Indexes

Indexes in Ramify DB are defined in your Store Schema. They enable O(1) lookups and efficient sorting. Unlike some databases, you define indexes upfront when creating the store.

Defining Indexes

Indexes are declared in the createStore configuration.

[!NOTE] Schema-Driven: Indexes must be defined upfront in the schema. Ramify JS does not support dynamic index creation (e.g., via createIndex) after the store has been initialized.

const db = ramify.createStore<{ users: Schema<User, 'id'> }>({
	users: {
		primaryKey: 'id',
		indexes: ['email', 'active', 'stats.level'], // Single field indexes
		multiEntry: ['roles'], // Multi-entry indexes (arrays)
	},
});

Types of Indexes

Primary Key

Every collection has exactly one primary key. It is always indexed and must be unique.

{
	primaryKey: 'id';
}

Secondary Indexes

Added via the indexes array. Use these for fields you frequently query with .where(). Nested properties are supported using dot notation (e.g., 'stats.level').

{
	indexes: ['email', 'active', 'stats.level'];
}

Multi-Entry Indexes (Tags)

Added via the multiEntry array. If a field contains an array of values (e.g., roles: ['manager']), a multi-entry index allows you to query for documents that contain a specific role. Nested properties are also supported using dot notation.

[!IMPORTANT] Multi-Entry vs standard: Don't put array fields in indexes if you want to match individual elements; put them in multiEntry.

// Query: Find users with tag 'developer'
db.users.where('roles').equals(['manager']).toArray();

Best Practices

• Index what you query: If you filter by it with where(), index it.
• Understand the trade-off: Indexes speed up reads but slow down writes (every write must update all indexes). Memory impact is minimal since indexes use references, not copies.