Join us on
Star us on
Get Started
Slack
GitHub
Get Started
v2.5 (latest) v2.2 (stable) v2.1 (earlier version) v2.0 (earlier version) v1.3 (earlier version)
  • YUGABYTEDB CORE
    • Quick start
      • 1. Install YugabyteDB
      • 2. Create a local cluster
      • 3. Explore distributed SQL
      • 4. Build an application
        • Java
        • NodeJS
        • Go
        • Python
        • Ruby
        • C#
        • PHP
        • C++
        • C
        • Scala
    • Explore features
      • Linear scalability
      • Fault tolerance
      • Global distribution
      • Auto sharding
      • Follower reads
      • Observability
      • Colocated tables
      • Change data capture (CDC)
      • Two data center (2DC)
    • Develop
      • Learn app development
        • 1. SQL vs NoSQL
        • 2. Data modeling
        • 3. Data types
        • 4. ACID transactions
        • 5. Aggregations
        • 6. Batch operations
        • 7. Date and time
        • 8. Strings and text
        • 9. TTL for data expiration
      • Ecosystem integrations
        • Apache Kafka
        • Apache Spark
        • JanusGraph
        • KairosDB
        • Presto
        • Metabase
      • Build GraphQL apps
        • Hasura
        • Prisma
      • Real-world examples
        • E-Commerce app
        • IoT fleet management
        • Retail Analytics
      • Explore sample apps
      • Best practices
    • Migrate
      • Migration Process
      • Migrating From PostgreSQL
        • Schema Migration
        • App Migration
        • Export Data
        • Prepare Cluster
        • Import Data
        • Verify Migration
    • Deploy
      • Deployment checklist
      • Manual deployment
        • 1. System configuration
        • 2. Install software
        • 3. Start YB-Masters
        • 4. Start YB-TServers
        • 5. Verify deployment
      • Kubernetes
        • Single-zone
          • Open Source
          • Amazon EKS
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
          • Azure Kubernetes Service
        • Multi-zone
          • Amazon EKS
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
        • Multi-cluster
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
        • Best practices
        • Connect clients
      • Docker
      • Public clouds
        • Amazon Web Services
        • Google Cloud Platform
        • Microsoft Azure
      • Multi-DC deployments
        • Three+ data center (3DC)
        • Two data center (2DC)
        • Read replica clusters
      • Change data capture (CDC)
        • CDC to Kafka
    • Benchmark
      • TPC-C
      • sysbench
      • YCSB
      • Key-value workload
      • Large datasets
      • Scalability
        • Scaling queries
      • Resilience
        • Jepsen testing
    • Secure
      • Security checklist
      • Authentication
        • Authentication
        • Fine-grained authentication
      • Encryption in transit
        • Create client certificates
        • Create server certificates
        • Enable server-to-server encryption
        • Enable client-to-server encryption
        • Connect to clusters
      • Encryption at rest
      • Authorization
        • RBAC model
        • Create roles
        • Grant privileges
      • Audit logging
    • Manage
      • Back up and restore
        • Back up data
        • Restore data
        • Snapshot and restore data
      • Migrate data
        • Bulk import
        • Bulk export
      • Change cluster configuration
      • Diagnostics reporting
      • Upgrade a deployment
    • Troubleshoot
      • Troubleshooting
      • Cluster level issues
        • YCQL connection issues
        • YEDIS connection Issues
        • Recover tserver/master
      • Node level issues
        • Check servers
        • Inspect logs
        • System statistics
        • Disk failure
    • Contribute
  • YUGABYTE PLATFORM
    • Yugabyte Platform
      • Overview
        • Install
        • Configure
      • Install Yugabyte Platform
        • Prerequisites
        • Prepare the environment
        • Install software
        • Prepare nodes (on-prem)
        • Uninstall software
      • Configure Yugabyte Platform
        • Create admin user
        • Configure the cloud provider
        • Configure the backup target
        • Configure alerts and health checking
        • Create and edit instance tags
      • Create deployments
        • Multi-zone universe
        • Multi-region universe
        • Read replica cluster
      • Manage deployments
        • Start and stop processes
        • Add a node
        • Remove a node
        • Edit a universe
        • Edit configuration flags
        • Upgrade the YugabyteDB software
        • Delete a universe
        • Migrate to Helm 3
      • Back up and restore universes
        • Configure backup storage
        • Back up universe data
        • Restore universe data
        • Schedule data backups
      • Security
        • Security checklist
        • Customize ports
        • Authorization platform
        • Create a KMS configuration
        • Enable encryption at rest
        • Enable encryption in transit (TLS)
        • Network security
      • Troubleshoot
        • Install and upgrade
        • Universe
      • Administer Yugabyte Platform
        • Back up and restore Yugabyte Platform
  • YUGABYTE CLOUD
    • Yugabyte Cloud
      • Free tier
      • Create clusters
      • Monitor clusters
