A genetic algorithm for the index selection problem

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of minimizing the response time for a given database workload by a proper choice of indexes. This problem is NP-hard and known in the literature as the Index Selection Problem (ISP). We propose a genetic algorithm (GA) for solving the ISP. Computational results of the GA on standard ISP instances are compared to branch-and-cut method and its initialisation heuristics and two state of the art MIP solvers: CPLEX and OSL. These results indicate good performance, reliability and efficiency of the proposed approach.