SELECT

Retrieves data from a table.

Syntax

[with_clause]
SELECT
[ALL | DISTINCT | DISTINCTROW]
select_expr [[AS] alias], ...
[COLLATE collation]
[INTO variable [, ...]]
[ FROM table_references
[WHERE expr]
[GROUP BY [{{col_name | expr | position}, ...} | ALL]]
| extended_grouping_expr}]
[HAVING expr]
[ORDER BY [{col_name | expr | position} [ASC | DESC ][ NULLS {FIRST | LAST}], ... | ALL]]
[LIMIT {[offset,] row_count | row_count OFFSET offset}]
[FOR UPDATE]
]
[{ INTO OUTFILE 'file_name' |
INTO FS 'destination_directory/file_name' [WITH COMPRESSION] |
INTO S3 bucket/target CONFIG configuration_json CREDENTIALS credentials_json [WITH COMPRESSION] |
INTO HDFS '<hdfs://<namenode DNS> | <IP address>:<port>/<directory>' [ CONFIG configuration_json ] |
INTO GCS bucket/path CONFIG configuration_json CREDENTIALS credentials_json [WITH COMPRESSION] |
INTO KAFKA kafka_topic_endpoint [kafka_configuration] [kafka_credentials] [KAFKA KEY <column_name>] |
INTO AZURE "container/blob-prefix" CREDENTIALS credentials_json [WITH COMPRESSION]
}
[format_options]
]
[INTO LINK [db name.]connection_name 'backup path']
format_options:
csv_options | external_format_options
csv_options:
[{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
[TERMINATED BY 'string']
[[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
[ESCAPED BY 'char']
]
[LINES
[STARTING BY 'string']
[TERMINATED BY 'string']
]
external_format_options:
FORMAT PARQUET
table_references:
table_factor | join_table
table_factor:
tbl_name [[AS] alias] [sample_ratio_clause]
| (subquery) [[AS] alias]

Remarks

  • The join_table clause is documented in JOIN and Subqueries.

  • The join and using clause is documented in JOIN and USING.

  • The LATERAL keyword can be placed before any subquery (also known as a lateral derived table) used as an inner table within a join. Refer to Lateral Join for details.

  • COLLATE specifies the collation of a string literal.

    SELECT "My string literal" COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
  • CONFIG and CREDENTIALS can be specified in either order (CONFIG followed by CREDENTIALS or CREDENTIALS followed by CONFIG). For configuration examples refer BACKUP DATABASE

  • format_options clauses are documented in the Format Options section.

  • sample_ratio_clause is documented in the SELECT … WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) section.

  • with_clause is documented on the WITH (Common Table Expressions) page.

  • If you are querying against a columnstore table with a FULLTEXT index defined, see MATCH and HIGHLIGHT for syntax and examples on how to do full-text search queries.

  • Non-aggregated data can also be transformed into a pivot table output format. See PIVOT for syntax and examples.

  • extended_grouping_expr clauses include CUBE and ROLLUP. See CUBE and ROLLUP for syntax and examples.

  • A subquery does not require an alias, assuming that removing the alias does not create ambiguity.

  • In a transaction, you can read from multiple databases.

  • This command must be run on the master aggregator or a child aggregator node (see Cluster Management Commands).

  • You can specify a table named DUAL as a placeholder table for use with queries that do not reference a table. DUAL contains one logical row. This convenience is provided for situations where you may be required to include a FROM clause in every SQL statement, even statements that do not need one in order to function. It can also help when porting applications from other database products that support DUAL.

    SELECT CURRENT_DATE from DUAL;
    +--------------+
    | CURRENT_DATE |
    +--------------+
    | 2023-04-03   |
    +--------------+

    SELECT CURRENT_DATE from DUAL is identical to SELECT CURRENT_DATE.

    SELECT CURRENT_DATE;
    +--------------+
    | CURRENT_DATE |
    +--------------+
    | 2023-04-03   |
    +--------------+
  • A column expression can reference a column alias. For example, in the query SELECT a + b as c, c + 10 FROM t;, the column expression c + 10 references the column alias c.

  • A WHERE clause can reference a column alias. For example, in the query SELECT a + b as c FROM t WHERE c < 100;, the WHERE clause references the column alias c.

  • A HAVING clause can reference a column alias. For example, in the query SELECT a + 50 as b,COUNT(*) FROM t GROUP BY a HAVING b < 1000;, the HAVING clause references the column alias b.

  • Queries using the WHERE. . .IN clause with multiple columns is not supported.

    SELECT * FROM <table_name_1> WHERE (column_name_1, column_name_2) IN (SELECT column_name_1, column_name_2 FROM <table_name_2>;)
  • The following table and dataset were used for the examples

    CREATE TABLE assets(
    asset_id INT,
    asset_type VARCHAR(50),
    asset_desc VARCHAR(50),
    asset_value DECIMAL(6,2),
    emp_id NUMERIC (5));
    INSERT INTO assets VALUES('1049','laptop','mac_book_pro','1999.00','14'),
    ('49', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_12','879.00','102'),
    ('1100', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro','1999.00','298'),
    ('2037', 'laptop', 'mac_book_air_M2','1199.00', '399'),
    ('58', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_12', '879.00','410'),
    ('130', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_13', '699','110'),
    ('210', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro','2500.00','312'),
    ('111', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro','2100.00', '089'),
    ('099', 'laptop', 'mac_book_air_M1','999','075'),
    ('140', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_13_pro','999.00', '263'),
    ('2100', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro_M2', '2500.00', '691'),
    ('160', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_14_pro_max','1200.00', '691'),
    ('2110', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro_M2', '2500.00', '817'),
    ('2120', 'laptop', 'mac_book_pro_M2', '2500.00', NULL),
    ('150', 'cell_phone', 'iphone_14_pro_','1100.00', NULL);
  • NULLS FIRST and NULLS LAST added to an ORDER BY clause sorts NULL values to the beginning or end of the results set. Ascending order is assumed for the non-NULL values. DESC can be added to the clause to order the non-NULL values in descending order.

    SELECT * FROM assets ORDER BY emp_id NULLS FIRST;
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    | asset_id | asset_type | asset_desc        | asset_value | emp_id |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    |     2120 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |   NULL |
    |      150 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_    |     1100.00 |   NULL |
    |     1049 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |     14 |
    |       99 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M1   |      999.00 |     75 |
    |      111 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2100.00 |     89 |
    |       49 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    102 |
    |      130 | cell_phone | iphone_13         |      699.00 |    110 |
    |      140 | cell_phone | iphone_13_pro     |      999.00 |    263 |
    |     1100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |    298 |
    |      210 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2500.00 |    312 |
    |     2037 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M2   |     1199.00 |    399 |
    |       58 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    410 |
    |     2100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    691 |
    |      160 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_max |     1200.00 |    691 |
    |     2110 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    817 |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    SELECT * FROM assets ORDER BY emp_id DESC NULLS FIRST;
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    | asset_id | asset_type | asset_desc        | asset_value | emp_id |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    |      150 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_    |     1100.00 |   NULL |
    |     2120 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |   NULL |
    |     2110 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    817 |
    |     2100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    691 |
    |      160 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_max |     1200.00 |    691 |
    |       58 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    410 |
    |     2037 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M2   |     1199.00 |    399 |
    |      210 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2500.00 |    312 |
    |     1100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |    298 |
    |      140 | cell_phone | iphone_13_pro     |      999.00 |    263 |
    |      130 | cell_phone | iphone_13         |      699.00 |    110 |
    |       49 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    102 |
    |      111 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2100.00 |     89 |
    |       99 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M1   |      999.00 |     75 |
    |     1049 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |     14 |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    SELECT * FROM assets ORDER BY emp_id DESC NULLS LAST;
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    | asset_id | asset_type | asset_desc        | asset_value | emp_id |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
    |     2110 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    817 |
    |     2100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |    691 |
    |      160 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_max |     1200.00 |    691 |
    |       58 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    410 |
    |     2037 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M2   |     1199.00 |    399 |
    |      210 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2500.00 |    312 |
    |     1100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |    298 |
    |      140 | cell_phone | iphone_13_pro     |      999.00 |    263 |
    |      130 | cell_phone | iphone_13         |      699.00 |    110 |
    |       49 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |      879.00 |    102 |
    |      111 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     2100.00 |     89 |
    |       99 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M1   |      999.00 |     75 |
    |     1049 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |     1999.00 |     14 |
    |      150 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_    |     1100.00 |   NULL |
    |     2120 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |     2500.00 |   NULL |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+-------------+--------+
  • ORDER BY ALL sorts by all the columns in the same order they are written. ASC/DESC may be used but it will apply to all the columns.

