TQL reference

Learn the TQL commands.

TQL is the ThoughtSpot language for entering SQL commands. This reference lists TQL commands you can use to do things like creating a schema or verifying a data load.

About using TQL

You can use TQL either through the ThoughtSpot application’s web interface or the command line interface in the Linux shell.

Use --query_results_apply_top_row_count <number> flag to limit the number of result rows returned by a query. For example:

$ tql --query_results_apply_top_row_count 100

As a best practice, you should enclose object names (database, schema, table, and column) in double quotes, and column values in single quotes. When referring to objects using fully qualified object names, the syntax is:

"database"."schema"."table"

To get help on SQL when using TQL, enter help on the command line.

You can use TQL to view and modify schemas and data in tables. Remember to add a semicolon after each command. Commands are not case sensitive but are capitalized here for readability.

Worksheets and Pinboards in ThoughtSpot are dependent upon the data in the underlying tables. Use caution when modifying tables directly. If you change or remove a schema on which those objects rely, the objects could become invalid.

View schemas and data

Syntax Description

SHOW DATABASES

Lists all available databases. Examples:

SHOW DATABASES;

USE <database>

Switches the context to the specified database. This is required if queries do not use fully qualified names (database.schema.table) for specifying tables.

Examples:

USE "fruit_database";

SHOW SCHEMAS

Lists all schemas within the current database. For example:

SHOW SCHEMAS;

SHOW TABLES

Lists all tables within the current database by schema. For example:

SHOW TABLES;

SHOW TABLE <table>

Lists all the columns for a table. For example:

SHOW TABLE "locations";

SCRIPT SERVER

Generates the TQL schema for all tables in all databases on the server. For example:

SCRIPT SERVER;

SCRIPT DATABASE <database>

Generates the TQL schema for all tables in a database. For example:

SCRIPT DATABASE "fruit_database";

SCRIPT TABLE <table>

Generates the TQL schema for a table. For example:

SCRIPT TABLE "vendor";

SELECT <cols_or_expr>

FROM <table_list>

[WHERE <predicates>]

[GROUP BY <expr>]

[ORDER BY <expr>]

Shows specified set of table data.

If you do not specify the TOP number of rows to select, the top 50 rows will be returned by default. The number of rows to return can be set using the TQL command line flag:

--query_results apply_top_row_count

You can use the following aggregation functions:

  • sum

  • count

  • count distinct

  • stddev

  • avg

  • variance

  • min

  • max

You can use the following date functions:

  • absyear

  • absmonth

  • absday

  • absquarter

  • date

  • time

For example:

SELECT TOP 10 "quantity" FROM "sales_fact";

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM "vendor";

SELECT "vendor", SUM("quantity") FROM "sales_fact" GROUP BY "vendor";

SELECT "vendor", SUM("amount") FROM "vendor", "sales_fact"
WHERE "sales_fact"."vendorid" = "vendor"."vendorid"
AND "amount" > 100 GROUP BY "vendor" ORDER BY "amount" DESC;

SELECT "vendor", SUM("quantity") FROM "sales_fact"
GROUP BY "vendor" LIMIT 10;

Schema creation

Syntax Description

CREATE DATABASE <database>

Creates a database. For example:

CREATE DATABASE "fruit_database";

CREATE SCHEMA <schema>

Creates a schema within the current database. For example:

CREATE SCHEMA "fruit_schema";

CREATE TABLE <table> (<column_definitions> [<constraints>]) [PARTITION BY HASH (<number>) [KEY ("<column>")]])

Creates a table with the specified column definitions and constraints.

Use PARTITION BY HASH to shard a table across all nodes. If no KEY is specified, the table will be randomly sharded.

Do not specify relationship constraints (FOREIGN KEY or RELATIONSHIP) in the CREATE TABLE statement. Instead, define these using ALTER TABLE statements at the end of your TQL script, after creating your tables. This method guarantees that tables are created before they are referenced in the constraint definitions. For example:

CREATE TABLE "vendor" ("vendorid" int, "name" varchar(255));

CREATE TABLE "sales_fact" ("saleid" int, "locationid" int, "vendorid" int, "quantity" int, "sale_amount" double, "fruitid" int, CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY("saleid")) PARTITION BY HASH(96) KEY ("saleid");

Schema modification

Syntax Description

DROP DATABASE <database>

Drops a database and all of its schemas and tables. For example:

DROP DATABASE "fruit_database";

DROP SCHEMA <schema>

Drops a schema within the current database, and drops all of the tables in the schema. For example:

DROP SCHEMA "fruit_schema";

DROP TABLE <table>

Drops a table. For example:

DROP TABLE "location";

TRUNCATE TABLE <table>

Removes all data from a table, but preserves its metadata, including all GUIDs, relationships, etc. This can be used to force a new schema for a table without losing the metadata.

