ClickHouse/docs/en/sql-reference/table-functions/format.md

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/en/sql-reference/table-functions/format	56	format

format

Parses data from arguments according to specified input format. If structure argument is not specified, it's extracted from the data.

Syntax

format(format_name, [structure], data)

Parameters

• format_name — The format of the data.
• structure - Structure of the table. Optional. Format 'column1_name column1_type, column2_name column2_type, ...'.
• data — String literal or constant expression that returns a string containing data in specified format

Returned value

A table with data parsed from data argument according to specified format and specified or extracted structure.

Examples

Without structure argument:

Query:

SELECT * FROM format(JSONEachRow,
$$
{"a": "Hello", "b": 111}
{"a": "World", "b": 123}
{"a": "Hello", "b": 112}
{"a": "World", "b": 124}
$$)

Result:

┌───b─┬─a─────┐
│ 111 │ Hello │
│ 123 │ World │
│ 112 │ Hello │
│ 124 │ World │
└─────┴───────┘

Query:

DESC format(JSONEachRow,
$$
{"a": "Hello", "b": 111}
{"a": "World", "b": 123}
{"a": "Hello", "b": 112}
{"a": "World", "b": 124}
$$)

Result:

┌─name─┬─type──────────────┬─default_type─┬─default_expression─┬─comment─┬─codec_expression─┬─ttl_expression─┐
│ b    │ Nullable(Float64) │              │                    │         │                  │                │
│ a    │ Nullable(String)  │              │                    │         │                  │                │
└──────┴───────────────────┴──────────────┴────────────────────┴─────────┴──────────────────┴────────────────┘

With structure argument:

Query:

SELECT * FROM format(JSONEachRow, 'a String, b UInt32',
$$
{"a": "Hello", "b": 111}
{"a": "World", "b": 123}
{"a": "Hello", "b": 112}
{"a": "World", "b": 124}
$$)

Result:

┌─a─────┬───b─┐
│ Hello │ 111 │
│ World │ 123 │
│ Hello │ 112 │
│ World │ 124 │
└───────┴─────┘

See Also

• Formats