--- slug: /en/engines/table-engines/special/dictionary sidebar_position: 20 sidebar_label: Dictionary --- # Dictionary Table Engine The `Dictionary` engine displays the [dictionary](../../../sql-reference/dictionaries/external-dictionaries/external-dicts.md) data as a ClickHouse table. ## Example {#example} As an example, consider a dictionary of `products` with the following configuration: ``` xml products products
DSN=some-db-server
300 360 product_id title String
``` Query the dictionary data: ``` sql SELECT name, type, key, attribute.names, attribute.types, bytes_allocated, element_count, source FROM system.dictionaries WHERE name = 'products' ``` ``` text ┌─name─────┬─type─┬─key────┬─attribute.names─┬─attribute.types─┬─bytes_allocated─┬─element_count─┬─source──────────┐ │ products │ Flat │ UInt64 │ ['title'] │ ['String'] │ 23065376 │ 175032 │ ODBC: .products │ └──────────┴──────┴────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────┘ ``` You can use the [dictGet\*](../../../sql-reference/functions/ext-dict-functions.md#ext_dict_functions) function to get the dictionary data in this format. This view isn’t helpful when you need to get raw data, or when performing a `JOIN` operation. For these cases, you can use the `Dictionary` engine, which displays the dictionary data in a table. Syntax: ``` sql CREATE TABLE %table_name% (%fields%) engine = Dictionary(%dictionary_name%)` ``` Usage example: ``` sql create table products (product_id UInt64, title String) Engine = Dictionary(products); ``` Ok Take a look at what’s in the table. ``` sql select * from products limit 1; ``` ``` text ┌────product_id─┬─title───────────┐ │ 152689 │ Some item │ └───────────────┴─────────────────┘ ``` **See Also** - [Dictionary function](../../../sql-reference/table-functions/dictionary.md#dictionary-function) [Original article](https://clickhouse.com/docs/en/engines/table-engines/special/dictionary/)