Dynamically Resolving Your ContentSearch Index

I was just chatting with some Sitecore colleagues and a question came up that they couldn't find an answer for. How do you dynamically select the active content search index? This concept is key if your site supports *master* and *web* indexes (which it should). You would take the half-hardcoded approach and do as follows:

// half-hardcoded index resolution

var indexName = String.Format("fishtank_{0}_index", Sitecore.Context.Database.Name);
var index = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex(indexName)

That's fine but what if you only have one index and need select between two differently named indexes like *coveo_web_index* and *sitecore_master_index*? What if you have many indexes? Or what if a hardcoded string had broken your heart and you won't let yourself get hurt again? **Snippet for dynamic index resolution.**

// Dynamic index resolution

var indexable = new SitecoreIndexableItem(Sitecore.Context.Item);
using (var context = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex(indexable).CreateSearchContext()) {
    …
}

Update. This is the original snippet from this post in 2014 for Sitecore 7. This please you the above in Sitecore 8.

// Dynamic index resolution in Sitecore 7

var indexable = Sitecore.Context.Item as SitecoreIndexableItem;
using (var context = ContentSearchManager.GetIndex(indexable).CreateSearchContext()) {
    …
}

No path of broken hearts here! Sorrow begone. Use your current item (or any item) to determine its content search index. This post was authored using [Markdown for Sitecore](/blog/module-markdown-for-sitecore).