Version: 0.11

CREATE

CREATE is used to create new databases or tables.

CREATE DATABASE

Syntax

Creates a new database:

CREATE DATABASE [IF NOT EXISTS] db_name [WITH <options>]

If the db_name database already exists, then GreptimeDB has the following behaviors:

Doesn't create a new database.
Doesn't return an error when the clause IF NOT EXISTS is presented.
Otherwise, returns an error.

The database can also carry options similar to the CREATE TABLE statement by using the WITH keyword. All options available in Table Options can be utilized here as well (one exception is that database's TTL can't be instant). When creating a table, if the corresponding table options are not provided, the options configured at the database level will be applied.

Examples

Creates a test database:

CREATE DATABASE test;

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.05 sec)

Creates it again with IF NOT EXISTS:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS test;

Create a database with a TTL (Time-To-Live) of seven days, which means all the tables in this database will inherit this option if they don't have their own TTL setting:

CREATE DATABASE test with(ttl='7d');

CREATE TABLE

Syntax

Creates a new table in the db database or the current database in use:

CREATE TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] [db.]table_name
(
    column1 type1 [NULL | NOT NULL] [DEFAULT expr1] [TIME INDEX] [PRIMARY KEY] [FULLTEXT | FULLTEXT WITH options] [COMMENT comment1],
    column2 type2 [NULL | NOT NULL] [DEFAULT expr2] [TIME INDEX] [PRIMARY KEY] [FULLTEXT | FULLTEXT WITH options] [COMMENT comment2],
    ...
    [TIME INDEX (column)],
    [PRIMARY KEY(column1, column2, ...)],
    [INVERTED INDEX(column1, column2, ...)]
) ENGINE = engine WITH([TTL | storage | ...] = expr, ...)
[
  PARTITION ON COLUMNS(column1, column2, ...) (
    <PARTITION EXPR>,
    ...
  )
]

The table schema is specified by the brackets before the ENGINE. The table schema is a list of column definitions and table constraints. A column definition includes the column column_name, type, and options such as nullable or default values, etc. Please see below.

Table constraints

The table constraints contain the following:

TIME INDEX specifies the time index column, which always has one and only one column. It indicates the Timestamp type in the data model of GreptimeDB.
PRIMARY KEY specifies the table's primary key column, which indicates the Tag type in the data model of GreptimeDB. It cannot include the time index column, but it always implicitly adds the time index column to the end of keys.
The Other columns are Field columns in the data model of GreptimeDB.

NOTE

The PRIMARY KEY specified in the CREATE statement is not the primary key in traditional relational databases. Actually, The PRIMARY KEY in traditional relational databases is equivalent to the combination of PRIMARY KEY and TIME INDEX in GreptimeDB. In other words, the PRIMARY KEY and TIME INDEX together constitute the unique identifier of a row in GreptimeDB.

The statement won't do anything if the table already exists and IF NOT EXISTS is presented; otherwise returns an error.

Inverted Index

INVERTED INDEX specifies the table's Inverted Index column. The inverted index column can be any column. For each specified column, GreptimeDB creates an inverted index to accelerate queries.

If INVERTED INDEX is not specified, inverted indexes will be created for the columns in the PRIMARY KEY.
If INVERTED INDEX is specified, inverted indexes will only be created for the columns listed in the INVERTED INDEX. Specifically, when INVERTED INDEX() is specified, it means that no inverted index will be created for any column.

Table options

Users can add table options by using WITH. The valid options contain the following:

