ClickHouse/docs/en/sql-reference/statements/alter/projection.md

slug	sidebar_position	sidebar_label	title
/en/sql-reference/statements/alter/projection	49	PROJECTION	Projections

Projections store data in a format that optimizes query execution, this feature is useful for:

• Running queries on a column that is not a part of the primary key
• Pre-aggregating columns, it will reduce both computation and IO

You can define one or more projections for a table, and during the query analysis the projection with the least data to scan will be selected by ClickHouse without modifying the query provided by the user.

:::note Disk usage

Projections will create internally a new hidden table, this means that more IO and space on disk will be required. Example, If the projection has defined a different primary key, all the data from the original table will be duplicated. :::

You can see more technical details about how projections work internally on this page.

Example filtering without using primary keys

Creating the table:

CREATE TABLE visits_order
(
   `user_id` UInt64,
   `user_name` String,
   `pages_visited` Nullable(Float64),
   `user_agent` String
)
ENGINE = MergeTree()
PRIMARY KEY user_agent

Using ALTER TABLE, we could add the Projection to an existing table:

ALTER TABLE visits_order ADD PROJECTION user_name_projection (
SELECT
* 
ORDER BY user_name
)

ALTER TABLE visits_order MATERIALIZE PROJECTION user_name_projection

Inserting the data:

INSERT INTO visits_order SELECT
    number,
    'test',
    1.5 * (number / 2),
    'Android'
FROM numbers(1, 100);

The Projection will allow us to filter by user_name fast even if in the original Table user_name was not defined as a PRIMARY_KEY. At query time ClickHouse determined that less data will be processed if the projection is used, as the data is ordered by user_name.

SELECT
    *
FROM visits_order
WHERE user_name='test'
LIMIT 2

To verify that a query is using the projection, we could review the system.query_log table. On the projections field we have the name of the projection used or empty if none has been used:

SELECT query, projections FROM system.query_log WHERE query_id='<query_id>'

Example pre-aggregation query

Creating the table with the Projection:

CREATE TABLE visits
(
   `user_id` UInt64,
   `user_name` String,
   `pages_visited` Nullable(Float64),
   `user_agent` String,
   PROJECTION projection_visits_by_user
   (
       SELECT
           user_agent,
           sum(pages_visited)
       GROUP BY user_id, user_agent
   )
)
ENGINE = MergeTree()
ORDER BY user_agent

Inserting the data:

INSERT INTO visits SELECT
    number,
    'test',
    1.5 * (number / 2),
    'Android'
FROM numbers(1, 100);

INSERT INTO visits SELECT
    number,
    'test',
    1. * (number / 2),
   'IOS'
FROM numbers(100, 500);

We will execute a first query using GROUP BY using the field user_agent, this query will not use the projection defined as the pre-aggregation does not match.

SELECT
    user_agent,
    count(DISTINCT user_id)
FROM visits
GROUP BY user_agent

To use the projection we could execute queries that select part of, or all of the pre-aggregation and GROUP BY fields.

SELECT
    user_agent
FROM visits
WHERE user_id > 50 AND user_id < 150
GROUP BY user_agent

SELECT
    user_agent,
    sum(pages_visited)
FROM visits
GROUP BY user_id

As mentioned before, we could review the system.query_log table. On the projections field we have the name of the projection used or empty if none has been used:

SELECT query, projections FROM system.query_log WHERE query_id='<query_id>'

Manipulating Projections

The following operations with projections are available:

ADD PROJECTION

ALTER TABLE [db].name ADD PROJECTION name ( SELECT <COLUMN LIST EXPR> [GROUP BY] [ORDER BY] ) - Adds projection description to tables metadata.

DROP PROJECTION

ALTER TABLE [db].name DROP PROJECTION name - Removes projection description from tables metadata and deletes projection files from disk. Implemented as a mutation.

MATERIALIZE PROJECTION

ALTER TABLE [db.]table MATERIALIZE PROJECTION name IN PARTITION partition_name - The query rebuilds the projection name in the partition partition_name. Implemented as a mutation.

CLEAR PROJECTION

ALTER TABLE [db.]table CLEAR PROJECTION name IN PARTITION partition_name - Deletes projection files from disk without removing description. Implemented as a mutation.

The commands ADD, DROP and CLEAR are lightweight in a sense that they only change metadata or remove files.

Also, they are replicated, syncing projections metadata via ClickHouse Keeper or ZooKeeper.

:::note
Projection manipulation is supported only for tables with *MergeTree engine (including replicated variants). :::