If the concept of function-based indexing is new to you, you might be tempted to just index everything, but this is in fact the very last thing you should do. The reason is that every index causes ongoing maintenance. Function-based indexes are particularly troublesome because they make it very easy to create redundant indexes.
Support My Work
I offer SQL training, tuning and consulting. Buying my book “SQL Performance Explained” (from €9.95) also supports my work on this website.
The case-insensitive search from above could be implemented with the LOWER
function as well:
SELECT first_name, last_name, phone_number
FROM employees
WHERE LOWER(last_name) = LOWER('winand')
A single index cannot support both methods of ignoring the case. We could, of course, create a second index on LOWER(last_name)
for this query, but that would mean the database has to maintain two indexes for each insert
, update
, and delete
statement (see also Chapter 8, “Modifying Data”). To make one index suffice, you should consistently use the same function throughout your application.
Tip
Unify the access path so that one index can be used by several queries.
Warning
Sometimes ORM tools use UPPER
and LOWER
without the developer’s knowledge. Hibernate, for example, injects an implicit LOWER
for case-insensitive searches.
Tip
Always aim to index the original data as that is often the most useful information you can put into an index.