Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Indexing and query
optimization
In this chapter
Basic indexing concepts and theory
Managing indexes
Optimizing queries
Indexes are enormously important. With the right indexes in place, MongoDB can
use its hardware efficiently and serve your application's queries quickly. But having
the wrong indexes produces the opposite result: slow queries and poorly utilized
hardware. It stands to reason that anyone wanting to use MongoDB effectively must
understand indexing.
But for many developers, indexes are a topic shrouded in mystery. This need
not be the case. Once you've finished this chapter, you should have a good mental
model for thinking clearly about indexes. To introduce the concepts of indexing,
we'll begin with a modest thought experiment. We'll then explore some core
indexing concepts and provide an overview of the B-tree data structure underlying
each MongoDB index.
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