Bitmap indexes
This topic describes how to create and manage a bitmap index, along with usage cases.
Introductionβ
A bitmap index is a special database index that uses bitmaps, which are an array of bits. A bit is always in one of two values: 0 and 1. Each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a single row in the table. The value of each bit depends upon the value of the corresponding row.
A bitmap index can help improve the query performance on a given column. If a query's filter conditions match a prefix index, it can significantly improve query efficiency and quickly return results. However, a table can only have one prefix index. If the query's filter conditions do not include the prefix of the prefix index, a bitmap index can be created for that column to improve query efficiency.
How to design a bitmap index to accelerate queriesβ
The primary considerations for choosing a bitmap index are column cardinality and the filtering effect of the bitmap index on queries. Contrary to popular belief, bitmap indexes in StarRocks are more suitable for queries on columns with high cardinality and queries on the combination of multiple low cardinality columns. Furthermore, bitmap indexes need to effectively filter out data, potentially filtering out at least 999/1000 of the data, thereby reducing the amount of Page data read.
For queries on a single low cardinality column, the filtering effect of a bitmap index is poor, because too many rows need to be read and scattered across multiple Pages.
You need to consider the cost of loading data when evaluating the filtering effect of bitmap indexes on queries. In StarRocks, underlying data is organized and loaded by Pages (default size is 64K). The cost of loading data includes the time to load Pages from disk, decompress Pages, and decode.
However, excessively high cardinality can also cause issues such as occupying more disk space, and because bitmap indexes need to be constructed during data loading, frequent data loading can affect loading performance.
Additionally, the overhead of loading bitmap indexes during queries should be considered. During a query, bitmap indexes are loaded on demand, and the larger the value of number of column values involved in query conditions/cardinality x bitmap index, the greater the overhead of loading bitmap indexes during queries.
To determine the appropriate cardinality and query conditions for bitmap indexes, it is recommended to refer to the Performance test on bitmap index in this topic to conduct performance tests. You can use actual business data and queries to create bitmap indexes on columns of different cardinalities, to analyze the filtering effect of bitmap indexes on queries (at least filtering out 999/1000 of the data), the disk space usage, the impact on loading performance, and the overhead of loading bitmap indexes during queries.
StarRocks has a built-in adaptive selection mechanism for bitmap indexes. If a bitmap index fails to accelerate queries, for example, if it cannot filter out many Pages, or the overhead of loading bitmap indexes during queries is high, it will not be used during the query, so query performance will not be significantly affected.
Adaptive selection of bitmap indexesβ
StarRocks can adaptively choose whether to use a bitmap index based on column cardinality and query conditions. If a bitmap index does not effectively filter out many Pages or the overhead of loading bitmap indexes during queries is high, StarRocks will not use the bitmap index by default to avoid degrading query performance.
StarRocks determines whether to use a bitmap index based on the ratio of the number of values involved in the query condition to the column cardinality. Generally, the smaller this ratio, the better the filtering effect of the bitmap index. Thus, StarRocks uses bitmap_max_filter_ratio/1000 as the threshold. When the number of values in the filter condition/column cardinality is less than bitmap_max_filter_ratio/1000, the bitmap index will be used. The default value of bitmap_max_filter_ratio is 1.
Take a query based on a single column as an example, such as SELECT * FROM employees WHERE gender = 'male';. The gender column in the employees table has values 'male' and 'female', so the cardinality is 2 (two distinct values). The query condition involves one value, so the ratio is 1/2, which is greater than 1/1000. Therefore, this query will not use the bitmap index.
Take another query based on a combination of multiple columns as an example, such as SELECT * FROM employees WHERE gender = 'male' AND city IN ('Beijing', 'Shanghai');. The cardinality of the city column is of 10,000, and the query condition involves two values, so the ratio is calculated as (1*2)/(2*10000), which is less than 1/1000. Therefore, this query will use the bitmap index.
The value range for bitmap_max_filter_ratio is 1-1000. If bitmap_max_filter_ratio is set to 1000, any query on a column with a bitmap index will be forced to use the bitmap index.
Advantagesβ
- Bitmap indexes can quickly locate the row numbers of queried column values, suitable for point queries or small-range queries.
- Bitmap indexes can optimize multi-dimensional queries involving union and intersection operations (
ORandANDoperations).
Considerationsβ
Queries that can be optimizedβ
Bitmap indexes are suitable for optimizing equality = queries, [NOT] IN range queries, >, >=, <, <= queries, and IS NULL queries. They are not suitable for optimizing != and [NOT] LIKE queries.
Supported columns and data typesβ
Bitmap indexes can be created on all columns in primary key and duplicate key tables, and on key columns in aggregate and unique key tables. Bitmap indexes can be created on the columns of the following data types:
- Date types: DATE, DATETIME.
- Numeric types: TINYINT, SMALLINT, INT, BIGINT, LARGEINT, DECIMAL, BOOLEAN.
- String types: CHAR, STRING, VARCHAR.
- Other types: HLL.
Basic operationsβ
Create an indexβ
-
Create a bitmap index during table creation.
CREATE TABLE `lineorder_partial` (
`lo_orderkey` int(11) NOT NULL COMMENT "",
`lo_orderdate` int(11) NOT NULL COMMENT "",
`lo_orderpriority` varchar(16) NOT NULL COMMENT "",
`lo_quantity` int(11) NOT NULL COMMENT "",
`lo_revenue` int(11) NOT NULL COMMENT "",
INDEX lo_orderdate_index (lo_orderdate) USING BITMAP
) ENGINE=OLAP
DUPLICATE KEY(`lo_orderkey`)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(`lo_orderkey`) BUCKETS 1;In this example, a bitmap index named
lo_orderdate_indexis created on thelo_orderdatecolumn. Naming requirements for bitmap indexes can be found in System Limits. Identical bitmap indexes cannot be created within the same table.Multiple bitmap indexes can be created for multiple columns, separated by commas (,).
noteFor more parameters of table creation, refer to CREATE TABLE.
-
CREATE INDEXcan be used to create a bitmap index after table creation. For detailed parameter descriptions and examples, refer to CREATE INDEX.CREATE INDEX lo_quantity_index ON lineorder_partial (lo_quantity) USING BITMAP;
Progress of creating an indexβ
Creating a bitmap index is an asynchronous process. After executing the index creation statement, you can check the index creation progress using the SHOW ALTER TABLE command. When the State field in the returned value shows FINISHED, the index is successfully created.
SHOW ALTER TABLE COLUMN;
Each table can only have one ongoing Schema Change task at a time. You cannot create a new bitmap index until the current bitmap index is created.
View an indexβ
View all bitmap indexes for a specified table. For detailed parameters and returned results, refer to SHOW INDEX.
SHOW INDEXES FROM lineorder_partial;
Creating a bitmap index is an asynchronous process. Using the above statement, you can only view indexes that have successfully finished being created.
Delete an indexβ
Delete a bitmap index for a specified table. For detailed parameters and examples, refer to DROP INDEX.
DROP INDEX lo_orderdate_index ON lineorder_partial;
Verify whether the bitmap index accelerates queriesβ
Check the BitmapIndexFilterRows field in the query Profile. For information on viewing the Profile, refer to Query analysis.