      • Create databases
      • Manage database access
      • Connect to clusters
  • REFERENCE
    • Reference
    • Architecture
      • Design goals
      • Key concepts
        • Universe
        • YB-TServer Service
        • YB-Master Service
      • Layered architecture
      • Query layer
        • Overview
      • DocDB transactions layer
        • Transactions overview
        • Transaction isolation levels
        • Explicit locking
        • Single-row transactions
        • Distributed transactions
        • Transactional IO path
      • DocDB sharding layer
        • Hash & range sharding
        • Tablet splitting
        • Colocated tables
      • DocDB replication layer
        • Replication
        • xCluster replication
        • Read replicas
        • Change data capture (CDC)
      • DocDB storage layer
        • Persistence
        • Performance
    • APIs
      • YSQL
        • Statements
          • ABORT
          • ALTER DATABASE
          • ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
          • ALTER DOMAIN
          • ALTER GROUP
          • ALTER POLICY
          • ALTER ROLE
          • ALTER SEQUENCE
          • ALTER TABLE
          • ALTER USER
          • BEGIN
          • COMMENT
          • COMMIT
          • COPY
          • CREATE AGGREGATE
          • CREATE CAST
          • CREATE DATABASE
          • CREATE DOMAIN
          • CREATE EXTENSION
          • CREATE FUNCTION
          • CREATE GROUP
          • CREATE INDEX
          • CREATE OPERATOR
          • CREATE OPERATOR CLASS
          • CREATE POLICY
          • CREATE PROCEDURE
          • CREATE ROLE
          • CREATE RULE
          • CREATE SCHEMA
          • CREATE SEQUENCE
          • CREATE TABLE
          • CREATE TABLE AS
          • CREATE TRIGGER
          • CREATE TYPE
          • CREATE USER
          • CREATE VIEW
          • DEALLOCATE
          • DELETE
          • DO
          • DROP AGGREGATE
          • DROP CAST
          • DROP DATABASE
          • DROP DOMAIN
          • DROP EXTENSION
          • DROP FUNCTION
          • DROP GROUP
          • DROP OPERATOR
          • DROP OPERATOR CLASS
          • DROP OWNED
          • DROP POLICY
          • DROP PROCEDURE
          • DROP ROLE
          • DROP RULE
          • DROP SEQUENCE
          • DROP TABLE
          • DROP TRIGGER
          • DROP TYPE
          • DROP USER
          • END
          • EXECUTE
          • EXPLAIN
          • GRANT
          • INSERT
          • LOCK
          • PREPARE
          • REASSIGN OWNED
          • RESET
          • REVOKE
          • ROLLBACK
          • SELECT
          • SET
          • SET CONSTRAINTS
          • SET ROLE
          • SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
          • SET TRANSACTION
          • SHOW
          • SHOW TRANSACTION
          • TRUNCATE
          • UPDATE
        • Data types
          • Array
            • array[] constructor
            • Literals
              • Text typecasting and literals
              • Array of primitive values
              • Row
              • Array of rows
            • FOREACH loop (PL/pgSQL)
            • array of DOMAINs
            • Functions and operators
              • ANY and ALL
              • Array comparison
              • Array slice operator
              • Array concatenation
              • Array properties
              • array_agg(), unnest(), generate_subscripts()
              • array_fill()
              • array_position(), array_positions()
              • array_remove()
              • array_replace() / set value
              • array_to_string()
              • string_to_array()
          • Binary
          • Boolean
          • Character
          • Date and time
          • JSON
            • JSON literals
            • Primitive and compound data types
            • Code example conventions
            • Indexes and check constraints
            • Functions & operators
              • ::jsonb, ::json, ::text (typecast)
              • ->, ->>, #>, #>> (JSON subvalues)
              • - and #- (remove)
              • || (concatenation)
              • = (equality)
              • @> and <@ (containment)
              • ? and ?| and ?& (key or value existence)
              • array_to_json()
              • jsonb_agg()
              • jsonb_array_elements()
              • jsonb_array_elements_text()
              • jsonb_array_length()
              • jsonb_build_object()
              • jsonb_build_array()
              • jsonb_each()
              • jsonb_each_text()
              • jsonb_extract_path()
              • jsonb_extract_path_text() and json_extract_path_text()
              • jsonb_object()
              • jsonb_object_agg()
              • jsonb_object_keys()
              • jsonb_populate_record()
              • jsonb_populate_recordset()
              • jsonb_pretty()
              • jsonb_set() and jsonb_insert()
              • jsonb_strip_nulls()
              • jsonb_to_record()
              • jsonb_to_recordset()
              • jsonb_typeof()
              • row_to_json()
              • to_jsonb()
          • Money
          • Numeric
          • Serial
          • UUID
        • Functions and operators
          • currval()
          • lastval()
          • nextval()
          • Window functions
            • Informal functionality overview