    SELECT asset_id, asset_type, asset_desc FROM assets ORDER BY ALL;
    +----------+------------+-------------------+
    | asset_id | asset_type | asset_desc        |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+
    |       49 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |
    |       58 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |
    |       99 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M1   |
    |      111 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |
    |      130 | cell_phone | iphone_13         |
    |      140 | cell_phone | iphone_13_pro     |
    |      150 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_    |
    |      160 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_max |
    |      210 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |
    |     1049 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |
    |     1100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |
    |     2037 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M2   |
    |     2100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |
    |     2110 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |
    |     2120 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+
  • The GROUP BY clause is used with a SELECT statement to organize data into GROUPS. Aggregates are applied within those groups. One row of output is produced for each unique combination of values for the specified grouping expressions.

    SELECT asset_type, SUM(asset_value) AS total_value
    FROM assets GROUP BY asset_type;
    +------------+-------------+
    | asset_type | total_value |
    +------------+-------------+
    | cell_phone |     5756.00 |
    | laptop     |    18296.00 |
    +------------+-------------+
  • The GROUP BY ALL clause causes the query to group by all non-aggregate expressions in the SELECT list, so all the columns to be grouped by do not have to be entered explicitly.

    SELECT asset_id, asset_type, asset_desc, SUM(asset_value)
    FROM assets GROUP BY asset_id, asset_type, asset_desc;
    SELECT asset_id, asset_type, asset_desc, SUM(asset_value)
    FROM assets GROUP BY ALL;
    +----------+------------+-------------------+------------------+
    | asset_id | asset_type | asset_desc        | SUM(asset_value) |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+------------------+
    |      160 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_max |          1200.00 |
    |     2100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |          2500.00 |
    |     2110 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |          2500.00 |
    |      140 | cell_phone | iphone_13_pro     |           999.00 |
    |       99 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M1   |           999.00 |
    |      210 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |          2500.00 |
    |      150 | cell_phone | iphone_14_pro_    |          1100.00 |
    |       58 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |           879.00 |
    |       49 | cell_phone | iphone_12         |           879.00 |
    |     1049 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |          1999.00 |
    |     2120 | laptop     | mac_book_pro_M2   |          2500.00 |
    |     1100 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |          1999.00 |
    |      130 | cell_phone | iphone_13         |           699.00 |
    |     2037 | laptop     | mac_book_air_M2   |          1199.00 |
    |      111 | laptop     | mac_book_pro      |          2100.00 |
    +----------+------------+-------------------+------------------+
  • Below is an S3 example for SELECT * FROM <TABLE> INTO OUTFILE using compression.

    SELECT * FROM <table_name> into S3 's3://<bucket_name>/<filename>'
    CONFIG '{"region":"us-east-1"}'
    CREDENTIALS
    {"aws_access_key_id": "<xxxxxxxx>",
    "aws_secret_access_key": "<xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>"}'
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
    WITH COMPRESSION GZIP;

Aggregations for Expression Syntax

SingleStore supports these Aggregate Functions for expression syntax in SELECT statements:

All aggregate functions exclude NULLs from their computations. For example, SELECT COUNT(c) FROM t returns the number of rows in t where c is not NULL. SELECT AVG(c) FROM t returns the average of the non-NULL c’s in t.

COUNT(*) is equivalent to COUNT(1). It counts every row matching the query, even rows whose column data contain nothing but NULLs.

SELECT … LIMIT

Syntax

LIMIT {[offset,] row_count | row_count OFFSET offset}

Remarks

  • The LIMIT clause constrains the number of rows returned by the SELECT statement.

  • Both the arguments must be non-negative integer constants.

  • The row_count specifies the number of rows to return from the beginning of the result set, and the offset specifies the offset of the first row to return.

  • The offset of the first row in a table is 0 (not 1).

Examples

SELECT * FROM hrRec;
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| FirstName | LastName  | City     | Tenure |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| Adam      | Gale      | Brooklyn |     40 |
| Samantha  | Beck      | New York |     44 |
| Clara     | Wakefield | DC       |     24 |
| Todd      | Bridges   | DC       |     30 |
| Ron       | Fletcher  | New York |     23 |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
SELECT * FROM hrRec LIMIT 2;
+-----------+----------+----------+--------+
| FirstName | LastName | City     | Tenure |
+-----------+----------+----------+--------+
| Adam      | Gale     | Brooklyn |     40 |
| Samantha  | Beck     | New York |     44 |
+-----------+----------+----------+--------+
SELECT * FROM hrRec LIMIT 1,2;
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| FirstName | LastName  | City     | Tenure |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| Samantha  | Beck      | New York |     44 |
| Clara     | Wakefield | DC       |     24 |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
SELECT * FROM hrRec LIMIT 2 OFFSET 1;
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| FirstName | LastName  | City     | Tenure |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+
| Samantha  | Beck      | New York |     44 |
| Clara     | Wakefield | DC       |     24 |
+-----------+-----------+----------+--------+

SELECT … FOR UPDATE

The SELECT ... FOR UPDATE command is intended to be used inside of a transaction. This command takes write locks on the rows returned from the SELECT query and the locks are held until the end of the transaction. Other transactions are blocked and cannot write to the locked rows until the locks are released.

SingleStore recommends the following when using SELECT ... FOR UPDATE:

  • SingleStore recommends to commit or abort the transaction immediately so that the locks are released. Too many locks in a transaction can result in a huge queue of transactions waiting on the locked rows.

  • To limit the number of rows that are locked, SingleStore recommends to use a column with unique values in the WHERE clause of the SELECT statement, for example the PRIMARY KEY column.

Example

The following example uses the Orders table:

DESCRIBE Orders;
+--------------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+
| Field        | Type        | Null | Key  | Default | Extra |
+--------------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+
| OrderNumber  | int(11)     | NO   | PRI  | NULL    |       |
| Status       | varchar(20) | NO   |      | NULL    |       |
| CustomerName | char(20)    | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
+--------------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+
SELECT * FROM Orders;
+-------------+------------+--------------+
| OrderNumber | Status     | CustomerName |
+-------------+------------+--------------+
|           1 | Delivered  | John         |
|           3 | In Transit | Bon          |
|           2 | Delivered  | Kerry        |
|           4 | Delivered  | Tom          |
+-------------+------------+--------------+

The following transaction locks the row where OrderNumber is 3, using the FOR UPDATE clause. The row will remain locked as long as the transaction is open.

BEGIN;
SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE OrderNumber = 3 FOR UPDATE;
+-------------+------------+--------------+
| OrderNumber | Status     | CustomerName |
+-------------+------------+--------------+
|           3 | In Transit | Bon          |
+-------------+------------+--------------+

Now, execute the following query in a different connection:

UPDATE Orders SET Status = "Delivered" WHERE OrderNumber=3;
ERROR 1205 (HY000): Leaf Error (127.0.0.1:3307): Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction.  Lock owned by connection id 77, query `open idle transaction`

The above query returns an error since the rows are locked by the previous transaction. To remove the lock on the rows, commit or rollback the open transaction. See the Query Errors topic for more information on locked rows.

