Index Editor

The Index Editor is placed within the Table Editor dialog. It allows you to modify the list of table indexes as well as index properties.

The main element of the editor is the index list, which displays all indexes available within the table. The columns of the list allow you to modify the properties of the selected index.

These properties are:

Index Name

The name of the index, which must be unique within the table.

Unique

Defines the UNIQUE constraint for the selected columns. I.e. the combination of the included field values must be unique within the table;

Attributes

The list of index fields.

Predicate

The constraint expression for a partial index.

Method

The name of the method to be used for the index. Choices are btree, hash, rtree, and gist. The default method is btree.

Tablespace

The tablespace in which to create the index. If not specified, default is used, or the database's default tablespace if server's parameter default_tablespace is an empty string.

Fillfactor

The fillfactor for an index is a percentage that determines how full the index method will try to pack index pages. For B-trees, leaf pages are filled to this percentage during initial index build, and also when extending the index at the right (largest key values). If pages subsequently become completely full, they will be split, leading to gradual degradation in the index's efficiency. B-trees use a default fillfactor of 90, but any value from 10 to 100 can be selected. If the table is static then fillfactor 100 is best to minimize the index's physical size, but for heavily updated tables a smaller fillfactor is better to minimize the need for page splits. The other index methods use fillfactor in different but roughly analogous ways; the default fillfactor varies between methods.

System

An indicator that shows if the index is system and can't be modified by a user.

The buttons under the list of indexes allows you to perform the following actions:

• Add - add a new index with the default properties to the end of the list;
• Duplicate - add a new index with the same properties as the selected index to the end of the list;
• Delete - remove the selected index from the list;
• Up/Down - move the selected index along the list.