reindexed

Reindexed refers to the process of creating a new index for a dataset, document collection, or information resource in order to reflect changes, realign data, or improve retrieval performance. An index is a data structure that accelerates data access and can also organize records in a particular order.

In databases and file systems, reindexing means rebuilding or reorganizing one or more indexes to reduce fragmentation and restore optimal query performance. It may be performed online or offline, depending on the system, and can be resource-intensive, potentially affecting availability and throughput during the operation.

In search systems and information retrieval, reindexing involves reprocessing content to update the search index. This ensures that additions, deletions, edits, or changes to ranking rules and metadata are reflected in search results. Reindexing can be triggered by bulk content changes, schema evolutions, or improvements to indexing pipelines.

In programming and data analysis, some libraries provide a reindex operation that aligns an object to a new index. For example, reindexing a data structure may introduce missing values for labels that do not match, or fill gaps according to specified rules. Such operations are common in data preparation and transformation workflows.

Process considerations include planning, testing in staging environments, and weighing downtime against performance gains. Techniques range from full reindexing to incremental or partial reindexing to minimize disruption. Reindexing is typically favored after substantial data changes, schema migrations, or noticeable degradation in access speed, though it carries risks of temporary inconsistency and higher resource consumption.

See also: indexing, index fragmentation, full‑text indexing, data migration.