JOIN and Subqueries

Syntax

SingleStore supports the following JOIN and subquery syntax for the table_reference part of SELECT statements:

join_table:
           table_reference {LEFT | RIGHT | FULL} [OUTER] JOIN table_factor join_condition
         | table_reference [INNER | CROSS] JOIN table_factor [join_condition]
         | table_reference NATURAL {LEFT | RIGHT} [OUTER] JOIN table_factor
         | table_reference STRAIGHT_JOIN table_factor [join_condition]
         | table_reference, table_factor
         | table_reference LEFT [OUTER] JOIN LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias] join_condition
         | table_reference [INNER | CROSS] JOIN LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias] [join_condition]
         | table_reference, LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias]


join_condition:
         ON conditional_expr

Remarks

  • This command must be run on the master aggregator or a child aggregator node (see Cluster Management Commands)

  • STRAIGHT_JOIN forces tables to be joined in the order in which they are listed in the FROM clause

  • FULL OUTER JOIN requires the join condition to be an equality.

  • SingleStore supports joining tables across databases:

    CREATE DATABASE test1;
    USE test1;
    CREATE TABLE t1(id INT, col1 VARCHAR(10));
    CREATE DATABASE test2;
    USE test2;
    CREATE TABLE t2(id INT, col1 VARCHAR(10));
    SELECT test1.t1.*, test2.t2.* FROM test1.t1 JOIN test2.t2 ON t1.id = t2.id;

Examples

SELECT * FROM my_MemSQL_table WHERE col = 1;
SELECT COUNT(*), user_name, page_url from clicks, users, pages
-> WHERE clicks.user_id = users.user_id AND pages.page_id = clicks.page_id
-> GROUP BY users.user_id, pages.page_id
-> ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC;
+- ---------+- ----------+- -------------------------------+
| COUNT(*) | user_name | page_url |
+- ---------+- ----------+- -------------------------------+
| 5 | jake | memsql.com |
| 2 | john | http://www.singlestore.com/download |
| 1 | jake | docs.singlestore.com |
| 1 | jake | memsql.com |
| 1 | jake | http://www.singlestore.com/download |
+- ---------+- ----------+- -------------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)
SELECT t1.*, t2.* FROM t1 FULL OUTER JOIN t2 ON t1.a = t2.a;

Nested Scalar Sub-Selects

SELECT statements can be nested in SingleStore queries.

SELECT ... [SELECT ...[SELECT [...]]]

Remarks

  • For scalar sub-selects, sub-select queries must not return more than one row.

  • The maximum allowed depth of nested sub-select queries is 40.

  • Sub-selects are not supported inside GROUP BY/ORDER BY/HAVING clauses, for nested sub-select queries of depth > 2.

Examples

The following examples show the use of nested sub-selects.

SELECT cust_id FROM customers
WHERE EXISTS
( SELECT order_id FROM orders
WHERE order_id IN
( SELECT id FROM transaction WHERE count > 5)
);
DELETE FROM records
WHERE
id = ( SELECT order_id
FROM orders
WHERE order_date > ( SELECT CURRENT_DATE() + 30)
);

Lateral Join

Lateral join allows a subquery in the FROM clause of a SQL query to reference another table in that same FROM clause. Typically such references are not allowed in SQL; by using the LATERAL keyword such references are allowed.

For example, the following query will generate an error because the subquery (SELECT b FROM t2 WHERE b = t1.a) references t1 which is not allowed.

SELECT *
FROM t1 LEFT JOIN (SELECT b FROM t2 WHERE b = t1.a) AS t3 ...;

Adding the LATERAL keyword before the subquery, as shown below, makes the reference to t1 allowed and the following query is legal. This query is called a lateral join, the subquery (SELECT b from t2 WHERE b = t1.a) is referred to as a lateral derived table, and the clause b = t1.a is referred to as the correlating condition.

SELECT *
FROM t1 LEFT JOIN LATERAL (SELECT b FROM t2 WHERE b = t1.a) AS t3 ...;

Syntax

Lateral joins use the same syntax as joins with the LATERAL keyword inserted before the lateral derived table as shown in the queries above. The syntax for lateral join is below.

join_table:
table_reference LEFT [OUTER] JOIN LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias] join_condition
| table_reference [INNER | CROSS] JOIN LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias] [join_condition]
| table_reference, LATERAL (subquery) [[AS] alias]
join_condition:
ON conditional_expr

The (subquery) [[AS] alias] clause is referred to as the lateral derived table.

Remarks

The following are restrictions on lateral join:

  • Lateral derived tables can appear only in FROM clauses. A comma-separated list of tables or a join specification with JOIN, INNER JOIN, CROSS JOIN, LEFT [OUTER] JOIN are supported.

  • The correlating condition can appear only in the WHERE clause of the lateral derived table.

  • The correlating condition must be an equality condition (uses =).

  • The correlating condition may use AND, but may not use OR.

  • Lateral derived tables may not use GROUP BY.

  • If a lateral derived table references an aggregate function, the function's aggregation query cannot be the one that owns the FROM clause in which the lateral derived table occurs.

  • If the lateral derived table has an ORDER BY … LIMIT clause, then the LIMIT must be >0.

  • TABLE functions are implicitly executed as a lateral join. The LATERAL keyword is not allowed before TABLE functions.

Examples

These examples use a table of artists and a table of albums by those artists. For simplicity we assume that each album is created by a single artist.

The statements below create artists and albums tables and insert data into those tables. Albums are linked to artists through the artist_id. Sales are in units of millions of dollars and the data is courtesy of List of best-selling albums - Wikipedia.

CREATE TABLE artists(id INT, name TEXT);
CREATE TABLE albums(album_id INT, title TEXT,
genre ENUM("R&B", "Soft Rock", "Jazz"),
artist_id INT, sales DOUBLE);
INSERT INTO artists VALUES
(1, "Fleetwood Mac"),
(2, "Whitney Huston"),
(3, "The Eagles"),
(4, "Norah Jones"),
(5, "ABBA");
INSERT INTO albums VALUES
(1, "The Bodyguard", "R&B", 2, 45),
(2, "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)", "Soft Rock", 3, 44),
(3, "Hotel California", "Soft Rock", 3, 42),
(4, "Rumours", "Soft Rock", 1, 40),
(5, "Come Away with Me", "Jazz", 4, 28);

Example 1 - INNER JOIN - Maximum Album Sales by Artist

The following query calculates, for each artist, the sales of their highest-selling album. This query can be written with LATERAL or with a GROUP BY as shown below.

The query below uses a comma-separated list of tables to specify the join.

SELECT AR.name, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists AR,
LATERAL (SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
+----------------+-----------+
| name           | max_sales |
+----------------+-----------+
| Whitney Huston |        45 |
| The Eagles     |        44 |
| Fleetwood Mac  |        40 |
| Norah Jones    |        28 |
+----------------+-----------+

LATERAL can also be used with a JOIN specification as shown in the query below.

SELECT AR.name, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists AR
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
+----------------+-----------+
| name           | max_sales |
+----------------+-----------+
| Whitney Huston |        45 |
| The Eagles     |        44 |
| Fleetwood Mac  |        40 |
| Norah Jones    |        28 |
+----------------+-----------+

The query below shows the same query with a GROUP BY instead of a LATERAL.

SELECT name, MAX(sales)
FROM artists JOIN albums ON artists.id = albums.artist_id
GROUP BY artists.id
ORDER BY sales DESC;
+----------------+------------+
| name           | MAX(sales) |
+----------------+------------+
| Whitney Huston |         45 |
| The Eagles     |         44 |
| Fleetwood Mac  |         40 |
| Norah Jones    |         28 |
+----------------+------------+

Example 2 - LEFT JOIN - Include Artists with No Album Sales Data

The queries in Example 1 found the maximum album sales for each artist, but did not include artists without album sales data. Including those artists requires a LEFT JOIN.

