After you create a search index for a table, you can query fields only in the search index when you use the search index. You can create multiple search indexes for a table.

Background information

The actual query requirements determine the number of search indexes created for a table.

Assume that you have a table that contains the following fields: id, name, age, city, and sex. To query data by name, age, or city, you can use one of the following methods to create a search index:

  • Method 1: Create a search index for each index field
    If you use this method, you must create the following search indexes: name_index, age_index, and city_index.
    • To query students by city, use city_index. To query students by age, use age_index.
    • However, this method does not work if you want to query students who are younger than 12 years old and live in Chengdu.

    The implementation of the method is similar to that of global secondary index. However, this method is not cost-effective. We recommend that you do not use this method to create a search index.

  • Method 2: Create one search index for multiple index fields
    If you use this method, the search index named student_index contains the following fields: name, age, and city.
    • To query students by city, use the city field in student_index. To query students by age, use the age field in student_index.
    • To query students who are younger than 12 years old and live in Chengdu, use the age and city fields in student_index.

    This method provides more functions at a lower cost. We recommend that you use this method to create search indexes.

Limits

  • Timeliness of index creation

    It takes a few seconds to use a search index after the search index is created. In the creation process, you can write data to the table. However, metadata queries of the search index and data queries by using the search index are affected.

  • Limits on the number of resources

    For more information, see Limits.

Operations

You can call the CreateSearchIndex operation to create a search index.

Use Tablestore SDKs

You can use the following SDKs to create a search index:

Parameters

The following table describes the parameters you can configure when you create a search index. You can configure fieldSchemas, indexSetting, and indexSort for indexSchema.
Parameter Description
tableName The name of the table.
indexName The name of the search index.
fieldSchemas The list of field schemas. You can configure the following parameters for each field schema:
  • fieldName: required. This parameter specifies the name of the field, which is also called the column name. Type: String.

    A field in a search index can be a primary key column or attribute column.

  • fieldType: required. This parameter specifies the type of the field. Use FieldType.XXX to set the type. For more information, see Data types of column values.
  • array: optional. This parameter specifies whether the value is an array. Type: Boolean.

    A value of true indicates that the column is an array. Data written to the column must be a JSON array. Example: ["a","b","c"].

    Nested values are an array. If you set fieldType to Nested, ignore the array parameter.

  • index: optional. This parameter specifies whether to enable the index. Type: Boolean.

    A value of true indicates that Tablestore creates an inverted index or spatial index for the column. A value of false indicates that Tablestore does not create indexes for the column.

  • indexOptions: optional. This parameter specifies whether to store terms such as position and offset in an inverted list. Use the default value in most cases.
  • analyzer: optional. This parameter specifies the type of the analyzer. If the field type is set to Text, you can set this parameter. By default, the type of the analyzer is set to the single-word tokenization if the field type is not set. For more information about analyzers, see Tokenization.
  • enableSortAndAgg: optional. This parameter specifies whether to enable the sorting and aggregation features. Type: Boolean.

    Only fields with the enableSortAndAgg parameter set to true can be sorted. For more information about sorting, see Sort.

  • store: optional. This parameter specifies whether to store the value of the field in the search index. Type: Boolean.

    A value of true indicates that you can read the value of the field directly from the search index without the need to query the table. This optimizes query performance.

indexSetting The settings of the search index, including routingFields.

routingFields: optional. You use this parameter to customize routing fields. You can specify that part of primary key columns are used as routing fields. Tablestore distributes data that is written to a search index to different partitions based on the specified routing fields. The data with the same routing field values is distributed to the same data partition.

indexSort The presorting settings of the search index, including sorters. By default, data is sorted by primary key if indexSort is not set.
Note Search indexes that contain NEST fields do not support IndexSort.
sorters: required. This parameter specifies the presorting method for the search index. PrimaryKeySort and FieldSort are supported. For more information, see Sort.
  • PrimaryKeySort: Data is sorted by primary key. You can configure the following parameter for PrimaryKeySort:

    order: the order for sorting. You can set this parameter to the ascending or descending order. Default setting: SortOrder.ASC.

  • FieldSort: Data is sorted based on the field value. You can configure the following parameters for FieldSort:

    Only fields that have indexes created and sorting and aggregation enabled can be presorted.

    • fieldName: the name of the field for sorting.
    • order: the order for sorting. You can set this parameter to the ascending or descending order. Default value: SortOrder.ASC.
    • mode: the sorting method used when the field has multiple values.

Examples

  • Example 1
    Create a search index that consists of the Col_Keyword and Col_Long columns. Set the type of data in Col_Keyword to String and Col_Long to Long.
    
private static void createSearchIndex(SyncClient client) {
    CreateSearchIndexRequest request = new CreateSearchIndexRequest();
    request.setTableName(TABLE_NAME); // Set the name of the table.
    request.setIndexName(INDEX_NAME); // Set the name of the search index.
    IndexSchema indexSchema = new IndexSchema();
    indexSchema.setFieldSchemas(Arrays.asList(
            new FieldSchema("Col_Keyword", FieldType.KEYWORD) // Set the field name and field type.
                    .setIndex(true) // Set the parameter to true to enable the index.
                    .setEnableSortAndAgg(true), // Set the parameter to true to enable sorting and aggregation.
            new FieldSchema("Col_Long", FieldType.LONG)
                    .setIndex(true)
                    .setEnableSortAndAgg(true)));
    request.setIndexSchema(indexSchema);
    client.createSearchIndex(request); // Call client to create the search index.
}
  • Example 2
    Specify IndexSort when you create a search index.
    private static void createSearchIndexWithIndexSort(SyncClient client) {
    CreateSearchIndexRequest request = new CreateSearchIndexRequest();
    request.setTableName(TABLE_NAME);
    request.setIndexName(INDEX_NAME);
    IndexSchema indexSchema = new IndexSchema();
    indexSchema.setFieldSchemas(Arrays.asList(
            new FieldSchema("Col_Keyword", FieldType.KEYWORD).setIndex(true).setEnableSortAndAgg(true),
            new FieldSchema("Col_Long", FieldType.LONG).setIndex(true).setEnableSortAndAgg(true),
            new FieldSchema("Col_Text", FieldType.TEXT).setIndex(true),
            new FieldSchema("Timestamp", FieldType.LONG).setIndex(true).setEnableSortAndAgg(true)));
    // Presort data by the Timestamp column. You must create a search index and enable sorting and aggregation for the Timestamp column.
    indexSchema.setIndexSort(new Sort(
            Arrays. <Sort.Sorter>asList(new FieldSort("Timestamp", SortOrder.ASC))));
    request.setIndexSchema(indexSchema);
    client.createSearchIndex(request);
}