I continue to try and find new ways to make it easier for people to get into the right place in the documentation for the information you are looking for. This week, I’ve added some experimental custom indexes. These use information from the ID mapping process that we use in lots of parts of the documentation to do some interesting stuff. The indexes are an extension of the other areas where we already provide summaries (like the list of options/variables, or functions). These provide quick access into the definition of the function, but not a link to where that function might have been mentioned elsewhere in the documentation. With the indexes, we’ve extended that so that you can now see all of the places within the reference manual where we mention a specific function. This goes beyond the index (which relies on us adding specific tags), and just lists everywhere that we mention a specific option.Currently we only provide the new indexes in the 5.1 manual, in all formats, including online, downloadable and PDFs. The new indexes are:

• Standard Index – this is a version of the standard index, but with some minor improvements and adding extended support for see also and deeper index links.
• C Function Index – indexes all of the C functions used in the libmysql and API.
• Command Index – index all of the commands (mysql, mysqladmin and so on). We are aware of a few aberrations in the index.
• Function Index – an index of all the SQL functions we support.
• INFORMATION_SCHEMA Index – points to all of the uses of the INFORMATION_SCHEMA
• Transaction Isolation Level Index – pointers to all the places we quote different isolation levels.
• JOIN Types Index – examples of the different join types supported in SQL statements.
• Operator Index – SQL operators.
• Option Index – options, both for the server, and client commands.
• Privileges Index – all the different privileges supported through the GRANT syntax.
• SQL Modes Index – where we quote different SQL modes.
• Status Variable Index – status variables
• Statement/Syntax Index – where we use or provide examples of different SQL syntax and statements.
• System Variable Index – pointers to all the different system variables.

I am of course inviting comments and input from people to find out how useful you guys find this information. Assuming nobody has any objections, we’ll start rolling it out to the other reference manuals and documents. Are there any other types of information presented in an index that our readers would like to see? If so, let me know!!