Creating Oracle Indexes
Once you have decided you need to create an index you use the create index command. The command is pretty straightforward as seen in this example:
CREATE INDEX
ix_emp_01
ON
emp (deptno)
TABLESPACE
index_tbs;
This statement creates an index called IX_EMP_01. This index is built on the DEPTNO column of the EMP table. We also defined the tablespace that the index should be created in using the tablespace keyword, in this case we created it
in the INDEX_TBS tablespace.
You can create indexes on multiple columns in a table. Say, for example, we wanted an index on the EMP table columns EMPNO and DEPTNO. This is known as a concatenated index, and it抯 created this way:
CREATE INDEX ix_emp_01 ON emp (empno, deptno) TABLESPACE index_tbs;
Altering Oracle Indexes
If we create indexes, there may be times that we will want to change some attribute of that index, such as where it is stored. Also, sometimes an index needs to be rebuilt to help with performance. For cases like these, the alter index
command is what we want.
Let抯 look at an example of the use of the alter index command:
ALTER INDEX ix_emp_01 REBUILD TABLESPACE new_index;
In this example we use the alter index command to rebuild an index. The rebuild keyword is what tells Oracle to rebuild the index. When we use the tablespace keyword, followed by a tablespace name, we are telling Oracle which tablespace
to recreate the rebuilt index in. By default Oracle will create the rebuilt index in the same tablespace.
The alter index command allows you to rename an index using the rename to keyword as seen in this example:
ALTER INDEX ix_emp_01 RENAME TO ix_emp_01_old;
In this case we have renamed the ix_emp_01 index to ix_emp_01_old. All of the data dictionary entries will be changed by Oracle to reflect the new name (we will discuss indexes and the data dictionary in a moment)
Dropping Oracle Indexes
Sometimes what we create we must destroy. When it抯 time to remove an index, the drop index command is what is needed. The drop index command is pretty straight forward as seen in this example:
DROP INDEX ix_emp_01_old;
Generate create index syntax
You can punch create index DDL syntax is using the dbms_metadatapackage, something like this:
select
dbms_metadata.get_ddl('INDEX',index_name)
from
user_indexes
where
xxxx;
For more information on creating indexes see these articles: