# Dictionary The `Dictionary` engine displays the [dictionary](../../query_language/dicts/external_dicts.md#dicts-external_dicts) data as a ClickHouse table. 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'; SELECT name, type, key, attribute.names, attribute.types, bytes_allocated, element_count, source FROM system.dictionaries WHERE name = 'products' ``` ``` ┌─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*](../../query_language/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: ``` CREATE TABLE %table_name% (%fields%) engine = Dictionary(%dictionary_name%)` ``` Usage example: ``` sql create table products (product_id UInt64, title String) Engine = Dictionary(products); CREATE TABLE products ( product_id UInt64, title String, ) ENGINE = Dictionary(products) ``` ``` Ok. 0 rows in set. Elapsed: 0.004 sec. ``` Take a look at what's in the table. ``` sql select * from products limit 1; SELECT * FROM products LIMIT 1 ``` ``` ┌────product_id─┬─title───────────┐ │ 152689 │ Some item │ └───────────────┴─────────────────┘ 1 rows in set. Elapsed: 0.006 sec. ``` [Original article](https://clickhouse.yandex/docs/en/operations/table_engines/dictionary/)