Hi Naomi,

>5. In one of the table we have about 20 or more indexes. About half of them use the exact same index expression, but different tag name.

ASCENDING/DESCENDING is an attribute you've found out already. Two other frequent differences are FOR filters and collate sequences.

Filtered indexes often are introduced when you need to display the entire table in a grid, but need to filter on simple things such as "only printed invoiced", "hide archived records", etc. Since the grid wasn't Rushmore optimizable for a very long time, a filter on the index provided a fast solution.

Collate sequences become important when you need to sort foreign data in their native sort order. Hence, you might have on index with MACHINE for searching and Rushmore optimization, and one with COLLATE for displaying data in a grid.