# query

## Description

A convenience wrapper for executing arbitrary SQL queries on a node on this host.

The `--password` flag is optional and specifies the SingleStore `root` password. You can use this flag in conjunction with the `--user` flag to specify a SingleStore user that is different from the `root` user and the user’s password. Note that the `MEMSQL_PASSWORD` environment variable is a safer alternative option for setting the password.

Wrap the password string in single quotes (') to avoid having the shell try to interpret any special characters included in the string.

## Usage

```
Usage:
  memsqlctl query [flags]

Flags:
  -h, --help                   Help for query
      --host string            The cluster-addressable hostname for the node
      --memsql-id string       The node ID of the node to query
  -p, --password STRING        The database user's password
      --port PORT              The cluster-addressable port for the node
      --row-timeout duration   Maximum time to wait for each row in the result (e.g., 30s, 10m, 1.5h); defaults to 1 minute (default 1m0s)
  -e, --sql string             The SQL query to run
      --user string            The database user

Global Flags:
  -c, --config FILE_PATH                     Path to the memsqctl config file
      --default-install-dir DIRECTORY_PATH   Path to the default install directory
      --insecure-ssl                         Fall back to insecure SSL connections to local nodes if memsqlctl is unable to otherwise establish a connection (ADVANCED)
  -j, --json                                 Print output in JSON format
      --node-metadata-file FILE_PATH         Path to the node metadata file
      --parallelism POSITIVE_INTEGER         Maximum amount of operations to be run in parallel
      --ssl-ca FILE_PATH                     The path to the CA certificate file (in PEM format) to authenticate the database certificate
      --timeout duration                     Maximum time for operation to complete (e.g., 30s, 10m, 1.5h)
      --verbose-json                         Print output in JSON format, include some warnings and user messages
  -v, --verbosity count                      Increase logging verbosity
  -y, --yes                                  Enable non-interactive mode and assume the user would like to move forward with the proposed actions by default
```

## Remarks

* This command is interactive unless you use either `--yes` or `--json` flag to override interactive behavior.
* The `memsqlctl query` command is equivalent to the [sdb-admin query](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/singlestore-tools-reference/sdb-admin-commands/query.md) command.

## Output

The following shows how to use the `query` command to run `SHOW DATABASES` against the master aggregator on the local host.

```shell
sudo memsqlctl query --sql "SHOW DATABASES"

```

```output

+-------+------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+
| Index | MemSQL ID  |  Role  | Port | Process State | Version |
+-------+------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+
| 1     | 29EB592436 | Master | 3306 | Running       | 6.5.14  |
| 2     | 035F453938 | Leaf   | 3307 | Running       | 6.5.14  |
+-------+------------+--------+------+---------------+---------+
Select an option: 1
+--------------------+
|      Database      |
+--------------------+
| cluster            |
| information_schema |
| memsql             |
+--------------------+

```

Another example executes the same query on the master aggregator from its local host without specifying the `memsql-id` of the master aggregator node and printing the output in JSON format.

```shell
sudo memsqlctl list-nodes -q -r master | xargs -I % sudo memsqlctl query --sql "SHOW DATABASES" --memsql-id % --json

```

```output

{
  "columns": [
    "Database"
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "Database": "cluster"
    },
    {
      "Database": "information_schema"
    },
    {
      "Database": "memsql"
    }
  ]
}

```

***

Modified at: December 3, 2025

Source: [/db/v9.1/reference/singlestore-tools-reference/memsqlctl-commands/query/](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/singlestore-tools-reference/memsqlctl-commands/query/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)