Option	Description	Value
`ttl`	The storage time of the table data	A time duration string such as `'60m'`, `'1h'` for one hour, `'14d'` for 14 days etc. Supported time units are: `s` / `m` / `h` / `d`.
`storage`	The name of the table storage engine provider	String value, such as `S3`, `Gcs`, etc. It must be configured in `[[storage.providers]]`, see configuration.
`compaction.type`	Compaction strategy of the table	String value. Only `twcs` is allowed.
`compaction.twcs.max_active_window_files`	Max num of files that can be kept in active writing time window	String value, such as '8'. Only available when `compaction.type` is `twcs`. You can refer to this document to learn more about the `twcs` compaction strategy.
`compaction.twcs.max_inactive_window_files`	Max num of files that can be kept in inactive time window.	String value, such as '1'. Only available when `compaction.type` is `twcs`.
`compaction.twcs.time_window`	Compaction time window	String value, such as '1d' for 1 day. The table usually partitions rows into different time windows by their timestamps. Only available when `compaction.type` is `twcs`.
`memtable.type`	Type of the memtable.	String value, supports `time_series`, `partition_tree`.
`append_mode`	Whether the table is append-only	String value. Default is 'false', which removes duplicate rows by primary keys and timestamps according to the `merge_mode`. Setting it to 'true' to enable append mode and create an append-only table which keeps duplicate rows.
`merge_mode`	The strategy to merge duplicate rows	String value. Only available when `append_mode` is 'false'. Default is `last_row`, which keeps the last row for the same primary key and timestamp. Setting it to `last_non_null` to keep the last non-null field for the same primary key and timestamp.
`comment`	Table level comment	String value.

Create a table with TTL

For example, to create a table with the storage data TTL(Time-To-Live) is seven days:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS temperatures(
  ts TIMESTAMP TIME INDEX,
  temperature DOUBLE DEFAULT 10,
) with(ttl='7d');

The ttl value can be one of the following:

A duration like 1hour 12min 5s, The duration object is a concatenation of time spans. Where each time span is an integer number and a suffix. Supported suffixes:
- nsec, ns – nanoseconds
- usec, us – microseconds
- msec, ms – milliseconds
- seconds, second, sec, s
- minutes, minute, min, m
- hours, hour, hr, h
- days, day, d
- weeks, week, w
- months, month, M – defined as 30.44 days
- years, year, y – defined as 365.25 days
forever, NULL, an empty string '' and 0s (or any zero length duration, like 0d), means the data will never be deleted.
instant, note that database's TTL can't be set to instant. instant means the data will be deleted instantly when inserted, useful if you want to send input to a flow task without saving it, see more details in flow management documents.
Unset, ttl can be unset by using ALTER TABLE <table-name> UNSET 'ttl', which means the table will inherit the database's ttl policy (if any).

If a table has its own TTL policy, it will take precedence over the database TTL policy. Otherwise, the database TTL policy will be applied to the table.

So if table's TTL is set to forever, no matter what the database's TTL is, the data will never be deleted. But if you unset table TTL using:

ALTER TABLE <table-name> UNSET 'ttl';

Then the database's TTL will be applied to the table.

Note that the default TTL setting for table and database is unset, which also means the data will never be deleted.

Create a table with custom storage

Create a table that stores the data in Google Cloud Storage:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS temperatures(
  ts TIMESTAMP TIME INDEX,
  temperature DOUBLE DEFAULT 10,
) with(ttl='7d', storage="Gcs");

Create a table with custom compaction options

Create a table with custom compaction options. The table will attempt to partition data into 1-day time window based on the timestamps of the data.

It merges files within the latest time window if they exceed 8 files
It merges files within inactive windows into a single file

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS temperatures(
  ts TIMESTAMP TIME INDEX,
  temperature DOUBLE DEFAULT 10,
)
with(
  'compaction.type'='twcs',
  'compaction.twcs.time_window'='1d',
  'compaction.twcs.max_active_window_files'='8',
  'compaction.twcs.max_inactive_window_files'='1',
);

Create an append-only table

Create an append-only table which disables deduplication.

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS temperatures(
  ts TIMESTAMP TIME INDEX,
  temperature DOUBLE DEFAULT 10,
) with('append_mode'='true');

Create a table with merge mode

Create a table with last_row merge mode, which is the default merge mode.

create table if not exists metrics(
    host string,
    ts timestamp,
    cpu double,
    memory double,
    TIME INDEX (ts),
    PRIMARY KEY(host)
)
with('merge_mode'='last_row');

Under last_row mode, the table merges rows with the same primary key and timestamp by only keeping the latest row.

