What are indexes and how do they affect reading and writing?

Indexes are special data structures that speed up data search and retrieval in a database. They work as pointers to table rows based on specific columns.

Impact on reading:

• Indexes significantly accelerate SELECT operations, allowing quick access to needed records without scanning the entire table.

Impact on writing:

• When inserting, updating, or deleting data, indexes need to be updated, which adds extra load and can slow down these operations.

Therefore, it is important to balance the number and types of indexes to optimize performance for specific tasks.