Indexes Glossary

Browse 6 indexes terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

6 Indexes Terms

Code Database: A structured representation of source code stored for indexing, querying, or static analysis rather than for normal execution. Code databases are used by code...
Column Index: A database index built on one or more columns to speed lookups, filtering, joins, or sorting on those fields. Column indexes improve read performance...
Composite Index: A database index built on multiple columns in a defined order so queries filtering or sorting on those combined fields can be served efficiently. Composite...
Off by One: A classic programming error where a loop, range, index, or count is one step too high or too low. It is common enough that the phrase became general shorthand...
Package Index: A searchable catalog or repository index of available software packages and their metadata. In package-management culture, the package index is what lets tools...
RAG Index: The searchable index used by a retrieval-augmented generation system to locate relevant source material. A RAG index may store embeddings, metadata, keywords,...