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Indexing attribute columns in Precisely MapInfo Extended TAB

  • February 19, 2026
  • 2 replies
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nicholas
Contributor
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I am using the Precisely MapInfo Extended TAB Writer to generate a MapInfo table that is over 2GB (total) in file size. I estimate it should be between 3GB and 4GB in size.

I am indexing five attribute columns in the table.

And the process of indexing the attribute columns is extremely slow.

When I do not index any columns, it takes about 20 minutes to Write the table

With indexing the columns, it can run for twelve hours before I halt the process in frustration to check my process.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Is the Precisely MapInfo Extended TAB Writer just bad at generating indexes?

    2 replies

    j.botterill
    Influencer
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    • j.botterillInfluencer
    • Influencer
    • February 20, 2026

    Indexes are created incrementally during the write

    Each attribute index is written to the .IND file, and the critical point is:

    MapInfo builds attribute indexes row‑by‑row, not as a bulk post-process

     

    Dropping even one index can halve runtime.

    Avoid indexing text fields if at all possible

     

    Consider writing the geometry TAB with minimal attributes

    Write the attributes-only to a DBF

    Join the two in mapinfo downstream

      nicholas
      Contributor
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      • nicholasContributor
      • Author
      • Contributor
      • February 23, 2026

      Hi ​@j.botterill  from where do you get that quote?

      I have been reading the FME help docs on the Precisely MapInfo Extended TAB Writer and I cannot see a mention of “MapInfo builds attribute indexes row‑by‑row, not as a bulk post-process”

      But I may be looking in the wrong place

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