Query language elements

NeuronEX provides a variety of elements for building queries. They are summarized below.

Element	Summary
SELECT	SELECT is used to retrieve rows from input streams and enables the selection of one or many columns from one or many input streams in NeuronEX.
FROM	FROM specifies the input stream. The FROM clause is always required for any SELECT statement.
JOIN	JOIN is used to combine records from two or more input streams. JOIN includes LEFT, RIGHT, FULL & CROSS. Join can apply to multiple streams join or stream/table join. To join multiple streams, it must run within a window.
WHERE	WHERE specifies the search condition for the rows returned by the query.
GROUP BY	GROUP BY groups a selected set of rows into a set of summary rows grouped by the values of one or more columns or expressions. It must run within a window.
ORDER BY	Order the rows by values of one or more columns.
HAVING	HAVING specifies a search condition for a group or an aggregate. HAVING can be used only with the SELECT expression.
LIMIT	LIMIT will limit the number of output data.

SELECT

Retrieves rows from input streams and enables the selection of one or many columns from one or many input streams in NeuronEX.

Syntax

SELECT
    * [EXCEPT | REPLACE]
    | [source_stream.]column_name [AS column_alias]
    | expression

Arguments

Specifies that all columns from all input streams in the FROM clause should be returned. The columns are returned by input source, as specified in the FROM clause, and in the order in which they exist in the incoming stream or specified by ORDER BY clause.

*

Select all of fields from source stream.

example:

select * from demo;

* EXCEPT

Specify one or more fields to be excluded from the result. It allows excluding one or more specific column names from the query result while still including other columns.

SELECT * EXCEPT(column_name1, column_name2...)
FROM stream1

example:

select * except(a,b) from demo;

* REPLACE

Replace specific columns in the result. It allows for the replacement of certain columns in the result by specifying new expressions, while other columns are still included in the output.

SELECT * REPLACE(expression1 as column_name1, expression2 as column_name2...)
FROM stream1

example:

select * replace(a+b as c) from demo;

REPLACE and EXCEPT can be used together, but it's important to note that if there is a conflict between these two operations, REPLACE takes precedence. In the following example, the final result will include the column_name1 field.

SELECT * EXCEPT(column_name1, column_name2) REPLACE(expression1 as column_name1, expression3 as column_name3)
FROM stream1

source_stream

The source stream name or alias name.

column_name

Is the name of a column to return. If the column to specified is a embedded nest record type, then use the JSON expressions to refer the embedded columns.

column_alias

Is an alternative name to replace the column name in the query result set. Aliases are used also to specify names for the results of expressions. column_alias cannot be used in a WHERE, GROUP BY, or HAVING clause.

column_alias can participate in the calculation of select field, the following is an example:

select a + 1 as sum1, sum1 + 1 as sum2 from demo

When a is 1, the result is as follows:

{"sum1":2, "sum2":3}

It is worth noting that when the name of an alias has the same name as the column being defined, the name will be parsed as a column in the select field where the alias is located, and it will be parsed as an alais name in other select fields. Here is an example:

select a + 1 as a, a + 2 as sum2 from demo

When a is 1, the result is as follows:

{"a":2, "sum2":4}

expression

Expression is a constant, function, any combination of column names, constants, and functions connected by an operator or operators.

FROM

Specifies the input stream. The FROM clause is always required for any SELECT statement.

Syntax

FROM source_stream | source_stream AS source_stream_alias

Arguments

source_stream | source_stream_alias

The input stream name or alias name.

JOIN

JOIN is used to combine records from two or more input streams. JOIN includes LEFT, RIGHT, FULL & CROSS.

Syntax

LEFT | RIGHT | FULL | CROSS
JOIN
source_stream | source_stream AS source_stream_alias
ON <source_stream|source_stream_alias>.column_name =<source_stream|source_stream_alias>.column_name

Arguments

LEFT

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all records from the left stream (stream1), and the matched records from the right stream (stream2). The result is NULL from the right side, if there is no match.

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM stream1
LEFT JOIN stream2
ON stream1.column_name = stream2.column_name;

example:

select * from stream1 left join stream2 on stream1.column = stream2.column group by countwindow(5);

RIGHT

The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all records from the right stream (stream2), and the matched records from the left stream (stream1). The result is NULL from the left side, when there is no match.

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM stream1
RIGHT JOIN stream2
ON stream1.column_name = stream2.column_name;

example:

select * from stream1 right join stream2 on stream1.column = stream2.column group by countwindow(5);

FULL

The FULL JOIN keyword return all records when there is a match in left (stream1) or right (stream2) table records.

Note: FULL JOIN can potentially return large result-sets!

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM stream1
FULL JOIN stream2
ON stream1.column_name = stream2.column_name
WHERE condition;

example:

select * from stream1 full join on stream2 stream1.column = stream2.column group by countwindow(5);

CROSS

The CROSS JOIN is used to combine each row of the first stream (stream1) with each row of the second stream (stream2). It is also known as the Cartesian join since it returns the Cartesian product of the sets of rows from the joined tables. Let's say if there are m rows in stream1, and n rows in stream2, then the result of CROSS JOIN returns m*n rows.

Note: CROSS JOIN can potentially return very large result-sets!

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM stream1
CROSS OUTER JOIN stream2
ON stream1.column_name = stream2.column_name
WHERE condition;

example:

select * from stream1 cross outer join on stream2 stream1.column = stream2.column group by countwindow(5);

source_stream | source_stream_alias

The input stream name or alias name to be joined.

column_name

Is the name of a column to return. If the column to specified is a embedded nest record type, then use the JSON expressions to refer the embedded columns.

