This index is ideal for columns that have a very low number of unique values (under 1,000) such as sex, Yes/No, True/False, number of dependents, wage class, and so on. LF is the fastest index in Sybase IQ.
When you test for equality, just one lookup quickly gives the result set. To test for inequality, you may need to examine a few more lookups. Calculations such as SUM, AVG, and COUNT are also very fast with this index.
As the number of unique values in a column increases, performance starts to degrade and memory and disk requirements start to increase for insertions and some queries. When doing equality tests, though, it is still the fastest index, even for columns with many unique values.