            • Invocation SQL syntax and semantics
            • Per function signature and purpose
              • row_number(), rank() and dense_rank()
              • percent_rank(), cume_dist() and ntile()
              • first_value(), nth_value(), last_value()
              • lag(), lead()
              • Tables for the code examples
                • table t1
                • table t2
                • table t3
                • table t4
            • Analyzing a normal distribution
              • Bucket allocation scheme
              • do_clean_start.sql
              • cr_show_t4.sql
              • cr_dp_views.sql
              • cr_int_views.sql
              • cr_pr_cd_equality_report.sql
              • cr_bucket_using_width_bucket.sql
              • cr_bucket_dedicated_code.sql
              • do_assert_bucket_ok
              • cr_histogram.sql
              • cr_do_ntile.sql
              • cr_do_percent_rank.sql
              • cr_do_cume_dist.sql
              • do_populate_results.sql
              • do_report_results.sql
              • do_compare_dp_results.sql
              • do_demo.sql
              • Reports
                • Histogram report
                • dp-results
                • compare-dp-results
                • int-results
        • Extensions
        • Keywords
        • Reserved names
      • YCQL
        • ALTER KEYSPACE
        • ALTER ROLE
        • ALTER TABLE
        • CREATE INDEX
        • CREATE KEYSPACE
        • CREATE ROLE
        • CREATE TABLE
        • CREATE TYPE
        • DROP INDEX
        • DROP KEYSPACE
        • DROP ROLE
        • DROP TABLE
        • DROP TYPE
        • GRANT PERMISSION
        • GRANT ROLE
        • REVOKE PERMISSION
        • REVOKE ROLE
        • USE
        • INSERT
        • SELECT
        • EXPLAIN
        • UPDATE
        • DELETE
        • TRANSACTION
        • TRUNCATE
        • Simple expressions
        • Subscripted expressions
        • Function call
        • Operators
        • BLOB
        • BOOLEAN
        • Collection
        • FROZEN
        • INET
        • Integer and counter
        • Non-integer
        • TEXT
        • DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP
        • UUID and TIMEUUID
        • JSONB
        • Date and time
        • BATCH
    • CLIs
      • yb-ctl
      • yb-docker-ctl
      • ysqlsh
      • ycqlsh
      • yb-admin
      • yb-ts-cli
      • ysql_dump
      • ysql_dumpall
    • Configuration
      • yb-tserver
      • yb-master
      • yugabyted
      • Default ports
    • Drivers
      • Client drivers for YSQL API
      • YugabyteDB JDBC Driver
      • Client drivers for YCQL
      • Spring Data YugabyteDB
    • Connectors
      • Kafka Connect YugabyteDB
    • Third party tools
      • DBeaver
      • DbSchema
      • pgAdmin
      • SQL Workbench/J
      • TablePlus
      • Visual Studio Code
    • Sample datasets
      • Chinook
      • Northwind
      • PgExercises
      • SportsDB
  • RELEASES
    • Releases
    • Releases overview
    • Release versioning
    • What's new
      • 2.3 (latest)
      • 2.2 (stable)
    • Earlier releases
      • v2.1.8
      • v2.1.6
      • v2.1.5
      • v2.1.4
      • v2.1.3
      • v2.1.2
      • v2.1.1
      • v2.1.0
      • v2.0.11
      • v2.0.10
      • v2.0.9
      • v2.0.8
      • v2.0.7
      • v2.0.6
      • v2.0.5
      • v2.0.3
      • v2.0.1
      • v2.0.0
      • v1.3.1
      • v1.3.0
      • v1.2.12
      • v1.2.11
      • v1.2.10
      • v1.2.9
      • v1.2.8
      • v1.2.6
      • v1.2.5
      • v1.2.4
  • FAQ
    • Comparisons
      • Amazon Aurora
      • Google Cloud Spanner
      • CockroachDB
      • TiDB
      • Vitess
      • MongoDB
      • FoundationDB
      • Amazon DynamoDB
      • Azure Cosmos DB
      • Apache Cassandra
      • PostgreSQL
      • Redis in-memory store
      • Apache HBase
    • FAQs
      • General FAQ
      • Operations FAQ
      • API compatibility FAQ
      • Yugabyte Platform FAQ
  • MISC
    • YEDIS
      • Quick start
      • Develop
        • Build an application
        • C#
        • C++
        • Go
        • Java
        • NodeJS
        • Python
      • API reference
        • APPEND
        • AUTH
        • CONFIG
        • CREATEDB
        • DELETEDB
        • LISTDB
        • SELECT
        • DEL
        • ECHO
        • EXISTS
        • EXPIRE
        • EXPIREAT
        • FLUSHALL
        • FLUSHDB
        • GET
        • GETRANGE
        • GETSET
        • HDEL
        • HEXISTS
        • HGET
        • HGETALL
        • HINCRBY
        • HKEYS
        • HLEN
        • HMGET
        • HMSET
        • HSET
        • HSTRLEN
        • HVALS
        • INCR
        • INCRBY
        • KEYS
        • MONITOR
        • PEXPIRE
        • PEXPIREAT
        • PTTL
        • ROLE
        • SADD
        • SCARD
        • RENAME
        • SET
        • SETEX
        • PSETEX
        • SETRANGE
        • SISMEMBER
        • SMEMBERS
        • SREM
        • STRLEN
        • ZRANGE
        • TSADD
        • TSCARD
        • TSGET
        • TSLASTN
        • TSRANGEBYTIME
        • TSREM
        • TSREVRANGEBYTIME
        • TTL
        • ZADD
        • ZCARD
        • ZRANGEBYSCORE
        • ZREM
        • ZREVRANGE
        • ZSCORE
        • PUBSUB
        • PUBLISH
        • SUBSCRIBE
        • UNSUBSCRIBE
        • PSUBSCRIBE
        • PUNSUBSCRIBE
    • Legal
      • Third party software
> APIs > YSQL > Statements >

