Overview

An index is a data structure that MariaDB maintains alongside your table to make certain queries faster. Without an index, a query that filters by a column must scan every row in the table. With an index on that column, MariaDB can jump directly to the matching rows.

Adding indexes is especially important on:

• Fields used in WHERE clauses (e.g. WHERE slug = ?)
• Fields used in ORDER BY or GROUP BY
• Foreign key fields

Index Types

Datasquirel supports the following MariaDB index types:

Type	Description
INDEX	A standard non-unique index. Use this to speed up queries on any column that is not required to be unique.
UNIQUE	Like INDEX, but also enforces that no two rows can have the same value for the indexed column.
FULLTEXT	A full-text index used for text search with MATCH ... AGAINST. Applies to TEXT and VARCHAR columns.

Adding an Index

From the Field Settings

The simplest way to index a field is directly in the field editor. When creating or editing a field, click More and enable the Unique option — this creates a UNIQUE index on the field.

From the Table Schema Editor

1. Open the table in your admin panel.
2. Navigate to the Schema or Indexes tab.
3. Click Add Index.
4. Select the index type and choose the field(s) to include.
5. Save the index.

Notes

• Every table automatically has a PRIMARY KEY on the id column. This index is created by Datasquirel and cannot be removed.
• Adding an index on a large table may take a moment as MariaDB rebuilds the index structure.
• Indexes speed up reads but add a small overhead to writes (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE). Only index fields you actually query on.

What's Next

• Create Table Fields — understand field types and constraints
• API Reference → GET — use query parameters to filter and sort data