The following query uses LEFT JOIN LATERAL to find the maximum sales of any album by an artist including artists for which there is no album sales data. This query cannot be done with a GROUP BY. This query can also be written with the syntax LEFT OUTER JOIN.

LEFT JOIN requires a join condition, thus an ON clause is required despite the fact that the join is specified in the lateral derived table. Thus this query uses an empty join clause (ON = TRUE). The syntax INNER JOIN LATERAL could also be in this query.

SELECT AR.name, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists AR
LEFT JOIN LATERAL (SELECT sales, MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
+----------------+-----------+
| name           | max_sales |
+----------------+-----------+
| Whitney Huston |        45 |
| The Eagles     |        44 |
| Fleetwood Mac  |        40 |
| Norah Jones    |        28 |
| ABBA           |      NULL |
+----------------+-----------+

Example 3 - Most Sales by Artist - With Album Name

The queries in Example 1 found the maximum album sales for each artist, but did not include the title of the album with those sales. The query below shows the artist, the album, and the sales for the album with the maximum sales for that artist. If two albums have equivalent maximum sales for an artist, both will be listed.

SELECT AR.name AS artist, AL2.title, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists AR
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1 ON TRUE
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT title
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id
AND sales = AL1.max_sales) AS AL2 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
+----------------+---------------------------------+-----------+
| artist         | title                           | max_sales |
+----------------+---------------------------------+-----------+
| Whitney Huston | The Bodyguard                   |        45 |
| The Eagles     | Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) |        44 |
| Fleetwood Mac  | Rumours                         |        40 |
| Norah Jones    | Come Away with Me               |        28 |
+----------------+---------------------------------+-----------+

Lateral joins are implemented with query rewrites. The command EXPLAIN DUPLICATE can be used to show the rewritten query. Below is the rewritten query that finds artist, album, and max sales. This query includes several subqueries. Using LATERAL can often simplify a query.

EXPLAIN DUPLICATE
SELECT AR.name AS artist, AL2.title, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists AR
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1 ON TRUE
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT title
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id
AND sales = AL1.max_sales) AS AL2 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
SELECT `artists_4`.`name` AS `artist`, `SUBQ_VWW_2_6`.`title` AS `title`, 
       `SUBQ_VWW_1_5`.`max_sales` AS `max_sales` 
FROM (( ( 
  SELECT WITH(NO_MERGE_THIS_SELECT=1) `artists_4_0`.`name` AS `name`,     
        `artists_4_0`.`id` AS `id` 
  FROM  `test`.`artists` as `artists_4_0`  ) AS `artists_4` 
  JOIN  (
    SELECT WITH(NO_MERGE_THIS_SELECT=1) `SUBQ_VWW_1_5_0`.
      `max_sales` AS `max_sales`, `SUBQ_VWW_1_5_0`.`artist_id` AS `artist_id` 
    FROM  ( 
      SELECT `albums_2`.`artist_id` AS `artist_id`, 
             MAX(`albums_2`.`sales`) AS `max_sales` 
      FROM  `test`.`albums` as `albums_2`  GROUP BY 1 ) AS `SUBQ_VWW_1_5_0` ) 
                                                    AS `SUBQ_VWW_1_5`) 
   JOIN  ( 
    SELECT WITH(NO_MERGE_THIS_SELECT=1) `SUBQ_VWW_2_6_0`.`title` AS `title`,
       `SUBQ_VWW_2_6_0`.`artist_id` AS `artist_id`, 
       `SUBQ_VWW_2_6_0`.`sales` AS `sales` 
    FROM  `test`.`albums` as `SUBQ_VWW_2_6_0`  ) AS `SUBQ_VWW_2_6`) 
WHERE ((`SUBQ_VWW_2_6`.`artist_id` = `artists_4`.`id`) 
 AND (`SUBQ_VWW_2_6`.`sales` = `SUBQ_VWW_1_5`.`max_sales`) 
 AND (`SUBQ_VWW_1_5`.`artist_id` = `artists_4`.`id`) 
 AND (`SUBQ_VWW_1_5`.`artist_id` = `SUBQ_VWW_2_6`.`artist_id`)) 
ORDER BY 3 DESC

Example 4 - Album with the Most Sales by Genre

This example attempts to find the albums with the most sales by genre. Two queries which might be tried to answer this question, but which do not work, are shown below followed by a use of LATERAL which does work to answer this question. This exemplifies situations in which a user should consider using LATERAL.

The following is an attempt to find albums with the most sales by genre using a GROUP BY. This query is legal, but it generates only the max sales by genre, it does not include the album titles.

SELECT genre, MAX(sales)
FROM albums
GROUP BY genre;
+-----------+------------+
| genre     | MAX(sales) |
+-----------+------------+
| R&B       |         45 |
| Jazz      |         28 |
| Soft Rock |         44 |
+-----------+------------+

To try to add the album titles, the query below adds the album title to the SELECT statement. If using ANSI SQL this query will generate an error as the title is not in the GROUP BY attributes. If ANSI SQL is not used, this query will generate a warning and may generate unexpected results.

SELECT genre, title, MAX(sales)
FROM albums
GROUP BY genre;

Query run with strict ANSI SQL and the error message produced.

SET SQL_MODE = ANSI;
SELECT genre, title, MAX(sales)
FROM albums
GROUP BY genre;
ERROR 2295 (HY000): Column 'albums.title' from project list 
is used outside an aggregate function and does not appear in 
the GROUP BY clause. This is illegal because there may be 
multiple possible values for the field. If it is in fact 
uniquely determined, or if you wish to use one of the many 
possible values, you can use the ANY_VALUE aggregate function.

Query run without strict ANSI SQL and the warnings produced. The warnings can be seen with SHOW WARNINGS; however, those warnings only occur the first time the query is run.

SELECT genre, title, MAX(sales)
FROM albums
GROUP BY genre;
SHOW WARNINGS;
Warning | 2295 | Column 'albums.title' from project list is used 
outside an aggregate function and does not appear in the GROUP BY 
clause. This is illegal because there may be multiple possible values 
for the field. If it is in fact uniquely determined, or if you wish to 
use one of the many possible values, you can use the ANY_VALUE aggregate 
function.

Finally, the query below uses JOIN LATERAL to find the albums with the most sales by genre. The table reference AL must be used in the inner queries to refer to the albums table instance in the outer query.

SELECT AL2.genre, AL2.title, AL1.max_sales
FROM albums AL
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums
WHERE genre = AL.genre) AS AL1 ON TRUE
JOIN LATERAL (SELECT title, genre
FROM albums
WHERE title = AL.title
AND genre = AL.genre
AND sales = AL1.max_sales) AS AL2 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
+-----------+---------------------------------+-----------+
| genre     | title                           | max_sales |
+-----------+---------------------------------+-----------+
| R&B       | The Bodyguard                   |        45 |
| Soft Rock | Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) |        44 |
| Jazz      | Come Away with Me               |        28 |
+-----------+---------------------------------+-----------+

If the dataset was larger and the request was to find the top 10 best selling albums per genre, that query will require a LATERAL or alternatively a window function.

Example 5 - TABLE

When the TABLE keyword is used, there is an implicit lateral join. As a result, the LATERAL keyword is not allowed to be used with TABLE. The first query below which joins a table t with a TABLE expression is allowed; the second query will return an error.

SELECT * FROM t, TABLE(JSON_TO_ARRAY('[1,2,3]'));
SELECT * FROM t, LATERAL TABLE(JSON_TO_ARRAY('[1,2,3]'));

Example 6 - RIGHT JOIN

RIGHT JOIN LATERAL is not supported and will produce the following error.

SELECT artists.name, AL1.max_sales
FROM artists
RIGHT JOIN LATERAL (SELECT sales, MAX(sales) as max_sales
FROM albums WHERE artist_id = artists.id) AS AL1 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL1.max_sales DESC;
ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'artists' in 'previous table'

Example 7 - Access to Multiple Levels Up

Lateral joins can reference fields from more than one level up in the query tree. The query below is the same as in Example 1 except that it outputs sales in dollars instead of millions of dollars. In this query the clause AR.id references a table two levels up in the query tree.