INSERT INTO metrics VALUES ('host1', 0, 0, NULL), ('host2', 1, NULL, 1);
INSERT INTO metrics VALUES ('host1', 0, NULL, 10), ('host2', 1, 11, NULL);

SELECT * from metrics ORDER BY host, ts;

+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+
| host  | ts                      | cpu  | memory |
+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+
| host1 | 1970-01-01T00:00:00     |      | 10.0   |
| host2 | 1970-01-01T00:00:00.001 | 11.0 |        |
+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+

Create a table with last_non_null merge mode.

create table if not exists metrics(
    host string,
    ts timestamp,
    cpu double,
    memory double,
    TIME INDEX (ts),
    PRIMARY KEY(host)
)
with('merge_mode'='last_non_null');

Under last_non_null mode, the table merges rows with the same primary key and timestamp by keeping the latest value of each field.

INSERT INTO metrics VALUES ('host1', 0, 0, NULL), ('host2', 1, NULL, 1);
INSERT INTO metrics VALUES ('host1', 0, NULL, 10), ('host2', 1, 11, NULL);

SELECT * from metrics ORDER BY host, ts;

+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+
| host  | ts                      | cpu  | memory |
+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+
| host1 | 1970-01-01T00:00:00     | 0.0  | 10.0   |
| host2 | 1970-01-01T00:00:00.001 | 11.0 | 1.0    |
+-------+-------------------------+------+--------+

Column options

GreptimeDB supports the following column options:

Option	Description
NULL	The column value can be `null`.
NOT NULL	The column value can't be `null`.
DEFAULT `expr`	The column's default value is `expr`, which its result type must be the column's type
COMMENT `comment`	The column comment. It must be a string value
FULLTEXT	Creates a full-text index to speed up full-text search operations. Applicable only to string-type columns.

The table constraints TIME INDEX and PRIMARY KEY can also be set by column option, but they can only be specified once in column definitions. So you can't specify PRIMARY KEY for more than one column except by the table constraint PRIMARY KEY :

CREATE TABLE system_metrics (
    host STRING PRIMARY KEY,
    idc STRING PRIMARY KEY,
    cpu_util DOUBLE,
    memory_util DOUBLE,
    disk_util DOUBLE,
    ts TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(),
    TIME INDEX(ts)
);

Goes wrong:

 Illegal primary keys definition: not allowed to inline multiple primary keys in columns options

CREATE TABLE system_metrics (
    host STRING,
    idc STRING,
    cpu_util DOUBLE,
    memory_util DOUBLE,
    disk_util DOUBLE,
    ts TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP() TIME INDEX,
    PRIMARY KEY(host, idc),
);

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

`FULLTEXT` Column Option

The FULLTEXT option is used to create a full-text index, accelerating full-text search operations. This option can only be applied to string-type columns.

You can specify the following options using FULLTEXT WITH:

analyzer: Sets the language analyzer for the full-text index. Supported values are English and Chinese.
case_sensitive: Determines whether the full-text index is case-sensitive. Supported values are true and false.

If WITH is not specified, FULLTEXT will use the following default values:

analyzer: default is English
case_sensitive: default is false

For example, to create a table with a full-text index on the log column, configuring the analyzer to Chinese and setting case_sensitive to false:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS logs(
  host STRING PRIMARY KEY,
  log STRING FULLTEXT WITH(analyzer = 'Chinese', case_sensitive = 'false'),
  ts TIMESTAMP TIME INDEX
);

For more information on using full-text indexing and search, refer to the Log Query Documentation.

Region partition rules

Please refer to Partition for more details.

