SQL - `SELECT`

ArcadeDB supports the SQL language to execute queries against the database engine. For more information, see operators and functions. For more information on the differences between this implementation and the SQL-92 standard, please refer to this section.

Syntax:

SELECT [ [DISTINCT] <Projections> ]
    [ FROM <Target> [ LET <Assignment>* ] ]
    [ WHERE <Condition>* ]
    [ GROUP BY <Field>* ]
    [ ORDER BY <Fields>* [ ASC|DESC ] * ]
    [ UNWIND <Field>* ]
    [ SKIP <SkipRecords> ]
    [ LIMIT <MaxRecords> ]
    [ TIMEOUT <MilliSeconds> [ <STRATEGY> ] ]

Projections Indicates the data you want to extract from the query as the result-set. Note: In ArcadeDB, this variable is optional. In the projections you can define aliases for single fields, using the AS keyword; in current release aliases cannot be used in the WHERE condition, GROUP BY and ORDER BY (they will be evaluated to null)
- DISTINCT enforces unique projection results.
FROM Designates the object to query. This can be a type, bucket, single RID, set of RID index values sorted by ascending or descending key order.
- When querying a type, for <target> use the type name.
- When querying a bucket, for <target> use BUCKET:<bucket-name> (eg. BUCKET:person) or BUCKET:<bucket-id> ( eg. BUCKET:12). This causes the query to execute only on records in that bucket.
- When querying record ID’s, you can specific one or a small set of records to query. This is useful when you need to specify a starting point in navigating graphs.
- To query the schema you can use:
  - select from schema:types to retrieve the defined types
  - select from schema:indexes to retrieve the defined indexes
  - select from schema:database to retrieve information about database settings
- When querying indexes, use the following prefixes:
  - INDEXVALUES:<index> and INDEXVALUESASC:<index> sorts values into an ascending order of index keys.
  - INDEXVALUESDESC:<index> sorts the values into a descending order of index keys.
WHERE Designates conditions to filter the result-set.
LET Binds context variables to use in projections, conditions or sub-queries.
GROUP BY Designates field on which to group the result-set.
ORDER BY Designates the field with which to order the result-set. Use the optional ASC and DESC operators, or true (= ASC) and false (= DESC), to define the direction of the order. The default is ascending. Additionally, if you are using a projection, you need to include the ORDER BY field in the projection.
UNWIND Designates the field on which to unwind the collection.
SKIP Defines the number of records you want to skip from the start of the result-set. You may find this useful in Pagination, when using it in conjunction with LIMIT.
LIMIT Defines the maximum number of records in the result-set. You may find this useful in Pagination, when using it in conjunction with SKIP.
TIMEOUT Defines the maximum time in milliseconds for the query. By default, queries have no timeouts. If you don’t specify a timeout strategy, it defaults to EXCEPTION. These are the available timeout strategies:
- RETURN Truncate the result-set, returning the data collected up to the timeout.
- EXCEPTION Raises an exception.

Examples

Return all records of the type Person, where the name starts with Luk:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Person WHERE name LIKE 'Luk%'

Alternatively, you might also use either of these queries:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Person WHERE name.left(3) = 'Luk'
ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Person WHERE name.substring(0,3) = 'Luk'

Return all records of the type !AnimalType where the collection races contains at least one entry where the first character is e, ignoring case:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM animaltype WHERE races CONTAINS( name.toLowerCase().subString(
            0, 1) = 'e' )

Return all records of type !AnimalType where the collection races contains at least one entry with names European or Asiatic:

ArcadeDB> SELECT * FROM animaltype WHERE races CONTAINS(name in ['European',
            'Asiatic'])

Return all records in the type Profile where any field contains the word danger:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Profile WHERE @this.values().asString() LIKE '%danger%'

Return all results on type Profile, ordered by the field name in descending order:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Profile ORDER BY name DESC

Return the number of records in the type Account per city:

ArcadeDB> SELECT SUM(*) FROM Account GROUP BY city

Return only a limited set of records:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM [#10:3, #10:4, #10:5]

Return three fields from the type Profile:

ArcadeDB> SELECT nick, followings, followers FROM Profile

Return the field name in uppercase and the field country name of the linked city of the address:

ArcadeDB> SELECT name.toUppercase(), address.city.country.name FROM Profile

Return records from the type Profile in descending order of their creation:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Profile ORDER BY @rid DESC

Return value of email which is stored in a JSON field data (type EMBEDDED) of the type Person, where the name starts with Luk:

ArcadeDB> SELECT data.email FROM Person WHERE name LIKE 'Luk%'

ArcadeDB can open an inverse cursor against buckets. This is very fast and doesn’t require the typical ordering resources, CPU and RAM.

