Covering Index

Definition

Given an SQL query, a covering index is a composite index that includes all of the columns referenced in SELECT, JOIN, and WHERE clauses of this query. Because the index contains all the data needed by the query, to execute the query the actual data in the table does not need to be accessed.

Key Points

Covering indexes [1] support index-only execution plans. In general, having everything indexed tends to increase the query performance (in number of I/Os). However, using a covering index with too many columns can actually degrade performance. Typically, multi-dimensional index structures, e.g., the R-tree, perform poorer than linear scan with high dimensions. Some guidelines of creating a covering index are: (i) Create a covering index on frequently used queries. There are overheads in creating a covering index, which is often more significant than creating a regular index with fewer columns. Hence, if a query is seldom used, the overhead to create a covering index on it is...