However, this operation removes all existing data from the table and must be used with caution. You must reload the data following a TRUNCATE, or all dependent objects (Worksheets and Pinboards) in ThoughtSpot will become invalid. For example:

TRUNCATE TABLE "location";

ALTER TABLE <table> ADD|DROP|RENAME COLUMN <column>

Alters a table to add, drop, or rename a column.

When you add a column to an existing table, you must provide a default value to use for existing rows. For example:

ALTER TABLE "cart" ADD COLUMN "nickname" varchar(255) DEFAULT 'no nickname';

ALTER TABLE "cart" DROP COLUMN "nickname";

ALTER TABLE "cart" RENAME COLUMN "nickname" TO "shortname";

ALTER TABLE <table> DROP CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY;

Drops the primary key from a table.

Note that if you then add a new primary key, the same upsert behavior will be applied as with adding any primary key. This can result in data deletion, so make sure you understand how the upsert will affect your data ahead of time. For example:

ALTER TABLE "sales" DROP CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY;

ALTER TABLE "sales" ADD CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY ("PO_number");

ALTER TABLE <table> DROP [CONSTRAINT | RELATIONSHIP] <name>;

Drops the named foreign key or relationship between two tables. For example:

ALTER TABLE "sales_fact" DROP CONSTRAINT "FK_PO_number";

ALTER TABLE "fruit_dim" DROP RELATIONSHIP "REL_dates";

ALTER TABLE <table> [SET DIMENSION | SET FACT [PARTITION BY HASH [(<shards>)] [KEY(<column>)]]]

Changes the partitioning on a table by doing one of:

  • re-sharding a sharded table

  • changing a replicated table to a sharded table

  • changing a sharded table to a replicated (unsharded) table

By default, ThoughtSpot does not shard dimension tables.

To change the partitioning on a table, or to change a dimension table to a sharded table, use ALTER TABLE…​SET FACT PARTITION BY HASH…​;

To make a sharded table into a dimension table (replicated on every node), use ALTER TABLE…​SET DIMENSION; command.

Examples of this statement:

ALTER TABLE "sales_fact" SET FACT PARTITION BY HASH (96) KEY ("PO_number"); ALTER TABLE "fruit_dim" SET DIMENSION;

ALTER TABLE <table> MODIFY COLUMN <column> <new_data_type>;

Changes the data type of a column. This can have implications on sharding and primary key behavior. See About data type conversion. For example:

ALTER TABLE fact100 MODIFY COLUMN product_id int;

Modify data

Syntax Description

INSERT INTO <table> VALUES …​

Inserts values into a table. Only use this for testing. Do not use INSERT on a production system. For example:

INSERT INTO "vendor" VALUES ('helen rose', 'jacob norse', 'eileen ruff', 'manny gates');

ALTER TABLE <table> SET LOAD PRIORITY <value> <new_data_type>;

Sets the load priority for a table. Load priority determines the order in which a table is loaded on a cluster restart. You can set any value from 1-100. The system default for all tables is 50. For example:

ALTER TABLE 'sales_facts' SET LOAD PRIORITY 1;

UPDATE <table> …​ SET …​ [WHERE …​]

Updates rows in a table that match optionally provided predicates. Predicates have the form column = value connected by the AND keyword. Sets the column values to the specified values. For example:

UPDATE "location" SET "borough" = 'staten island', "city" = 'new york' WHERE "borough" = 'staten isl' AND city = 'NY';

DELETE FROM <table> [WHERE…​]

Deletes rows from a table that match optionally provided predicates. Predicates have the form column = value connected by the AND keyword. When specifying dates, use epoch values. Other date formats can result in error and unwanted deletion of data from the table.For example:

DELETE FROM "vendor" WHERE "name" = 'Joey Smith' AND "vendorid" = '19463';

Constraints and relationships

Constraints and relationships in ThoughtSpot are used to define the relationships between tables (how they can be joined). However, constraints are not enforced, as they would be in a transactional database. You can define the following constraints when creating a table with CREATE TABLE, or add them to an existing table using the ADD CONSTRAINT syntax:

