An index is an indirect shortcut derived from and pointing into a greater volume of values, data, information or knowledge. Index may refer to:
A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at the cost of additional writes and storage space to maintain the index data structure. Indexes are used to quickly locate data without having to search every row in a database table every time a database table is accessed. Indexes can be created using one or more columns of a database table, providing the basis for both rapid random lookups and efficient access of ordered records.
An index is a copy of select columns of data from a table that can be searched very efficiently that also includes a low-level disk block address or direct link to the complete row of data it was copied from. Some databases extend the power of indexing by letting developers create indices on functions or expressions. For example, an index could be created on upper(last_name)
, which would only store the upper case versions of the last_name
field in the index. Another option sometimes supported is the use of partial indices, where index entries are created only for those records that satisfy some conditional expression. A further aspect of flexibility is to permit indexing on user-defined functions, as well as expressions formed from an assortment of built-in functions.
In statistics and research design, an index is a composite statistic – a measure of changes in a representative group of individual data points, or in other words, a compound measure that aggregates multiple indicators. Indexes summarize and rank specific observations.
Much data in the field of social sciences is represented in various indices such as Gender Gap Index, Human Development Index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Item in indexes are usually weighted equally, unless there are some reasons against it (for example, if two items reflect essentially the same aspect of a variable, they could have a weight of 0.5 each).
Constructing the items involves four steps. First, items should be selected based on their face validity, unidimensionality, the degree of specificity in which a dimension is to be measured, and their amount of variance. Items should be empirically related to one another, which leads to the second step of examining their multivariate relationships. Third, indexes scores are designed, which involves determining their score ranges and weights for the items. Finally, indexes should be validateds, which involves testing whether they can predict indicators related to the measured variable not used in their construction.
Nasty may refer to:
In music:
Other uses:
Nasty is a live album released by the funk/R&B group Cameo in 1996. In addition to the live material, two new studio tracks were included: "Come Fly With Me" and the album's title track, both written by Larry Blackmon. The "Mega-Mix" is a remix of the album's live tracks. The new studio tracks on this release were the only newly written material released by the band for the next five albums.
"Nasty" is a song by English recording artist Pixie Lott from her self-titled third studio album (2014). It was released on 7 March 2014 as the album's lead single by Mercury Records. The accompanying music video was filmed in November 2013 and directed by Bryan Barber. A second version featured British band The Vamps was released in the same day only in United Kingdom and Ireland.
"Nasty" was previously recorded by American singer Christina Aguilera in collaboration with CeeLo Green for inclusion on the soundtrack to the 2010 film Burlesque, which stars Aguilera and Cher, but it was ultimately scrapped from the official track listing due to legal issues concerning sample clearance.
"Nasty" was previously recorded by several artists, including Christina Aguilera, who recorded the song as a duet with CeeLo Green for her debut film project Burlesque (2010). However, their version did not make the final track listing due to legal issues concerning sample clearance. After Lott's legal team managed to clear all of the song's samples, the singer recorded her own version of the song and released it as the first single from her self-titled third studio album. In an interview with Metro, Lott explained, "A few other singers had recorded it and Christina was one of them so everyone wanted this song. When I heard other singers had done it I thought 'I need to get this!' It was a difficult song to get because there are so many old-school samples on it, like James Brown, that are hard to clear copyright on. But I got it and now it is my new single."