SELECT keyword

SELECT allows you to specify list of columns and expressions to be selected and evaluated from a table.

Syntax

tip

• While ingesting data using ILP, data may not be immediately available to a SELECT query, due to the commit lag setting. Please see the InfluxDB line protocol reference for more information.

• The table can either be in your database (in which case you would pass the table's name), or the result of a sub query.

Simple select

All columns

QuestDB supports SELECT * FROM tablename. When selecting all, you can also omit most of the statement and pass the table name.

The two examples below are equivalent

QuestDB dialect

ratings;

Traditional SQL equivalent

SELECT * FROM ratings;

Specific columns

To select specific columns, replace * by the names of the columns you are interested in.

Example:

SELECT movieId, rating FROM ratings;

Arithmetic expressions

SELECT is capable of evaluating multiple expressions and functions. You can mix comma separated lists of expressions with the column names you are selecting.

SELECT movieId, (100 - rating)*2, rating > 3.5 good

FROM ratings;

The result of rating > 3.5 is a boolean. The column will be named good and take values true or false.

Aliases

Using aliases allow you to give expressions or column names of your choice. You can assign an alias to a column or an expression by writing the alias name you want after that expression

note

Alias names and column names must be unique.

SELECT movieId alias1, rating alias2

FROM ratings

Aggregation

info

Supported aggregation functions are listed on the aggregation reference.

Aggregation by group

QuestDB evaluates aggregation functions without need for traditional GROUP BY. Use a mix of column names and aggregation functions in a SELECT clause. You can have any number of discrete value columns and any number of aggregation functions.

QuestDB dialect

SELECT movieId, avg(rating), count()

FROM ratings;

Traditional SQL equivalent

SELECT movieId, avg(rating), count()

FROM ratings

GROUP BY movieId;

Aggregation arithmetic

Aggregation functions can be used in arithmetic expressions. The following computes mid of rating values for every movie.

SELECT movieId, (min(rating) + max(rating))/2 mid, count() count

FROM ratings;

tip

Whenever possible, it is recommended to perform arithmetic outside of aggregation functions as this can have a dramatic impact on performance. For example, min(value/2) is going to execute considerably more slowly than min(value)/2, although both return the same result.

Supported clauses

QuestDB supports the following standard SQL clauses within SELECT statements.

CASE

Conditional results based on expressions.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the CASE reference

CAST

Convert values and expression between types.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the CAST reference

DISTINCT

Returns distinct values of the specified column(s).

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the DISTINCT reference.

FILL

Defines filling strategy for missing data in aggregation queries. This function complements SAMPLE BY queries.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the FILL reference.

JOIN

Join tables based on a key or timestamp.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the JOIN reference

LIMIT

Specify the number and position of records returned by a query.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the LIMIT reference.

ORDER BY

Orders the results of a query by one or several columns.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the ORDER BY reference

UNION, EXCEPT & INTERSECT

Combine the results of two or more select statements. Can include or ignore duplicates.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the UNION, EXCEPT & INTERSECT reference

WHERE

Filters query results

Syntax

QuestDB supports complex WHERE clauses along with type-specific searches. For more information, please refer to the WHERE reference. There are different syntaxes for text, numeric, or timestamp filters.

Additional time series clauses

QuestDB augments SQL with the following clauses.

LATEST BY

Retrieves the latest entry by timestamp for a given key or combination of keys This function requires a designated timestamp.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the LATEST ON reference.

SAMPLE BY

Aggregates time series data into homogeneous time chunks. For example daily average, monthly maximum etc. This function requires a designated timestamp.

Syntax

For more information, please refer to the SAMPLE BY reference.

TIMESTAMP

Dynamically creates a designated timestamp on the output of a query. This allows to perform timestamp operations like SAMPLE BY or LATEST ON on tables which originally do not have a designated timestamp.

caution

The output query must be ordered by time. TIMESTAMP() does not check for order and using timestamp functions on unordered data may produce unexpected results.

Syntax

For more information, refer to the TIMESTAMP reference