Single field index in MongoDB - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Create and Use a Single Field Index in MongoDB

📖 Scenario: You are managing a small online bookstore database. To improve search speed for books by their title, you want to create an index on the title field.

🎯 Goal: Create a MongoDB collection called books with sample book documents. Then create a single field index on the title field to speed up queries searching by book title.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a books collection with 3 book documents having fields title, author, and year.

Create a variable called indexField and set it to the string "title".

Create a single field index on the title field using the indexField variable.

Verify the index creation by listing all indexes on the books collection.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Indexes in MongoDB help speed up searches on large collections, just like an index in a book helps you find pages quickly.

💼 Career

Database administrators and backend developers often create indexes to optimize query performance and improve application speed.

1

Create the books collection with sample data

Create a MongoDB collection called books and insert these exact documents: { title: "The Hobbit", author: "J.R.R. Tolkien", year: 1937 }, { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell", year: 1949 }, and { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee", year: 1960 }.

MongoDB

// Insert the 3 book documents into the books collection
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use db.books.insertMany([...]) with the exact documents listed.

2

Create a variable for the index field

Create a variable called indexField and set it to the string "title".

MongoDB

db.books.insertMany([
  { title: "The Hobbit", author: "J.R.R. Tolkien", year: 1937 },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell", year: 1949 },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee", year: 1960 }
])

// Create the indexField variable
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use const indexField = "title" to create the variable.

3

Create a single field index on the title field

Use the indexField variable to create a single field ascending index on the books collection.

MongoDB

db.books.insertMany([
  { title: "The Hobbit", author: "J.R.R. Tolkien", year: 1937 },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell", year: 1949 },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee", year: 1960 }
])

const indexField = "title"

// Create a single field ascending index on the title field
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use db.books.createIndex({ [indexField]: 1 }) to create the ascending index.

4

List all indexes on the books collection

List all indexes on the books collection to verify the index on the title field was created.

MongoDB

db.books.insertMany([
  { title: "The Hobbit", author: "J.R.R. Tolkien", year: 1937 },
  { title: "1984", author: "George Orwell", year: 1949 },
  { title: "To Kill a Mockingbird", author: "Harper Lee", year: 1960 }
])

const indexField = "title"

db.books.createIndex({ [indexField]: 1 })

// List all indexes on the books collection
// Your code here

Need a hint?

Use db.books.getIndexes() to list all indexes.