Indexes ======= Indexes are defined through `ensureIndex` every time a model is compiled for a certain connection / database. This means that indexes will only be ensured once during the lifetime of your app. ## Definition Regular indexes: var User = new Schema({ name: { type: String, index: true } }) [Sparse](http://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Indexes#Indexes-SparseIndexes) indexes: var User = new Schema({ name: { type: String, sparse: true } }) Unique indexes: var User = new Schema({ name: { type: String, unique: true } }) // or var User = new Schema({ name: { type: String, index: { unique: true } } }) Unique sparse indexes: var User = new Schema({ name: { type: String, unique: true, sparse: true } }) Compound indexes are defined on the `Schema` itself. User.index({ first: 1, last: -1 }, { unique: true })