SELECT AR.name AS artist, AL2.max_sales
FROM artists AR
JOIN LATERAL
(SELECT FORMAT(AL1.max_sales_in_mil*1000000,0) as max_sales
FROM
(SELECT MAX(sales) as max_sales_in_mil
FROM albums
WHERE artist_id = AR.id) AS AL1
) AS AL2 ON TRUE
ORDER BY AL2.max_sales DESC;
+----------------+------------+
| artist         | max_sales  |
+----------------+------------+
| Whitney Huston | 45,000,000 |
| The Eagles     | 44,000,000 |
| Fleetwood Mac  | 40,000,000 |
| Norah Jones    | 28,000,000 |
+----------------+------------+

JOIN and USING

Syntax

Using a JOIN clause with the USING clause will match only one column when there are more than one columns that match.

SELECT <table1_name>.<column_name> AS <column_name>
FROM <table_name> JOIN <table_name> USING (<column_name>);

Remarks

  • You can utilize the USING clause instead of the ON clause in JOIN operations with an explicit JOIN clause.

Examples

TABLE 1:
CREATE TABLE assets(
asset_id int,
asset_type varchar(50),
asset_desc varchar(50),
emp_id numeric (5)
);
TABLE 2:
CREATE TABLE
employees(
emp_id numeric (5),
emp_name varchar(75)
);
SELECT employees.emp_name AS employees, asset_desc as assets, assets.asset_type
    FROM assets JOIN employees USING (emp_id);
+------------------------------------+
|employees |assets      |asset_type  |
+------------------------------------+
|T_Willams |macbook pro | laptop     |
+------------------------------------+
|A_Young   |iphone 12   | cell phone |
+------------------------------------+
|D_Karras  |macbook air | laptop     |
+------------------------------------+

SELECT … INTO <variable>

SELECT ... INTO variable statement is used to initialize variables in stored procedures, anonymous code blocks, and session variables. It allows you to query a single value, a single column, or multiple columns from one or more tables and store the selected values into variable(s).

For information about creating user defined variables for use outside of stored procedures, see User-Defined Variables.

Remarks

  • The SELECT ... INTO statement must return only a single result row.

  • The number of columns/expressions in the SELECT query must be the same as the number of variables being initialized in the INTO list.

  • SELECT ... INTO variable statements must be used inside PSQL procedure blocks.

  • The INTO variable clause can only be used once inside a SELECT query.

  • A SELECT ... INTO statement cannot be used inside of a sub-select query.

  • The variables in SELECT ... INTO statements must be declared with scalar data types.

  • SELECT ... INTO variable and SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE/S3/KAFKA cannot be used in the same query.

  • If the SELECT ... INTO statement returns 0 rows, SingleStore throws an error: ER_INTO_VARIABLES_NO_ROWS. To accommodate for this error, you can specify an EXCEPTION in the DECLARE block of a stored procedure (see Example 3 below).

Examples

Note: The following examples use the hrRec table.

DESC hrRec;
+-----------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+
| Field     | Type        | Null | Key  | Default | Extra |
+-----------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+
| FirstName | varchar(20) | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| LastName  | varchar(20) | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| City      | varchar(20) | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
| Tenure    | int(11)     | YES  |      | NULL    |       |
+-----------+-------------+------+------+---------+-------+

Example 1

The following example queries multiple columns from a single row and stores them in variables.

DELIMITER //
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE into_var ()
AS
DECLARE
fname VARCHAR(20); lname VARCHAR(20); city VARCHAR(20); ten INT;
BEGIN
SELECT FirstName, LastName, City, Tenure
INTO fname, lname, city, ten
FROM hrRec
WHERE Tenure > 40;
ECHO SELECT CONCAT(fname, " ", lname) AS "Name", city AS "City", ten AS "Tenure";
END //
DELIMITER ;
CALL into_var();
+---------------+----------+--------+
| Name          | City     | Tenure |
+---------------+----------+--------+
| Samantha Beck | New York |     44 |
+---------------+----------+--------+

Example 2

The following example queries multiple aggregate functions and stores their values in variables.

DELIMITER //
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE into_var () AS
DECLARE
row_c INT; sum_t INT;
BEGIN
SELECT COUNT(*), SUM(Tenure) INTO row_c, sum_t FROM hrRec;
ECHO SELECT row_c AS "Row Count", sum_t AS "Tenure";
END //
DELIMITER ;
CALL into_var();
+-----------+--------+
| Row Count | Tenure |
+-----------+--------+
|         5 |    170 |
+-----------+--------+

Alternatively, you can query the values in a dynamic query and store them in variables, like

DELIMITER //
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE into_var () AS
DECLARE
row_c INT; sum_t INT; qry VARCHAR(50);
BEGIN
qry = "SELECT COUNT(*), SUM(Tenure) FROM hrRec";
EXECUTE IMMEDIATE qry INTO row_c, sum_t;
ECHO SELECT row_c AS "Row Count", sum_t AS "Tenure";
END //
DELIMITER ;
CALL into_var();
+-----------+--------+
| Row Count | Tenure |
+-----------+--------+
|         5 |    170 |
+-----------+--------+

Example 3

The following example shows how to assign a value to a variable if the SELECT ... INTO statement returns 0 rows.

DELIMITER //
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE cityCount () AS
DECLARE cnum INT;
BEGIN
SELECT City INTO cnum FROM hrRec WHERE Tenure > 50;
ECHO SELECT cnum;
END //
DELIMITER ;
CALL cityCount();
ERROR 2439 (HY000): Unhandled exception
Type: ER_INTO_VARIABLES_NO_ROWS (2439)
Message: Query with 'INTO VARIABLES' clause returned zero rows whereas expected 1 row

Add an exception to the stored procedure.

DELIMITER //
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE cityCount () AS
DECLARE cnum INT;
BEGIN
SELECT City INTO cnum FROM hrRec WHERE Tenure > 50;
ECHO SELECT cnum;
EXCEPTION
WHEN ER_INTO_VARIABLES_NO_ROWS THEN
cnum = 'No city found!';
ECHO SELECT cnum;
END //
DELIMITER ;
CALL cityCount();
+----------------+
| cnum           |
+----------------+
| No city found! |
+----------------+

You can also add an exception for a scenario where the SELECT ... INTO statement returns more than one row. For example,

EXCEPTION
WHEN ER_SUBQUERY_NO_1_ROW THEN
ECHO SELECT 'SELECT ... INTO statement returned more than 1 row.';

SELECT ... ALL DISTINCT DISTINCTROW

Return rows with or without duplicates.

Syntax

SELECT [ALL | DISTINCT | DISTINCTROW] FROM table_reference

Remarks

  • The ALL clause returns all the matching rows including duplicates.

    The DISTINCT or DISTINCTROW clause returns the matching rows but eliminates the duplicate rows from the output. DISTINCTROW is a synonym of DISTINCT.

Examples

SELECT * FROM Product;
+------------+------------+----------+
| Product_id | Brand_name | City     |
+------------+------------+----------+
|          1 | Nike       | London   |
|          3 | Nike       | New York |
|          2 | Adidas     | Paris    |
|          3 | Puma       | Spain    |
+------------+------------+----------+
SELECT ALL Brand_name FROM Product;
+------------+
| Brand_name |
+------------+
| Nike       |
| Nike       |
| Adidas     |
| Puma       |
+------------+
SELECT DISTINCT Brand_name FROM Product;
+------------+
| Brand_name |
+------------+
| Nike       |
| Adidas     |
| Puma       |
+------------+

SELECT … INTO OUTFILE

SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE formats and writes the results of a SELECT query to a text file. The format_options are similar to the parsing options used with LOAD DATA. See Format Options for more information.

