How to view MongoDB indexes data structure?

Question

In the MongoDB docs it is stated that

Indexes are special data structures [1] that store a small portion of the collection’s data set in an easy to traverse form.

How can I see these data structures? Is it possible?

I was going through this question and I saw that in this answer they gave an example of a schema for an index. Is there such a thing in MongoDB that is what I am trying to see. I am trying to understand indexes in MongoDB better.

The link in mongo docs? All I get from it is the name that is found in the index what other fields are there? Does MongoDB create a hash to identify the document’s location? Like it is done in sql? — YulePale, Jun 16 '20 at 12:35
What do you mean by "see"? Inspect the memory of a running process? — D. SM, Jun 16 '20 at 19:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 16 '20 at 14:34

When you create an index in Mongo (using createIndex) you specify which fields the index will use, or what you call the index "schema".

As mentioned in the docs these indexes are built as b-trees (don't read too much into this as indexes are a "black box" for us users), viewing the exact tree structure is not possible, but you can use indexStats to get some more information on an index you created.

How to view MongoDB indexes data structure?

1 Answers1