B-tree Indexes in Databases: IndexedDB and PostgreSQL Examples

A talk about how regualr™ indexes work in databases. It will be extremely useful both for those who start working with databases, and for those who have database experience. The talk will describe the way you could use database indices to make SQL faster. The samples will use PostgreSQL, however the knowledge will also apply to many other databases, because the b-tree algorithm was invented in 1970, and its variations are used very often now.

We will discuss the following:

• How the index speeds up searches
• Whether to index where conditions
• Do I need to index conditions in order by
• Should foreign keys be indexed
• What to do if there are several search criteria
• What is the order of the columns in the index?
• Cases where the index slows down, and how to reduce the impact of the index on the application