Indexes

Multiple Fields

Indexes can be configured on one or more fields in order to improve speed of data retrieval, or defining uniqueness.

package schema
import (
    "entgo.io/ent"
    "entgo.io/ent/schema/index"
)
// User holds the schema definition for the User entity.
type User struct {
    ent.Schema
}
func (User) Indexes() []ent.Index {
    return []ent.Index{
        // non-unique index.
        index.Fields("field1", "field2"),
        // unique index.
        index.Fields("first_name", "last_name").
            Unique(),
    }
}

Note that for setting a single field as unique, use the Unique method on the field builder as follows:

func (User) Fields() []ent.Field {
    return []ent.Field{
        field.String("phone").
            Unique(),
    }
}

Index On Edges

Indexes can be configured on composition of fields and edges. The main use-case is setting uniqueness on fields under a specific relation. Let’s take an example:

In the example above, we have a City with many Streets, and we want to set the street name to be unique under each city.

ent/schema/city.go

// City holds the schema definition for the City entity.
type City struct {
    ent.Schema
}
// Fields of the City.
func (City) Fields() []ent.Field {
    return []ent.Field{
        field.String("name"),
    }
}
// Edges of the City.
func (City) Edges() []ent.Edge {
    return []ent.Edge{
        edge.To("streets", Street.Type),
    }
}

ent/schema/street.go

// Street holds the schema definition for the Street entity.
type Street struct {
    ent.Schema
}
// Fields of the Street.
func (Street) Fields() []ent.Field {
    return []ent.Field{
        field.String("name"),
    }
}
// Edges of the Street.
func (Street) Edges() []ent.Edge {
    return []ent.Edge{
        edge.From("city", City.Type).
            Ref("streets").
            Unique(),
    }
}
// Indexes of the Street.
func (Street) Indexes() []ent.Index {
    return []ent.Index{
        index.Fields("name").
            Edges("city").
            Unique(),
    }
}

example.go

func Do(ctx context.Context, client *ent.Client) error {
    // Unlike `Save`, `SaveX` panics if an error occurs.
    tlv := client.City.
        Create().
        SetName("TLV").
        SaveX(ctx)
    nyc := client.City.
        Create().
        SetName("NYC").
        SaveX(ctx)
    // Add a street "ST" to "TLV".
    client.Street.
        Create().
        SetName("ST").
        SetCity(tlv).
        SaveX(ctx)
    // This operation fails because "ST"
    // was already created under "TLV".
    if err := client.Street.
        Create().
        SetName("ST").
        SetCity(tlv).
        Exec(ctx); err == nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("expecting creation to fail")
    }
    // Add a street "ST" to "NYC".
    client.Street.
        Create().
        SetName("ST").
        SetCity(nyc).
        SaveX(ctx)
    return nil
}

The full example exists in GitHub.

Index On Edge Fields

Currently Edges columns are always added after Fields columns. However, some indexes require these columns to come first in order to achieve specific optimizations. You can work around this problem by making use of Edge Fields.

// Card holds the schema definition for the Card entity.
type Card struct {
    ent.Schema
}
// Fields of the Card.
func (Card) Fields() []ent.Field {
    return []ent.Field{
        field.String("number").
            Optional(),
        field.Int("owner_id").
            Optional(),
    }
}
// Edges of the Card.
func (Card) Edges() []ent.Edge {
    return []ent.Edge{
        edge.From("owner", User.Type).
            Ref("card").
            Field("owner_id").
            Unique(),
    }
}
// Indexes of the Card.
func (Card) Indexes() []ent.Index {
    return []ent.Index{
        index.Fields("owner_id", "number"),
    }
}

Dialect Support

Indexes currently support only SQL dialects, and do not support Gremlin. Dialect specific features are allowed using annotations. For example, in order to use index prefixes in MySQL, use the following configuration:

// Indexes of the User.
func (User) Indexes() []ent.Index {
    return []ent.Index{
        index.Fields("description").
            Annotations(entsql.Prefix(128)),
        index.Fields("c1", "c2", "c3").
            Annotation(
                entsql.PrefixColumn("c1", 100),
                entsql.PrefixColumn("c2", 200),
            )
    }
}

The code above generates the following SQL statements:

CREATE INDEX `users_description` ON `users`(`description`(128))
CREATE INDEX `users_c1_c2_c3` ON `users`(`c1`(100), `c2`(200), `c3`)