Projections

In the standard implementations of SQL, projections are mandatory. In ArcadeDB, the omission of projects translates to its returning the entire record. That is, it reads no projection as the equivalent of the * wildcard.

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Account

For all projections except the wildcard *, it creates a new temporary document, which does not include the @rid fields of the original record.

ArcadeDB> SELECT name, age FROM Account

The naming convention for the returned document fields are:

Field name for plain fields, like invoice becoming invoice.
First field name for chained fields, like invoice.customer.name becoming invoice.
Function name for functions, like MAX(salary) becoming max.

In the event that the target field exists, it uses a numeric progression. For instance,

ArcadeDB> SELECT MAX(incoming), MAX(cost) FROM Balance

------+------
 max  | max2
------+------
 1342 | 2478
------+------

To override the display for the field names, use the AS.

ArcadeDB> SELECT MAX(incoming) AS max_incoming, MAX(cost) AS max_cost FROM Balance

---------------+----------
 max_incoming  | max_cost
---------------+----------
 1342          | 2478
---------------+----------

With the dollar sign $, you can access the context variables. Each time you run the command, ArcadeDB accesses the context to read and write the variables. For instance, say you want to display the path and depth levels up to the fifth of a TRAVERSE on all records in the Movie type.

ArcadeDB> SELECT $path, $depth FROM ( TRAVERSE * FROM Movie WHERE $depth <= 5 )

`LET` Block

The LET block contains context variables to assign each time ArcadeDB evaluates a record. It destroys these values once the query execution ends. You can use context variables in projections, conditions, and sub-queries.

Assigning Fields for Reuse

ArcadeDB allows for crossing relationships. In single queries, you need to evaluate the same branch of the nested relationship. This is better than using a context variable that refers to the full relationship.

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Profile WHERE address.city.name LIKE '%Saint%"' AND
          ( address.city.country.name = 'Italy' OR
            address.city.country.name = 'France' )

Using the LET makes the query shorter and faster, because it traverses the relationships only once:

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Profile LET $city = address.city WHERE $city.name LIKE
          '%Saint%"' AND ($city.country.name = 'Italy' OR $city.country.name = 'France')

In this case, it traverses the path till address.city only once.

Sub-query

The LET block allows you to assign a context variable to the result of a sub-query.

ArcadeDB> SELECT FROM Document LET $temp = ( SELECT @rid, $depth FROM (TRAVERSE
          V.OUT, E.IN FROM $parent.current ) WHERE @type = 'Concept' AND
          ( id = 'first concept' OR id = 'second concept' )) WHERE $temp.SIZE() > 0

LET Block in Projection

You can use context variables as part of a result-set in projections. For instance, the query below displays the city name from the previous example:

ArcadeDB> SELECT $temp.name FROM Profile LET $temp = address.city WHERE $city.name
          LIKE '%Saint%"' AND ( $city.country.name = 'Italy' OR
          $city.country.name = 'France' )

Unwinding

ArcadeDB allows unwinding of collection fields and obtaining multiple records as a result, one for each element in the collection:

ArcadeDB> SELECT name, OUT("Friend").name AS friendName FROM Person

--------+-------------------
 name   | friendName
--------+-------------------
 'John' | ['Mark', 'Steve']
--------+-------------------

In the event if you want one record for each element in friendName, you can rewrite the query using UNWIND:

ArcadeDB> SELECT name, OUT("Friend").name AS friendName FROM Person UNWIND friendName

--------+-------------
 name   | friendName
--------+-------------
 'John' | 'Mark'
 'John' | 'Steve'
--------+-------------

SQL - SELECT

LET Block

Sub-query

Unwinding

SQL - `SELECT`

`LET` Block