CREATE INDEX

Attention

This page documents an earlier version. Go to the latest (v2.3) version.
  • Synopsis
  • Syntax
  • Semantics
    • UNIQUE
    • INCLUDE clause
    • WHERE clause
    • index_elem
    • SPLIT INTO
  • Examples
    • Unique index with HASH column ordering
    • ASC ordered index
    • INCLUDE columns
    • Create an index specifying the number of tablets
    • Partial indexes

Synopsis

Use the CREATE INDEX statement to create an index on the specified columns of the specified table. Indexes are primarily used to improve query performance.

Syntax

  • Grammar
  • Diagram
create_index ::= CREATE [ UNIQUE ] INDEX [ [ IF NOT EXISTS ] name ]  
                 ON [ ONLY ] table_name ( index_elem [ , ... ] )  
                 [ INCLUDE ( column_name [ , ... ] ) ]  
                 [ WHERE predicate ]

index_elem ::= { column_name | ( expression ) } 
               [ operator_class_name ] [ HASH | ASC | DESC ] 
               [ NULLS { FIRST | LAST } ]

create_index

CREATEUNIQUEINDEXIFNOTEXISTSnameONONLYtable_name(,index_elem)INCLUDE(,column_name)WHEREpredicate

index_elem

column_name(expression)operator_class_nameHASHASCDESCNULLSFIRSTLAST

Semantics

CONCURRENTLY, USING method, COLLATE, and TABLESPACE options are not yet supported.

Note

When an index is created on an existing table, YugabyteDB automatically backfills existing data into the index. Currently, this is not done in an online manner. To online backfill an index, you can set the ysql_disable_index_backfill flag to false when starting yb-tservers. Note that we don't recommend setting this flag in a production cluster yet. For details on how online index backfill works, see Online Index Backfill.

