Eloquent ORM, deleted_at has no index when using soft deleting

Question

If I use $table->softDeletes() in a migration, a deleted_at timestamp nullable column is added to the table.

From now on I can come to the conclusion that any query against this table via eloquent will carry a WHERE deleted_at IS NULL clause, assuring only live records are returned.

But I noticed there is no index created for deleted_at. Shouldn't be paramount for this column to have an index?

I hope I'm missing something.

Mr. TLGreg, the command you suggested is tempting, but it triggers `Call to a member function index() on a non-object`. — user2094178, Sep 15 '13 at 20:24
Sorry, you're right, we're on a fork here where we modified the schema builder (softDeletes() doesn't return back the fluent object in the vanilla method). `$table->timestamp('deleted_at')->nullable()->index()` should work without a fork, even if it's not that nice. :) — TLGreg, Sep 18 '13 at 01:28
@user2094178 according to [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/26530488/978690), you should not index your deleted_at columns — rap-2-h, Oct 23 '14 at 16:01

score 12 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

12

According to this answer, you should not index your deleted_at column. There will be no beneficial impact on performance.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

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answered Oct 24 '14 at 07:25

rap-2-h

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Eloquent ORM, deleted_at has no index when using soft deleting

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