11 KiB
title | toc_folder_title | toc_priority | toc_title |
---|---|---|---|
SELECT Query | SELECT | 32 | Overview |
SELECT Query
SELECT
queries perform data retrieval. By default, the requested data is returned to the client, while in conjunction with INSERT INTO it can be forwarded to a different table.
Syntax
[WITH expr_list|(subquery)]
SELECT [DISTINCT] expr_list
[FROM [db.]table | (subquery) | table_function] [FINAL]
[SAMPLE sample_coeff]
[ARRAY JOIN ...]
[GLOBAL] [ANY|ALL|ASOF] [INNER|LEFT|RIGHT|FULL|CROSS] [OUTER|SEMI|ANTI] JOIN (subquery)|table (ON <expr_list>)|(USING <column_list>)
[PREWHERE expr]
[WHERE expr]
[GROUP BY expr_list] [WITH ROLLUP|WITH CUBE] [WITH TOTALS]
[HAVING expr]
[ORDER BY expr_list] [WITH FILL] [FROM expr] [TO expr] [STEP expr]
[LIMIT [offset_value, ]n BY columns]
[LIMIT [n, ]m] [WITH TIES]
[SETTINGS ...]
[UNION ...]
[INTO OUTFILE filename]
[FORMAT format]
All clauses are optional, except for the required list of expressions immediately after SELECT
which is covered in more detail below.
Specifics of each optional clause are covered in separate sections, which are listed in the same order as they are executed:
- WITH clause
- FROM clause
- SAMPLE clause
- JOIN clause
- PREWHERE clause
- WHERE clause
- GROUP BY clause
- LIMIT BY clause
- HAVING clause
- SELECT clause
- DISTINCT clause
- LIMIT clause
- OFFSET clause
- UNION clause
- INTO OUTFILE clause
- FORMAT clause
SELECT Clause
Expressions specified in the SELECT
clause are calculated after all the operations in the clauses described above are finished. These expressions work as if they apply to separate rows in the result. If expressions in the SELECT
clause contain aggregate functions, then ClickHouse processes aggregate functions and expressions used as their arguments during the GROUP BY aggregation.
If you want to include all columns in the result, use the asterisk (*
) symbol. For example, SELECT * FROM ...
.
COLUMNS expression
To match some columns in the result with a re2 regular expression, you can use the COLUMNS
expression.
COLUMNS('regexp')
For example, consider the table:
CREATE TABLE default.col_names (aa Int8, ab Int8, bc Int8) ENGINE = TinyLog
The following query selects data from all the columns containing the a
symbol in their name.
SELECT COLUMNS('a') FROM col_names
┌─aa─┬─ab─┐
│ 1 │ 1 │
└────┴────┘
The selected columns are returned not in the alphabetical order.
You can use multiple COLUMNS
expressions in a query and apply functions to them.
For example:
SELECT COLUMNS('a'), COLUMNS('c'), toTypeName(COLUMNS('c')) FROM col_names
┌─aa─┬─ab─┬─bc─┬─toTypeName(bc)─┐
│ 1 │ 1 │ 1 │ Int8 │
└────┴────┴────┴────────────────┘
Each column returned by the COLUMNS
expression is passed to the function as a separate argument. Also you can pass other arguments to the function if it supports them. Be careful when using functions. If a function doesn’t support the number of arguments you have passed to it, ClickHouse throws an exception.
For example:
SELECT COLUMNS('a') + COLUMNS('c') FROM col_names
Received exception from server (version 19.14.1):
Code: 42. DB::Exception: Received from localhost:9000. DB::Exception: Number of arguments for function plus doesn't match: passed 3, should be 2.
In this example, COLUMNS('a')
returns two columns: aa
and ab
. COLUMNS('c')
returns the bc
column. The +
operator can’t apply to 3 arguments, so ClickHouse throws an exception with the relevant message.
Columns that matched the COLUMNS
expression can have different data types. If COLUMNS
doesn’t match any columns and is the only expression in SELECT
, ClickHouse throws an exception.
Asterisk
You can put an asterisk in any part of a query instead of an expression. When the query is analyzed, the asterisk is expanded to a list of all table columns (excluding the MATERIALIZED
and ALIAS
columns). There are only a few cases when using an asterisk is justified:
- When creating a table dump.
- For tables containing just a few columns, such as system tables.
- For getting information about what columns are in a table. In this case, set
LIMIT 1
. But it is better to use theDESC TABLE
query. - When there is strong filtration on a small number of columns using
PREWHERE
. - In subqueries (since columns that aren’t needed for the external query are excluded from subqueries).
