AI engineering glossary · SQL databases
What is b-tree index?
B-tree index (also called B+ tree): The default index type in most databases: a balanced, sorted tree of keys that supports equality, range and ordering lookups in logarithmic time. Lookups touch only a few disk pages even for huge tables.
B-tree index: an example
An index on orders(order_date) serves WHERE order_date BETWEEN ... and ORDER BY order_date efficiently.
Related terms
- Index
- Hash index
- Composite index
- Clustered index
More SQL databases terms
Where you learn it
B-tree index is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.