The present system indexes a plurality of entries in a database that contains a database table having a base index. As a recent row is inserted in the database table, an index increment is generated based on the inserted row. Preferably, the index increment is smaller in size than the base index because it is recently generated. The smaller size of the index increment facilitates the management of the index increment. An index entry associated with the inserted row is added to the index increment, and the index increment is merged with the base index.