index – SAP EWM Help https://www.sapewmhelp.com SAP EWM questions answered by experts — ABAP, S/4HANA, warehouse management Sun, 24 Aug 2025 11:28:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 Types of Database Indexes in SAP https://www.sapewmhelp.com/question/types-of-database-indexes-in-sap/ https://www.sapewmhelp.com/question/types-of-database-indexes-in-sap/#respond Sun, 24 Aug 2025 11:28:54 +0000 https://www.sapewmhelp.com/?question=types-of-database-indexes-in-sap 1. Primary Index

  • Created automatically when you create a table in SE11.

  • Based on the primary key fields of the table.

  • Always unique.

  • Cannot be deleted.

  • Used whenever you do a SELECT ... WHERE on the primary key.

 Example:
For table MARA, the primary index is on MATNR (Material Number).

SELECT * FROM mara WHERE matnr = ‘MAT001’.

2. Secondary Index

  • Created manually in SE11 (or SE14) for performance optimization.

  • Can be unique or non-unique.

  • Useful when you frequently query on non-primary key fields.

  • Stored in the database dictionary as Z indexes (MARA~Z01, etc.).

  • Too many indexes = bad performance on INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE (because index maintenance consumes resources).

Example:
If you often query MARA by MTART and MBRSH, you might define a secondary index on those fields.

SELECT * FROM mara WHERE mtart = ‘FERT’ AND mbrsh = ‘M’.
3. Unique Index

  • Ensures that no duplicate values exist for the indexed fields.

  • Primary indexes are always unique, but you can also define unique secondary indexes.

Example:
On MARC, you might create a unique secondary index on (MATNR, WERKS) to ensure material–plant combination is unique.

4. Non-Unique Index

  • Allows duplicate values for the indexed fields.

  • Used mainly for improving performance, not data consistency.

 

5. Bitmap Index (special, DB-dependent)

  • In SAP on Oracle, bitmap indexes may be created automatically for fields with low cardinality (few distinct values, e.g., “Gender”).

  • Rarely created manually in ABAP Dictionary, but worth knowing.

 

Summary table:

Index Type Created By Based On Uniqueness Example
Primary Auto Primary Key Unique MARA~MATNR
Secondary Manual Any fields Unique / Non-Unique MARA~Z01 on MTART+MBRSH
Unique Manual Any fields Unique only MARC~MATNR+WERKS
Non-Unique Manual Any fields Duplicates allowed Index on MTART
Bitmap DB-specific Low-cardinality fields Depends Oracle-specific
]]> https://www.sapewmhelp.com/question/types-of-database-indexes-in-sap/feed/ 0