly locate the primary keys of the relevant records, and then retrieves the full records from the primary index.

However, one of the complexities of secondary indexes in LSM Tree-based databases is handling updates. Due to the write-optimized nature of LSM Trees, data in these databases is typically immutable, which means updates are handled as a combination of a write (for the new version of a record) and a delete (for the old version). To maintain consistency, both the primary data store and the secondary index need to be updated simultaneously. This can lead to performance trade-offs and increase the complexity of maintaining index consistency.

Index Use Cases

Now that we discussed how indexes are used in different types of database systems, let’s now turn our attention to some of the common indexing use cases.

Point Lookup

The simplest use case for an index is to speed up searches on a specific attribute or key. Let's consider an example: a car dealership has a table with columns 'car_id' and 'color'. 'Car_id' is the primary key and thus has an inherent clustered index. If we need to find a car by its 'car_id', the database can quickly locate the information.

However, what if we need to find all cars of a certain color? Without an index on the 'color' column, the database would have to scan every row in the table. This is a time-consuming process for a large table. Creating a non-clustered index on the 'color' column allows the database to efficiently retrieve all cars of a particular color, transforming what was a full table scan into a much faster index scan.

Range Lookup

Indexes can also be used to efficiently retrieve a range of values. Consider a blog platform where 'post_id' is the primary key and 'created_time' is another attribute. Without an index, to find the 20 most recent posts, the database would need to scan all records and sort them by 'created_time'.

However, if 'created_time' is indexed, the database can use this index to quickly identify the most recent posts. This is because the index on 'created_time' stores post_id values in the order they were created, allowing the database to efficiently find the most recent entries without having to scan the entire table.

Prefix Search

Indexes are also useful for prefix searches, thanks to their sorted nature. Imagine a scenario where a search engine keeps a table of previously searched terms and their corresponding popularity scores.

When a user starts typing a search term, the engine wants to suggest the most popular terms that start with the given prefix. A B-tree index on the search terms allows the engine to efficiently find all terms with the given prefix. Once these terms are found, they can be sorted by popularity score to provide the most relevant suggestions.

In this scenario, a prefix search can be further optimized by using a trie or a prefix tree, a special kind of tree where each node represents a prefix of some string.

Geo-Location Lookup

Geohashes are a form of spatial index that divides the Earth into a grid. Each cell in the grid is assigned a unique hash, and points within the same cell share the same hash prefix. This makes geohashes perfect for querying locations within a certain proximity.

To find all the points within a certain radius of a location, we only need to search for points that share a geohash prefix with the target location. This is a lot faster than calculating the distance to every point in the database...

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