Best Practises for indexing.

[fmow]

Hi Guys, I don't know if this has been discussed before; I always try to search before posting, but I 've not been able to locate anything that would substitute the feedback in the forums, so here it goes:

 

What are the best practises for indexing fields? Indexing makes for slower responses and larger files, but since my database is comparatively small, and size is not an issue, I 'd like to know how many fields I should be indexing, and what the rest of you are doing wrt to it. 

 

As an aside I 'd like to ask why the minimal indexing option is greyed out in my user interface. 

[Wim Decorte]

FM has the auto-index turned on by default and that's a pretty good way to go.  FM will then index fields when it is necessary and not when it is not required.

 

Why do you thin indexing makes for slower responses?  Indexing is meant to speed up operations.

 

Too many indexes may be a problem in a file with many fields that needs to integrate with other applications through ODBC.  But if you have no such requirement then leaving FM to auto-index is a good way to go.

 

Minimal indexing is greyed out on field types that don't support it.

[fmow]

FM has the auto-index turned on by default and that's a pretty good way to go.  FM will then index fields when it is necessary and not when it is not required.

 

Why do you thin indexing makes for slower responses?  Indexing is meant to speed up operations.

 

Too many indexes may be a problem in a file with many fields that needs to integrate with other applications through ODBC.  But if you have no such requirement then leaving FM to auto-index is a good way to go.

 

Minimal indexing is greyed out on field types that don't support it.

Wim, thanks for the very lucid and concise response, it's covered all my queries. 

 

I was unaware of the auto index feature. I talked about slower responses erroneously, I guess, I was under the impression that indexing required more operations that ultimately could bog down a database. 

[mr_vodka]

One thing I will add here. If you do a bunch of deletes especially in large tables, the more indexed fields that you have, the slower it can be.