{"id":12867,"date":"2024-03-14T16:45:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T16:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-are-the-rules-for-creating-an-index-in-mysql\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T08:03:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T08:03:24","slug":"what-are-the-rules-for-creating-an-index-in-mysql","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-are-the-rules-for-creating-an-index-in-mysql\/","title":{"rendered":"MySQL Index Creation Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The rules for creating an index are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Uniqueness: The values of an indexed column should be unique, ensuring data integrity through the use of indexes.<\/li>\n
  2. Selectivity: The values of the indexed column should have high selectivity, meaning the more different values, the better. The higher the selectivity, the better the index will be.<\/li>\n
  3. Length: The length of the index column should be as small as possible in order to reduce the storage space occupied by the index and improve query performance.<\/li>\n
  4. Choosing the appropriate data type can reduce the size of the index and improve query performance.<\/li>\n
  5. Prefix indexing allows for only a portion of a longer string to be indexed, reducing the storage space needed for the index.<\/li>\n
  6. Do not create too many indexes: creating too many indexes can increase the maintenance cost of the database and may lead to a decrease in performance.<\/li>\n
  7. Composite index: Create a composite index for multiple columns that are frequently used together to improve query performance.<\/li>\n
  8. Avoid using the not equal to (<>) operator in your queries as it cannot utilize indexes, resulting in a full table scan and degrading query performance.<\/li>\n
  9. Columns that are frequently updated are not suitable for indexing as the maintenance cost of the index increases, leading to a decrease in database performance.<\/li>\n
  10. Columns used in a query are suitable for indexing: Columns frequently used in queries should be indexed to improve query speed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The rules for creating an index are as follows: Uniqueness: The values of an indexed column should be unique, ensuring data integrity through the use of indexes. Selectivity: The values of the indexed column should have high selectivity, meaning the more different values, the better. The higher the selectivity, the better the index will be. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2121,2141,16957,4223,3444],"class_list":["post-12867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-database-indexing","tag-index-optimization","tag-mysql-index-rules","tag-mysql-performance","tag-sql-best-practices"],"yoast_head":"\nMySQL Index Creation Rules - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Essential MySQL index rules: uniqueness, selectivity & short length for optimal database performance and integrity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-are-the-rules-for-creating-an-index-in-mysql\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MySQL Index Creation Rules\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Essential MySQL index rules: uniqueness, selectivity & short length for optimal database performance and integrity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/what-are-the-rules-for-creating-an-index-in-mysql\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog - 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