# Django 2.1.8.dev20190330215650 documentation

# Model index reference

Index classes ease creating database indexes. They can be added using the `Meta.indexes` option. This document explains the API references of `Index` which includes the index options.

Referencing built-in indexes

Indexes are defined in `django.db.models.indexes`, but for convenience they're imported into `django.db.models`. The standard convention is to use `from django.db import models` and refer to the indexes as `models.<IndexClass>`.

## `Index` options

class `Index`(fields=(), name=None, db_tablespace=None)

  Creates an index (B-Tree) in the database.

### `fields`

`Index.``fields`

A list or tuple of the name of the fields on which the index is desired.

By default, indexes are created with an ascending order for each column. To define an index with a descending order for a column, add a hyphen before the field's name.

For example `Index(fields=['headline', '-pub_date'])` would create SQL with `(headline, pub_date DESC)`. Index ordering isn't supported on MySQL. In that case, a descending index is created as a normal index.

Changed in Django 2.1:

Older versions don't accept a tuple.

### `name`

`Index.``name`

The name of the index. If `name` isn't provided Django will auto-generate a name. For compatibility with different databases, index names cannot be longer than 30 characters and shouldn't start with a number (0-9) or underscore (_).

### `db_tablespace`

`Index.``db_tablespace`

New in Django 2.0:

The name of the database tablespace to use for this index. For single field indexes, if `db_tablespace` isn't provided, the index is created in the `db_tablespace` of the field.

If `Field.db_tablespace` isn't specified (or if the index uses multiple fields), the index is created in tablespace specified in the `db_tablespace` option inside the model's `class Meta`. If neither of those tablespaces are set, the index is created in the same tablespace as the table.

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For a list of PostgreSQL-specific indexes, see `django.contrib.postgres.indexes`.