---
uid: Lucene.Net.Codecs
summary: *content
---


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Codecs API: API for customization of the encoding and structure of the index.

 The Codec API allows you to customise the way the following pieces of index information are stored: * Postings lists - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.PostingsFormat> * DocValues - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.DocValuesFormat> * Stored fields - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.StoredFieldsFormat> * Term vectors - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.TermVectorsFormat> * FieldInfos - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.FieldInfosFormat> * SegmentInfo - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.SegmentInfoFormat> * Norms - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.NormsFormat> * Live documents - see <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.LiveDocsFormat> 

  For some concrete implementations beyond Lucene's official index format, see
  the [Codecs module]({@docRoot}/../codecs/overview-summary.html).

 Codecs are identified by name through the Java Service Provider Interface. To create your own codec, extend <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.Codec> and pass the new codec's name to the super() constructor: public class MyCodec extends Codec { public MyCodec() { super("MyCodecName"); } ... } You will need to register the Codec class so that the {@link java.util.ServiceLoader ServiceLoader} can find it, by including a META-INF/services/org.apache.lucene.codecs.Codec file on your classpath that contains the package-qualified name of your codec. 

 If you just want to customise the <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.PostingsFormat>, or use different postings formats for different fields, then you can register your custom postings format in the same way (in META-INF/services/org.apache.lucene.codecs.PostingsFormat), and then extend the default <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.Lucene46.Lucene46Codec> and override [#getPostingsFormatForField(String)](xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.Lucene46.Lucene46Codec) to return your custom postings format. 

 Similarly, if you just want to customise the <xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.DocValuesFormat> per-field, have a look at [#getDocValuesFormatForField(String)](xref:Lucene.Net.Codecs.Lucene46.Lucene46Codec). 