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]

Remarks

  • If a relative path that that does not start with / is specified, SingleStore writes the file to the directory specified in the global variable datadir. To specify another location, enter the absolute path to the file as the file_name parameter.

  • The default text formatting, used when the user omits the FIELDS and LINES blocks, is to separate values with tabs (\t) and rows with newlines (\n).

Example

The following query writes the contents of table_name to a file in the home directory of username. The file is formatted as a comma-separated values (CSV) file.

SELECT * FROM table_name INTO OUTFILE '/home/username/file_name.csv'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'

SELECT ... INTO AZURE

SELECT ... INTO AZURE performs a distributed SELECT into an Azure container. The CREDENTIALS clause is required and its value is defined in credentials_json as follows:

credentials_json:
'{"account_name": "your_account_name_here",
  "account_key": "your_account_key_here"
 }'

The WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause, if specified, must be included after the CREDENTIALS clause. If WITH COMPRESSION GZIP is specified, the results of the SELECT query are written to the Azure container in compressed gzip files. A compressed file with the .gz extension is created for each partition.

The WITH COMPRESSION clause can be specified instead of the WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause. Both clauses are equivalent. However, if other compression formats are supported in the future, WITH COMPRESSION may use a compression format other than gzip.

format_options , if specified, must be included after the CREDENTIALS clause, or after the WITH COMPRESSION clause (if it is specified). The format_options are similar to the parsing options used with LOAD DATA. See Format Options for more information.

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]

As an alternative to using a SELECT ... INTO AZURE statement where you specify the CREDENTIALS clause, you can use a SELECT ... INTO LINK statement, where you reference a connection link. For more information, see Configuring and Using Connection Links.

SELECT … INTO HDFS

SELECT INTO ... HDFS writes the result of a SELECT query to HDFS. The configuration options for SELECT INTO ... HDFS are similar to the HDFS Pipelines syntax.

Example

The following example demonstrates how to write the contents of a table to HDFS at a specified path.

SELECT * FROM stockTo
INTO HDFS 'hdfs://hadoop-namenode:8020/stock_dir/records_file.csv'

SELECT ... INTO LINK writes the results of a SELECT query to S3, GCS, HDFS, or Kafka using a connection link. To use this command, you only need to know the connection link name, not the connection details and configuration. However, you require the SHOW LINK permission, provided by your administrator, to use a connection link.

Note

SASL OAUTHBEARER is supported with CREATE PIPELINE but not with SELECT INTO KAFKA.

Example

The following example writes the contents of the table t1, to the S3 bucket at the specified path, using the S3 connection link S3con stored in the db1 database:

USE db1;
SELECT * FROM t1 INTO LINK S3con 'testing/output';

Note: The connection link S3Con should already exist in db1. Refer to the CREATE LINK topic for details on creating a connection link.

SELECT … INTO FS

SELECT ... INTO FS works similarly to SELECT INTO OUTFILE, except that if the SELECT logic determines that the results can be computed in parallel (e.g. there is no order by clause, etc.), the query is pushed down to each leaf and executed on each partition, and a separate file is written for each partition. SELECT INTO OUTFILE always writes to a single file.

When writing to multiple files, the file names will be:

destination_directory/file_name_0
destination_directory/file_name_1
destination_directory/file_name_2
etc.

Otherwise:

destination_directory/file_name

If WITH COMPRESSION GZIP is specified, the results of the SELECT query are written to the filesystem in compressed gzip files. A compressed file with the .gz extension is created for each partition.

The WITH COMPRESSION clause can be specified instead of the WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause. Both clauses are equivalent. However, if other compression formats are supported in the future, WITH COMPRESSION may use a compression format other than gzip.

The format_options are similar to the parsing options used with LOAD DATA. See Format Options for more information.

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]

Remarks

  • By default, SingleStore writes the files to the directory specified in the global variable basedir. To specify another location, enter the absolute path to the file as the destination_directory parameter.

  • The default text formatting, used when the user omits the FIELDS and LINES blocks, is to separate values with tabs (\t) and rows with newlines (\n).

Example

The following query writes the contents of table_name to a set of files in the /tmp directory on each leaf node (/tmp/a_0, /tmp/a_1, /tmp/a_2, etc.). The files are comma-separated value (CSV) with one output file per partition (a_0 is for partition 0, a_1 is for partition 1, etc.).

SELECT * FROM table_name INTO FS '/tmp/a'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'

SELECT … INTO S3

SELECT ... INTO S3 performs a distributed select into a S3 bucket. The CREDENTIALS clause is required and its value is defined in credentials_json as follows.

configuration_json:
'{"region":"your_region" [, "multipart_chunk_size_mb":<size_in_MB>]}'

credentials_json:
'{"aws_access_key_id": "replace_with_your_access_key_id",
  "aws_secret_access_key": "replace_with_your_secret_access_key",
  ["aws_session_token": "replace_with_your_temp_session_token",]
  ["role_arn":"replace_with_your_role_arn"]
}'

The WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause, if specified, must be included after the CREDENTIALS clause. If WITH COMPRESSION GZIP is specified, the results of the SELECT query are written to the S3 bucket in compressed gzip files. A compressed file with the .gz extension is created for each partition.

The WITH COMPRESSION clause can be specified instead of the WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause. Both clauses are equivalent. However, if other compression formats are supported in the future, WITH COMPRESSION may use a compression format other than gzip.

format_options , if specified, must be included after the CREDENTIALS clause, or after the WITH COMPRESSION clause (if it is specified). The format_options are similar to the parsing options used with LOAD DATA. See Format Options for more information.

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]

Remarks

Warning

The S3 bucket needs to be created before running this command.

  • The multipart_chunk_size_mb must be in the range of [5..500]. By default, the chunk size is 5 MB. A larger chunk size allows users to upload large files without going over Amazon’s limitation on maximum number of parts per upload. Although, a larger chunk size increases the chance of a network error during the upload to S3. If a chunk fails to upload, SingleStore retries uploading it until the limit set on the number of retries by AWS is reached.

    Note

    Each partition will use multipart_chunk_size_mb MB(s) of additional memory.

  • The output of SELECT ... INTO S3 is stored with the content type binary/octet-stream in the S3 bucket.

  • If the insert select logic determines that the SELECT ... INTO S3 query can be run as distributed, the query will be pushed down to each leaf and executed on each partition. The name of each object will be:

    <bucket/target>_<partition ID>
  • If the insert select logic determines that the SELECT ... INTO S3 query can only be on the aggregator because it contains aggregations, ORDER BY, GROUP BY, etc. then the query will be run on each leaf but the result will be collected on the aggregator and then output to S3. The object name will just be:

    <bucket/target>
  • The SELECT query will validate if the <bucket/target> or <bucket/target>_ already exists on the S3 bucket first and fail if any of the object(s) already exist.

  • As an alternative to using a SELECT ... INTO S3 statement where you specify the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses, you can use a SELECT ... INTO LINK statement, where you reference a connection link. For more information, see Configuring and Using Connection Links.

Examples

The following simple example shows how to save all rows in table t1 to an S3 bucket using an AWS access key.

SELECT *
FROM t1
INTO S3 'testing/output'
CONFIG '{"region":"us-east-1"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"aws_access_key_id":"your_access_key_id","aws_secret_access_key":"your_secret_access_key"}'

The following example saves the result set of a SELECT query with a GROUP BY clause and sends the file in chunks to an S3 bucket using an Amazon Resource Name (ARN) for AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

SELECT t1.a, t2.a
FROM t1, t2
WHERE t1.a = t2.a
GROUP BY t1.a
INTO S3 'bucket_name/file_name'
CONFIG '{"region":"us-east-1", "multipart_chunk_size_mb":100}'
CREDENTIALS '{"role_arn": "arn:aws:iam::<AccountID>:role/EC2AmazonS3FullAccess"}'

The following example uses the format options to output the data in CSV format.