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE

Syntax

Creates a new file external table in the db database or the current database in use:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] [db.]table_name
[
 (
    column1 type1 [NULL | NOT NULL] [DEFAULT expr1] [TIME INDEX] [PRIMARY KEY] [COMMENT comment1],
    column2 type2 [NULL | NOT NULL] [DEFAULT expr2] [TIME INDEX] [PRIMARY KEY] [COMMENT comment2],
    ...
    [TIME INDEX (column)],
    [PRIMARY KEY(column1, column2, ...)]
 )
] WITH (
  LOCATION = url,
  FORMAT =  { 'CSV' | 'JSON' | 'PARQUET' | 'ORC' }
  [,PATTERN = regex_pattern ]
  [,REGION = region ]
  [,ENDPOINT = uri ]
  [,ACCESS_KEY_ID = key_id ]
  [,SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = access_key ]
  [,ENABLE_VIRTUAL_HOST_STYLE = { TRUE | FALSE }]
  [,SESSION_TOKEN = token ]
  ...
)

Table options

Option	Description	Required
`LOCATION`	External files locations, e.g., `s3://<bucket>[<path>]`, `/<path>/[<filename>]`	Required
`FORMAT`	Target file(s) format, e.g., JSON, CSV, Parquet, ORC	Required
`PATTERN`	Use regex to match files. e.g., `*_today.parquet`	Optional

S3

Option	Description	Required
`REGION`	AWS region name. e.g., us-east-1.	Required
`ENDPOINT`	The bucket endpoint	Optional
`ACCESS_KEY_ID`	ACCESS_KEY_ID Your access key ID for connecting the AWS S3 compatible object storage.	Optional
`SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	Your secret access key for connecting the AWS S3 compatible object storage.	Optional
`ENABLE_VIRTUAL_HOST_STYLE`	If you use virtual hosting to address the bucket, set it to "true".	Optional
`SESSION_TOKEN`	Your temporary credential for connecting the AWS S3 service.	Optional

Time Index Column

When creating an external table using the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statement, you are required to use the TIME INDEX constraint to specify a Time Index column.

Examples

You can create an external table without columns definitions, the column definitions will be automatically inferred:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE IF NOT EXISTS city WITH (location='/var/data/city.csv',format='csv');

In this example, we did not explicitly define the columns of the table. To satisfy the requirement that the external table must specify a Time Index column, the CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statement will infer the Time Index column according to the following rules:

If the Time Index column can be inferred from the file metadata, then that column will be used as the Time Index column.
If there is a column named greptime_timestamp (the type of this column must be TIMESTAMP, otherwise, an error will be thrown), then this column will be used as the Time Index column.
Otherwise, a column named greptime_timestamp will be automatically created as the Time Index column, and a DEFAULT '1970-01-01 00:00:00+0000' constraint will be added.

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE city (
            host string,
            ts timestamp,
            cpu float64 default 0,
            memory float64,
            TIME INDEX (ts),
            PRIMARY KEY(host)
) WITH (location='/var/data/city.csv', format='csv');

In this example, we explicitly defined the ts column as the Time Index column. If there is no suitable Time Index column in the file, you can also create a placeholder column and add a DEFAULT expr constraint.

CREATE FLOW

CREATE [OR REPLACE] FLOW [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <flow-name>
SINK TO <sink-table-name>
[ EXPIRE AFTER <expr> ]
[ COMMENT '<string>' ]
AS
<SQL>;

For the statement to create or update a flow, please read the flow management documents.

CREATE VIEW

CREATE [OR REPLACE] VIEW [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <view-name>
AS select_statement

For the statement to create or update a view, please read the view user guide.

CREATE

CREATE DATABASE​

Syntax​

Examples​

CREATE TABLE​

Syntax​

Table constraints​

Inverted Index​

Table options​

Create a table with TTL​

Create a table with custom storage​

Create a table with custom compaction options​

Create an append-only table​

Create a table with merge mode​

Column options​

FULLTEXT Column Option​

Region partition rules​

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE​

Syntax​

Table options​

S3​

Time Index Column​

Examples​

CREATE FLOW​

CREATE VIEW​

CREATE DATABASE

Syntax

Examples

CREATE TABLE

Syntax

Table constraints

Inverted Index

Table options

Create a table with TTL

Create a table with custom storage

Create a table with custom compaction options

Create an append-only table

Create a table with merge mode

Column options

`FULLTEXT` Column Option

Region partition rules

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE

Syntax

Table options

S3

Time Index Column

Examples

CREATE FLOW

CREATE VIEW