Syntax Description

PRIMARY KEY

Designates a unique, non-null value as the primary key for a table. This can be one column or a combination of columns. If values are not unique, an upsert will be performed if a row includes a primary key that is already present in the data. Some examples:

CREATE TABLE "schools" ( "schoolID" varchar(15), "schoolName" varchar(255), "schoolCity" varchar(55), "schoolState" varchar(55), "schoolNick" varchar(55), CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY ("schoolID") ) ;

ALTER TABLE "cart" ADD CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY ("cart_id");

ALTER TABLE "cart" DROP CONSTRAINT PRIMARY KEY "cart_id";

FOREIGN KEY

Defines a relationship where the value(s) in the table are used to join to a second table. Uses an equality operator. The foreign key must match the primary key of the table that is referenced in number, column type, and order of columns.

When creating a foreign key, give it a name. You can reference the foreign key name later, if you want to remove it.

Examples of this statement:

ALTER TABLE "batting" ADD CONSTRAINT "FK_player" FOREIGN KEY ("playerID") REFERENCES "players" ("playerID");

ALTER TABLE "batting" ADD CONSTRAINT "FK_lg_team" FOREIGN KEY ("lgID" ,"teamID") REFERENCES "teams" ("lgID" ,"teamID");

ALTER TABLE "shipment" ADD CONSTRAINT "FK_PO_vendor" FOREIGN KEY ("po_number", "vendor") REFERENCES "orders" ("po_number", "vendor");

ALTER TABLE "shipment" DROP CONSTRAINT "FK_PO_vendor";

RELATIONSHIP

Defines a relationship where the value(s) in the table can be used to join to a second table, using an equality condition (required) and one or more range conditions (optional). These conditions act like a WHERE clause when the two tables are joined. They are applied using AND logic, such that all conditions must be met for a row to be included.

You may add multiple relationships between tables. When creating a relationship, give it a name. You can reference the relationship name later, if you want to remove it.

Examples of this statement:

ALTER TABLE "wholesale_buys" ADD RELATIONSHIP "REL_fruit" WITH "retail_sales" AS "wholesale_buys"."fruit" = "retail_sales"."fruit" AND ("wholesale_buys"."date_order" < "retail_sales"."date_sold" AND "retail_sales"."date_sold" < "wholesale_buys"."expire_date");

ALTER TABLE "wholesale_buys" DROP RELATIONSHIP "REL_fruit";

Permitted joins and necessary permissions

See this matrix for information about which joins you can create, and what permissions these joins require.

Worksheets View Materialized View Imported table (UI) Table uploaded from backend (tsload) or through DataFlow Table uploaded through Embrace View on top of table uploaded through Embrace

Necessary permissions:

None

None

None

Can manage data permission to load the table

Admin privileges to access tsload

None

None

Worksheets

Can edit permission on the source Worksheet

✗

✗

✗

✓

✗

✗

✗

View

Can edit permission on the source View

✗

✓

✓

✓

✓

✗

✗

Materialized View

Can edit permission on the source Materialized View

✗

✓

✓

✓

✓

Note: It is a best practice to create this join through the UI, rather than using TQL.

✗

✗

Imported table (UI)

Can edit permission on the source table

✓

✓

✓

✓

✓

✗

✗

Table uploaded from backend (tsload) or through DataFlow

Can edit permission on the source table

✗

✗

✗

✗

✗

✗

✗

Table uploaded through Embrace

Can edit permission on the source table, and can manage data permission

✗

✗

✗

✗

✗

✓

Note: The two tables must be from the same connection.

✓

Note: The View and the table must be from the same connection.

View on top of table uploaded through Embrace

Can edit permission on the source View

✗

✗

✗

✗

✗

✓

Note: The View and the table must be from the same connection.

✓

Note: The two Views must be from the same connection.

Data types

ThoughtSpot supports a simplified list of data types:

Syntax Description Examples

Character

VARCHAR(n)

Specify the maximum number of characters, as in VARCHAR(255). The size limit is 64MB for VARCHAR values.

Floating point

  • DOUBLE

  • FLOAT

DOUBLE is recommended.

Boolean

  • BOOL

Can be true or false.

Integer

  • INT

  • BIGINT

INT holds 32 bits.

BIGINT holds 64 bits.

Date or time

  • DATE

  • DATETIME

  • TIMESTAMP

  • TIME

DATETIME, TIMESTAMP, and TIME are stored at the granularity of seconds.

TIMESTAMP is identical to DATETIME, but is included for syntax compatibility.
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