When indexing a couchdb view, you can emit an array as the key such as: emit(["one", "two", "three"], doc); I appreciate the fact that when searching the view, the order is important, but sometimes I would like the view to ignore it. I have thought of a couple of options. 1. By convention, just emit the contents in alphabetical order, and ensure that looking up uses the same convention. 2. Somehow hash in a manner that disregards the order, and emit/search based on that hash. (This is fairly easy, if you simply hash each one individually, "sum" the hashes, then mod.) Note: I'm sure this may be covered somewhere in the authoritative guide, but I was unsuccessful in finding it.