In all other cases, we don’t recommend using the asterisk, since it only gives you the drawbacks of a columnar DBMS instead of the advantages. In other words using the asterisk is not recommended.
Extreme Values
In addition to results, you can also get minimum and maximum values for the results columns. To do this, set the extremes setting to 1. Minimums and maximums are calculated for numeric types, dates, and dates with times. For other columns, the default values are output.
An extra two rows are calculated – the minimums and maximums, respectively. These extra two rows are output in JSON*
, TabSeparated*
, and Pretty*
formats, separate from the other rows. They are not output for other formats.
In JSON*
formats, the extreme values are output in a separate ‘extremes’ field. In TabSeparated*
formats, the row comes after the main result, and after ‘totals’ if present. It is preceded by an empty row (after the other data). In Pretty*
formats, the row is output as a separate table after the main result, and after totals
if present.
Extreme values are calculated for rows before LIMIT
, but after LIMIT BY
. However, when using LIMIT offset, size
, the rows before offset
are included in extremes
. In stream requests, the result may also include a small number of rows that passed through LIMIT
.
Notes
You can use synonyms (AS
aliases) in any part of a query.
The GROUP BY
and ORDER BY
clauses do not support positional arguments. This contradicts MySQL, but conforms to standard SQL. For example, GROUP BY 1, 2
will be interpreted as grouping by constants (i.e. aggregation of all rows into one).
Implementation Details
If the query omits the DISTINCT
, GROUP BY
and ORDER BY
clauses and the IN
and JOIN
subqueries, the query will be completely stream processed, using O(1) amount of RAM. Otherwise, the query might consume a lot of RAM if the appropriate restrictions are not specified:
max_memory_usage
max_rows_to_group_by
max_rows_to_sort
max_rows_in_distinct
max_bytes_in_distinct
max_rows_in_set
max_bytes_in_set
max_rows_in_join
max_bytes_in_join
max_bytes_before_external_sort
max_bytes_before_external_group_by
For more information, see the section “Settings”. It is possible to use external sorting (saving temporary tables to a disk) and external aggregation.
SELECT modifiers
You can use the following modifiers in SELECT
queries.
APPLY
Allows you to invoke some function for each row returned by an outer table expression of a query.
Syntax:
SELECT <expr> APPLY( <func> ) FROM [db.]table_name
Example:
CREATE TABLE columns_transformers (i Int64, j Int16, k Int64) ENGINE = MergeTree ORDER by (i);
INSERT INTO columns_transformers VALUES (100, 10, 324), (120, 8, 23);
SELECT * APPLY(sum) FROM columns_transformers;
┌─sum(i)─┬─sum(j)─┬─sum(k)─┐
│ 220 │ 18 │ 347 │
└────────┴────────┴────────┘
EXCEPT
Specifies the names of one or more columns to exclude from the result. All matching column names are omitted from the output.
Syntax:
SELECT <expr> EXCEPT ( col_name1 [, col_name2, col_name3, ...] ) FROM [db.]table_name
Example:
SELECT * EXCEPT (i) from columns_transformers;
┌──j─┬───k─┐
│ 10 │ 324 │
│ 8 │ 23 │
└────┴─────┘
REPLACE
Specifies one or more expression aliases. Each alias must match a column name from the SELECT *
statement. In the output column list, the column that matches the alias is replaced by the expression in that REPLACE
.
This modifier does not change the names or order of columns. However, it can change the value and the value type.
Syntax:
SELECT <expr> REPLACE( <expr> AS col_name) from [db.]table_name
Example:
SELECT * REPLACE(i + 1 AS i) from columns_transformers;
┌───i─┬──j─┬───k─┐
│ 101 │ 10 │ 324 │
│ 121 │ 8 │ 23 │
└─────┴────┴─────┘
Modifier Combinations
You can use each modifier separately or combine them.
Examples:
Using the same modifier multiple times.
SELECT COLUMNS('[jk]') APPLY(toString) APPLY(length) APPLY(max) from columns_transformers;
┌─max(length(toString(j)))─┬─max(length(toString(k)))─┐
│ 2 │ 3 │
└──────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
Using multiple modifiers in a single query.
SELECT * REPLACE(i + 1 AS i) EXCEPT (j) APPLY(sum) from columns_transformers;
┌─sum(plus(i, 1))─┬─sum(k)─┐
│ 222 │ 347 │
└─────────────────┴────────┘
SETTINGS in SELECT Query
You can specify the necessary settings right in the SELECT
query. The setting value is applied only to this query and is reset to default or previous value after the query is executed.
Other ways to make settings see here.
Example
SELECT * FROM some_table SETTINGS optimize_read_in_order=1, cast_keep_nullable=1;