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Create an Index on a Single Field

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  • Before You Begin
  • Procedures
  • Create an Index on a Single Field
  • Create an Index on an Embedded Field
  • Learn More

You can create an index on a single field to improve performance for queries on that field. Indexing commonly queried fields increases the chances of covering those queries, meaning MongoDB can satisfy the query entirely with the index, without examining documents.

To create a single-field index, use the db.collection.createIndex() method:

db.<collection>.createIndex( { <field>: <sortOrder> } )

Note

Index Sort Order

For a single-field index, the sort order (ascending or descending) of the index key does not matter because MongoDB can traverse the index in either direction.

Before You Begin

Create a students collection that contains the following documents:

db.students.insertMany( [
   {
      "name": "Alice",
      "gpa": 3.6,
      "location": { city: "Sacramento", state: "California" }
   },
   {
      "name": "Bob",
      "gpa": 3.2,
      "location": { city: "Albany", state: "New York" }
   }
] )

Procedures

The following examples show you how to:

  • Create an Index on a Single Field

  • Create an Index on an Embedded Field

Create an Index on a Single Field

Consider a school administrator who frequently looks up students by their GPA. You can create an index on the gpa field to improve performance for those queries:

db.students.createIndex( { gpa: 1 } )

Results

The index supports queries that select on the field gpa, such as the following:

db.students.find( { gpa: 3.6 } )
db.students.find( { gpa: { $lt: 3.4 } } )

Create an Index on an Embedded Field

You can create indexes on fields within embedded documents. Indexes on embedded fields can fulfill queries that use dot notation.

The location field is an embedded document that contains the embedded fields city and state. Create an index on the location.state field:

db.students.createIndex( { "location.state": 1 } )

Results

The index supports queries on the field location.state, such as the following:

db.students.find( { "location.state": "California" } )
db.students.find( { "location.city": "Albany", "location.state": "New York" } )

Learn More

← Single Field Indexes
Create an Index on an Embedded Document →

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