WHERE

WHERE specifies the search condition for the rows returned by the query. The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified condition.

Syntax

WHERE <search_condition>
<search_condition> ::= 
    { <predicate> | ( <search_condition> ) } 
    [ { AND | OR } { <predicate> | ( <search_condition> ) } ] 
[ ,...n ] 
<predicate> ::= 
    { expression { = | < > | ! = | > | > = | < | < = } expression

exmaple:

select * from demo where a > 10;

Arguments

Expression is a constant, function, any combination of column names, constants, and functions connected by an operator or operators.

< search_condition >

Specifies the conditions for the rows returned in the result set for a SELECT statement or query expression. There is no limit to the number of predicates that can be included in a search condition.

AND

Combines two conditions and evaluates to TRUE when both of the conditions are TRUE.

example:

select * from demo where a > 10 and a < 15;

OR

Combines two conditions and evaluates to TRUE when either condition is TRUE.

exmaple:

select * from demo where a > 10 or a < 15;

< predicate >

Is an expression that returns TRUE or FALSE.

expression

Is a column name, a constant, a function, a variable, a scalar subquery, or any combination of column names, constants, and functions connected by an operator or operators, or a subquery. The expression can also contain the CASE expression.

=

Is the operator used to test the equality between two expressions.

<>

Is the operator used to test the condition of two expressions not being equal to each other.

!=

Is the operator used to test the condition of two expressions not being equal to each other.

>

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression being greater than the other.

>=

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression being greater than or equal to the other expression.

<

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression being less than the other.

<=

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression being less than or equal to the other expression.

[NOT] BETWEEN

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression in (not) within the range specified.

expression [NOT] BETWEEN expression1 AND expression2

exmaple:

select * from demo where a between 10 and 15;

[NOT] LIKE

Is the operator used to check if the STRING in the first operand matches a pattern specified by the second operand. Patterns can contain these characters:

• "%" matches any number of characters.
• "_" matches a single character.

expression [NOT] LIKE expression1

Example:

a LIKE "string%"

exmaple:

select * from demo where a like "prefix%"

[NOT] IN

Is the operator used to test the condition of one expression (not) being part of to the other expression. support these two formats

  expression [NOT] IN (expression2,...n)

Note： support multiple expressions at the same time, but each expression must return single value

  expression [NOT] IN expression2

Note：user must make sure the result of expression2 is in array format

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
WHERE condition;

GROUP BY

GROUP BY groups a selected set of rows into a set of summary rows grouped by the values of one or more columns or expressions.

Syntax

GROUP BY <group by spec>

<group by spec> ::=
    <group by item> [ ,...n ]
    | <window_type>

<group by item> ::=
    <column_expression>

Arguments

<window_type>

Specifies any NeuronEX supported Windowing, see windows for more info.

< column_expression >

Is the expression or the name of the column on which the grouping operation is performed. The column expression cannot contain a column alias that is defined in the SELECT list.

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM stream1
GROUP BY column_name

example:

select * from demo group by a, countwindow(5);

HAVING

The HAVING clause was added to SQL because the WHERE keyword could not be used with aggregate functions. Specifies a search condition for a group or an aggregate. HAVING can be used only with the SELECT expression. HAVING is typically used in a GROUP BY clause.

Syntax

[ HAVING <search condition> ]

Arguments

< search_condition >

Specifies the search condition for the group or the aggregate to meet.

SELECT temp AS t, name FROM topic/sensor1 WHERE name = "dname" GROUP BY name HAVING count(name) > 3

example:

select * from demo group by countwindow(5) having a > 10;

ORDER BY

Order the rows by values of one or more columns.

Syntax

ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC

The ORDER BY statement in sql is used to sort the fetched data in either ascending or descending according to one or more columns.

exmaple:

select * from demo group by countwindow(5) order by a ASC;

• By default ORDER BY sorts the data in ascending order.
• The keyword DESC is used to sort the data in descending order and the keyword ASC to sort in ascending order.

Arguments

ASC

To sort the data in ascending order.

DESC

To sort the data in descending order.

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;

LIMIT

Limit the number of output data

LIMIT 1

Case Expression

The case expression evaluates a list of conditions and returns one of multiple possible result expressions. It let you use IF ... THEN ... ELSE logic in SQL statements without having to invoke procedures.

There are two types of case expression: simple case expression and searched case expression.

exmaple:

select * from demo where a > 10 group by countwindow(5) limit 10;

Simple Case Expression

The simple case expression compares an expression to a set of simple expressions to determine the result.

Syntax

CASE value 
     WHEN conditionValue THEN result_expression [ ...n ] 
     [ ELSE else_result_expression ] 
END

Example:

SELECT CASE color
    WHEN "red" THEN 1
    WHEN "yellow" THEN 2
    ELSE 3 END as colorInteger,
humidity FROM tbl

Searched Case Expression

The searched case expression evaluates a set of bool expressions to determine the result.

Syntax

CASE  
     WHEN condition THEN result_expression [ ...n ] 
     [ ELSE else_result_expression ] 
END

Example:

SELECT CASE
    WHEN size < 150 THEN "S"
    WHEN size < 170 THEN "M"
    WHEN size < 175 THEN "L"
    ELSE "XL" END as sizeLabel
FROM tbl

Use reserved keywords or special characters

If you'd like to use reserved keywords or special characters in rule SQL or streams management, please refer to NeuronEX lexical elements.