SELECT *
FROM t
INTO S3 'tmp/a'
CONFIG '{"region":"us-east-1"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"aws_access_key_id":"your_access_key_id","aws_secret_access_key":"your_secret_access_key"}'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'

SELECT … INTO GCS

SELECT ... INTO GCS performs a distributed select into a Google Cloud Storage (GCS) bucket.The CONFIG clause is not required, and can be excluded or left empty as defined in the configuration_json that follows. The CREDENTIALS clause is required and its value is defined in the credentials_json that follows.

configuration_json:
'{}'

credentials_json:
'{"access_id": "replace_with_your_google_access_key",
  "secret_key": "replace_with_your_google_secret_key"
}'

The WITH COMPRESSION clause can be specified instead of the WITH COMPRESSION GZIP clause. Both clauses are equivalent. However, if other compression formats are supported in the future, WITH COMPRESSION may use a compression format other than gzip.

format_options , if specified, must be included after the CREDENTIALS clause, or after the WITH COMPRESSION clause (if it is specified). The format_options are similar to the parsing options used with LOAD DATA. See Format Options for more information.

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]

Remarks

  • Unlike other filesystem options, with SELECT ... INTO GCS, data written by a single partition is not divided into chunks. However, there may still be multiple partitions and thus multiple files (one per partition) will appear in GCS.

  • The maximum object size supported by GCS is 5 TB; this limit also applies to SELECT ... INTO GCS.

  • The CONFIG clause may optionally specify an endpoint_url.

  • The CREDENTIALS clause is required.

  • We support only HMAC keys.

  • The CREDENTIALS clause should be a JSON object with two fields:

access_id: usually a 24 or 60 character alphanumeric string, which is linked to the Google account, typically all uppercase and starts with GOOG.

secret_key: usually a 40 character Base-64 encoded string that is linked to a specific access_id.

As an alternative to using a SELECT ... INTO GCS statement where you specify the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses, you can use a SELECT ... INTO LINK statement, where you reference a connection link. For more information, see Configuring and Using Connection Links.

Examples

The following simple example shows how to save all rows in table table_name to a GCS bucket using a Google access key, and outputs them as a CSV.

CREATE TABLE table_name (column_name INT);
INSERT INTO table_name VALUES (1), (2), (3);
SELECT *
FROM table_name
INTO GCS 'bucket/path'
CREDENTIALS '{"access_id": "replace_with_your_google_access_key", "secret_key": "replace_with_your_google_secret_key"}' FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';

SELECT … INTO KAFKA …

SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ... runs a SELECT query, constructs a Kafka message for each row in the result set, and publishes the messages to a Kafka topic.

When SELECT ... INTO KAFKA ... constructs a Kafka message, it includes every column value in the result set's row and separates the column values by a delimiter. To configure the delimiter and other message formatting settings, use the Format Options clauses.

kafka_configuration:
    CONFIG 'string'

kafka_credentials:
    CREDENTIALS 'string'

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [STARTING BY 'string']
    ]

kafka_topic_endpoint:
    host:port[, ...]/topic

Arguments

kafka_configuration

Optional. The Kafka configuration properties, specified in JSON format, that are used while SingleStore publishes messages to a topic. The configuration properties are the same properties that are stored in the server.properties file on each Kafka broker.

kafka_credentials

Optional. The credentials, in JSON format, used to connect to Kafka.

format_options

Optional. Clauses that specify how a Kafka message is formatted when it is constructed from a row in the SELECT result set. See the Format Options section for more information.

See an example of how to use the clauses.

kafka_topic_endpoint

The list of Kafka brokers, followed by the topic to which SingleStore will publish messages. For each broker in the list, specify its host and port.

KAFKA KEY <column_name>

Optional. Specify the provided column name as the Kafka key.

KAFKA KEY should be used only for kafka targets.

The Kafka key column name must be a valid column name in the database table.

The Kafka key column name must be the same as the first column name of the SELECT INTO statement.

Remarks

  • When possible, SingleStore queries leaf nodes directly, bypassing the aggregator. This allows SingleStore to send data directly from the leaves to Kafka partitions.

  • SingleStore constructs a Kafka message as an array of bytes.

  • As an alternative to using a SELECT ... INTO KAFKA statement where you specify the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses, you can use a SELECT ... INTO LINK statement, where you reference a connection link. For more information, see Configuring and Using Connection Links.

Examples

Example: Specifying the Kafka Message Format

The following query uses the FIELDS and LINES clauses to format the Kafka messages that are constructed from the SELECT result set.

SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM t
ORDER BY col1
INTO KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test-topic'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ',' ENCLOSED BY '"' ESCAPED BY "\t"
LINES TERMINATED BY '}' STARTING BY '{';

Suppose the result set returned by SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM t ORDER BY col1 is:

+------+------+------+
| col1 | col2 | col3 |
+------+------+------+
| a    | b    | c    |
| d    | e    | f    |
| g    | h\ti | j    |
+------+------+------+

This result set will be converted to three Kafka messages having the following format:

Message 1: {a,b,c}

Message 2: {d,e,f}

Message 3: {g,h<tab character>i,j}

<tab character> will be replaced by the number of spaces that your tab is set to.

Note

If a SELECT ... INTO ... KAFKA query does not include the FIELDS... and LINES... clauses, the default Kafka message formatting settings are used. The default settings would look something like this:

SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM t
ORDER BY col1
INTO KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test-topic'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY '\t' ENCLOSED BY '' ESCAPED BY '\\'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' STARTING BY '';

Example: Using the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS Clauses

The following example uses the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses.

SELECT text FROM t INTO
KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test-topic'
CONFIG '{"security.protocol": "ssl",
"ssl.certificate.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.pem",
"ssl.key.location": "/var/private/ssl/client_memsql_client.key",
"ssl.ca.location": "/var/private/ssl/ca-cert.pem"}'
CREDENTIALS '{"ssl.key.password": "abcdefgh"}'

For more information on what settings to include in the CONFIG and CREDENTIALS clauses, see Securely Connect to Kafka.

Example: Specifying One Kafka Broker

The following example imports the data in the column text from table t into the Kafka topic test-topic. One Kafka broker is specified; it is located on port 9092 at host.example.com.

SELECT text FROM t INTO
KAFKA 'host.example.com:9092/test-topic'

Example: Specifying Multiple Kafka Brokers

The following example imports the data in the column text from table t into the Kafka topic test-topic. Three Kafka brokers are specified, located on port 9092 , at host1.example.com, host2.example.com and host3.example.com.

SELECT text FROM t INTO
KAFKA 'host1.example.com:9092,host2.example.com:9092,host3.example.com:9092/test-topic'

Example: Specifying a Kafka Key

For this example, suppose table kktest has three columns: column_a, column_b, and column_c. In order to use column_b as the Kafka key, the SELECT ... INTO KAFKA statement might look like this:

SELECT column_b, column_a, column_b, column_c FROM kktest INTO 
KAFKA 'localhost:1234/kafkaWithKey' KAFKA KEY "column_b";

SELECT INTO ... FORMAT PARQUET

SELECT INTO ... FORMAT PARQUET allows SingleStore data to be exported into Apache Parquet (Parquet) format for the given SQL type. See Apache Parquet documentation for detailed information.

Some SQL types may not fit into a particular Parquet type. This is dependent on the actual stored values for that type. For data that does not fit, the user will receive suggestions for the appropriate type for storing data in Parquet format.

Syntax

FORMAT PARQUET

Remarks

  • The FORMAT PARQUET clause will go at the end of the SELECT statement.

  • Time and date types are stored in the engine timezone without adjusting to UTC. Below are some examples of the differences between SQL and Parquet time and date formats. If any value of SQL TIME(6) is outside the range of the Parquet TIME, the following error message may occur:

    can not save SQL TIME(6) … because parquet's TIME is within a single day
    (hour should be between 0 and 23); consider casting this column to BIGINT
  • If any value of TIMESTAMP is zero, which is outside the range of the Parquet TIMESTAMP, the following error message may occur:

    can not be saved as TIMESTAMP with millisecond precision because 
    zero value is outside the scope of the parquet type; consider casting 
    this column to INT64

Examples

The examples below have been shortened to illustrate the use of the Parquet format. The data ingestion, creation of table2, and start pipeline are not shown.

