Indexed column in SharePoint List

Indexed column in SharePoint list is used to improve performance of query to work with large list efficiently.

You can create index on single column (Specify primary column for index) or specify compound index on two columns (Specify primary & secondary column for index).

SharePoint list instance support a maximum of 20 indices.

Not all the field types can participate in composite index.

When you create an indexed column, it requires extra storage space to maintain it and also adds unnecessary overhead. So you should create index only to columns that will be used in filtering view on list.

Managed metadata navigation and filtering require indexing column on list.       

Indexed column also affect the throttling for list that contains large amount of items.

Suppose you build query that returns first 100 items from non-indexed Title column with sort, then query would have to scan all the items from list in content database to define the sort order for first 100 items. Due to that query become throttled. To avoid such issue, create index on Title column to returns the first 100 sorted items instead of scanning all the list items from content database.

Not all column types can be indexed. Following table shows supported and unsupported column types for indexing in list.

Supported column types	Unsupported column types
Single line of text	Multiple lines of text
Choice field having single value	Hyperlink or Picture
Number	Calculated field
Date/Time	Yes/No
Lookup (Single value)	Custom field type
Person or group (single value)	External data
Currency
Title (only in list)
Managed metadata

How to create index column in list:

1. Navigate to SharePoint List >> List Settings
2. Click on Indexed Columns

3. Click on Create Index link

4. Select Primary column as Title from the drop down list and keep secondary column as blank if we do not require any compound index column.

5. Click on Create button to generate new index column and will display as below. You can also edit the indexed column by clicking on it.

 

Enjoy SharePoint!!!