14.2.13.1. Physical Structure of an Index
All InnoDB indexes are B-trees where the
index records are stored in the leaf pages of the tree. The
default size of an index page is 16KB. When new records are
inserted, InnoDB tries to leave 1/16 of the
page free for future insertions and updates of the index
records.
If index records are inserted in a sequential order (ascending
or descending), the resulting index pages are about 15/16 full.
If records are inserted in a random order, the pages are from
1/2 to 15/16 full. If the fill factor of an index page drops
below 1/2, InnoDB tries to contract the index
tree to free the page.