Example 1

Creates a table.

CREATE TABLE table1 (f_CHAR_2_5 CHAR(2), f_LONGTEXT4 LONGTEXT NOT NULL,
f_DATETIME_6_3 DATETIME(6), f_NUMERIC_27_13__UNSIGNED2 NUMERIC(27,13) UNSIGNED, f_TINYINT1 TINYINT);

Uses the Parquet format.

SELECT * FROM table1 into fs ‘/tmp/parquet_files’ FORMAT PARQUET;

Creates the pipeline using Parquet syntax.

CREATE PIPELINE pipe1 AS LOAD DATA fs ‘/tmp/parquet_files’
INTO TABLE table2 FORMAT PARQUET (f_CHAR_2_5 <- %::f_CHAR_2_5, f_LONGTEXT4 <- %::f_LONGTEXT4,
@f_DATETIME_6_3 <- %::f_DATETIME_6_3, f_NUMERIC_27_13__UNSIGNED2 <- %::f_NUMERIC_27_13__UNSIGNED2,
f_TINYINT1 <- %::f_TINYINT1 )  SET f_DATETIME_6_3=DATE_ADD('1970-01-01', INTERVAL @f_DATETIME_6_3 MICROSECOND);

Example 2

Creates a table.

CREATE TABLE table1 (f_REAL3 REAL NOT NULL, f_TIME2 TIME, f_ENUM__small___medium___large__1 ENUM('small','medium','large'));

Uses the Parquet format.

SELECT * FROM table1 into fs '/tmp/parquet_files' FORMAT PARQUET;

Creates the pipeline using Parquet syntax.

CREATE PIPELINE pipe2 AS LOAD DATA fs '/tmp/parquet_files' INTO TABLE table2 FORMAT PARQUET
(f_REAL3 <- %::f_REAL3, @f_TIME2 <- %::f_TIME2, f_ENUM__small___medium___large__1 <- %::f_ENUM__small___medium___large__1 )
SET f_TIME2=sec_to_time(@f_TIME2/1000);

Example 3

Creates a table.

CREATE ROWSTORE TABLE table1 (f_TEXT5 TEXT NOT NULL,
f_GEOGRAPHY4 GEOGRAPHY NOT NULL, f_VARCHAR_200_3 VARCHAR(200),
f_DECIMAL_27_13_2 DECIMAL(27,13), f_INT_UNSIGNED1 INT UNSIGNED);

Uses the Parquet format.

SELECT * FROM table1 INTO OUTFILE '/tmp/parquet_files3' FORMAT PARQUET;

Create Link.

CREATE LINK p_link_20_56_14_557666 AS fs CREDENTIALS '{}' CONFIG '{}';

Creates the pipeline using Parquet syntax.

CREATE PIPELINE pipe3 AS LOAD DATA LINK p_link_20_56_14_557666
'/tmp/parquet_files3' INTO TABLE table2 FORMAT PARQUET (f_TEXT5 <- %::f_TEXT5,
f_GEOGRAPHY4 <- %::f_GEOGRAPHY4, f_VARCHAR_200_3 <- %::f_VARCHAR_200_3,
f_DECIMAL_27_13_2 <- %::f_DECIMAL_27_13_2, f_INT_UNSIGNED1 <- %::f_INT_UNSIGNED1);

Format Options

format_options:
    [{FIELDS | COLUMNS}
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
        [[OPTIONALLY] ENCLOSED BY 'char']
        [ESCAPED BY 'char']
    ]
    [LINES
        [STARTING BY 'string']
        [TERMINATED BY 'string']
    ]
  • FIELDS TERMINATED BY 'string': The delimiter to use between each column value in the message. If not specified, defaults to \t.

  • FIELDS ENCLOSED BY 'char': Prefixes and suffixes each column value of the message with the char value. If not specified, defaults to nothing. The OPTIONALLY keyword does not affect the behavior of this option; it exists to maintain compatibility with MySQL.

  • FIELDS ESCAPED BY 'char': Translates the escape sequence in the char value, instead of using the literal char value. Translation is done for all occurrences of the char value in the message. If not specified, defaults to \\.

  • LINES TERMINATED BY 'string': A string to insert at the end of the message. If not specified, defaults to \n.

  • LINES STARTING BY 'string': A string to insert at the beginning of the message. If not specified, defaults to nothing.

SELECT … WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>)

SELECT ... WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) retrieves a random sample of data from a table (specifically, a Bernoulli sample).

sample_ratio_clause: WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = ratio)

Argument

ratio

A decimal between 0.0 and 1.0 specifying the probability that each row will be retrieved from the table. The probability is applied to each row independently.

Remarks

  • When you run multiple SELECT statements against the same table using WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>), you will receive similar results. This is the case even when your sample ratio is different in your SELECT statements. For example, the sample returned for a sample ratio of 0.25 is often a subset of the sample ratio returned for 0.5.

  • Using a sample ratio that is one divided by a power of two allows WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) to run more efficiently.

  • You can use WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) in a SELECT subquery.

  • SAMPLE_RATIO is not applicable on Common Table Expressions (CTE) but on the base tables.

Warning

You can use WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) with any table. It operates most efficiently when used with a rowstore table whose primary key is not a hash key, or a columnstore table with AUTOSTATS_SAMPLING enabled (the default). Otherwise, it will scan all rows, or all rows in a range, to do sampling.

Examples

Simple SELECT statements

The following example populates a table with the integers 1 to 10 and selects two random samples.

DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS singlestore_docs_example;
CREATE DATABASE singlestore_docs_example;
USE singlestore_docs_example;
CREATE TABLE example_table(num INT);
INSERT INTO example_table VALUES (5), (6), (10), (11), (12),
(14), (20), (24), (33), (40);

The query below returns a random sample of the num column. Each row in the sample has a seventy percent probability of being returned.

SELECT num FROM example_table WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = 0.7) ORDER BY num;

Example output follows. You will likely see different results, as the query returns a random sample.

+------+
| num  |
+------+
|    6 |
|   11 |
|   14 |
|   20 |
|   24 |
|   33 |
+------+

The query below returns the average of a random sample of the num column. Each row in the sample has an eighty percent probability being included in the sample and therefore in the AVG computation.

SELECT AVG(num) FROM example_table WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = 0.8);

Example output follows. You will likely see different results, as the query returns a random sample.

+----------+
| AVG(num) |
+----------+
|  18.1111 |
+----------+

Using WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) with SELECT Subqueries

You may use WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>)as part of a SELECT subquery, as shown in the following example.

CREATE TABLE example_table_2 AS SELECT * FROM example_table
WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = 0.6);
SELECT num FROM example_table2 ORDER BY num;

Example output follows. You will likely see different results, as the query returns a random sample.

+------+
| num  |
+------+
|   10 |
|   12 |
|   14 |
|   24 |
|   33 |
|   40 |
+------+

Using WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) with Joins

You may use WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) in a SELECT statement that contains a join. However, you should do so carefully to ensure the join yields the results you intend. For example, consider joining a CUSTOMER table to an ORDER table using the customer_id field in the ORDER table. The placement of the WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = <value>) clause within the join will greatly impact the result, as shown below.

The following query selects a sample of customers and returns the orders for those customers only.

SELECT c.name, o.order_id, o.order_total
FROM customer WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = 0.4) c
JOIN order o
ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id

The following query selects a sample of all orders and returns only those orders along with their associated customers.

SELECT c.name, o.order_id, o.order_total
FROM customer c
JOIN order o WITH (SAMPLE_RATIO = 0.4)
ON c.customer_id = o.customer_id

Last modified: August 1, 2024

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