UNIQUE

Enforce that duplicate values in a table are not allowed.

INCLUDE clause

Specify a list of columns which will be included in the index as non-key columns.

WHERE clause

A partial index is an index that is built on a subset of a table and includes only rows that satisfy the condition specified in the WHERE clause. It can be used to exclude NULL or common values from the index, or include just the rows of interest. This will speed up any writes to the table since rows containing the common column values don't need to be indexed. It will also reduce the size of the index, thereby improving the speed for read queries that use the index.

name

Specify the name of the index to be created.

table_name

Specify the name of the table to be indexed.

index_elem

column_name

Specify the name of a column of the table.

expression

Specify one or more columns of the table and must be surrounded by parentheses.

  • HASH - Use hash of the column. This is the default option for the first column and is used to hash partition the index table.
  • ASC — Sort in ascending order. This is the default option for second and subsequent columns of the index.
  • DESC — Sort in descending order.
  • NULLS FIRST - Specifies that nulls sort before non-nulls. This is the default when DESC is specified.
  • NULLS LAST - Specifies that nulls sort after non-nulls. This is the default when DESC is not specified.

SPLIT INTO

For hash-sharded indexes, you can use the SPLIT INTO clause to specify the number of tablets to be created for the index. The hash range is then evenly split across those tablets. Presplitting indexes, using SPLIT INTO, distributes index workloads on a production cluster. For example, if you have 3 servers, splitting the index into 30 tablets can provide higher write throughput on the index. For an example, see Create an index specifying the number of tablets.

Note

By default, YugabyteDB presplits an index into ysql_num_shards_per_tserver * num_of_tserver tablets. The SPLIT INTO clause can be used to override that setting on a per-index basis.

Examples

Unique index with HASH column ordering

Create a unique index with hash ordered columns.

yugabyte=# CREATE TABLE products(id int PRIMARY KEY,
                                 name text,
                                 code text);
yugabyte=# CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON products(code);
yugabyte=# \d products
              Table "public.products"
 Column |  Type   | Collation | Nullable | Default
--------+---------+-----------+----------+---------
 id     | integer |           | not null |
 name   | text    |           |          |
 code   | text    |           |          |
Indexes:
    "products_pkey" PRIMARY KEY, lsm (id HASH)
    "products_code_idx" UNIQUE, lsm (code HASH)

ASC ordered index

Create an index with ascending ordered key.

yugabyte=# CREATE INDEX products_name ON products(name ASC);
yugabyte=# \d products_name
   Index "public.products_name"
 Column | Type | Key? | Definition
--------+------+------+------------
 name   | text | yes  | name
lsm, for table "public.products

INCLUDE columns

Create an index with ascending ordered key and include other columns as non-key columns

yugabyte=# CREATE INDEX products_name_code ON products(name) INCLUDE (code);
yugabyte=# \d products_name_code;
 Index "public.products_name_code"
 Column | Type | Key? | Definition
--------+------+------+------------
 name   | text | yes  | name
 code   | text | no   | code
lsm, for table "public.products"

Create an index specifying the number of tablets

To specify the number of tablets for an index, you can use the CREATE INDEX statement with the SPLIT INTO clause.

CREATE TABLE employees (id int PRIMARY KEY, first_name TEXT, last_name TEXT) SPLIT INTO 10 TABLETS;
CREATE INDEX ON employees(first_name, last_name) SPLIT INTO 10 TABLETS;

Partial indexes

Consider an application maintaining shipments information. It has a shipments table with a column for delivery_status. If the application needs to access in-flight shipments frequently, then it can use a partial index to exclude rows whose shipment status is delivered.

yugabyte=# create table shipments(id int, delivery_status text, address text, delivery_date date);
yugabyte=# create index shipment_delivery on shipments(delivery_status, address, delivery_date) where delivery_status != 'delivered';
  • Synopsis
  • Syntax
  • Semantics
    • UNIQUE
    • INCLUDE clause
    • WHERE clause
    • index_elem
    • SPLIT INTO
  • Examples
    • Unique index with HASH column ordering
    • ASC ordered index
    • INCLUDE columns
    • Create an index specifying the number of tablets
    • Partial indexes
Ask our community
  • Slack
  • Github
  • Forum
  • StackOverflow
Yugabyte
Contact Us
Copyright © 2017-2020 Yugabyte, Inc. All rights reserved.