Meta functions

These functions provide table, column and partition information including metadata. They are particularly useful for checking the table settings for:

Designated timestamp column
Attached, detached, or attachable partitions
Partition storage size on disk

tables#

tables() returns all tables in the database including table metadata.

Arguments:

tables() does not require arguments.

Return value:

Returns a table.

Examples:

List all tables

tables();

id	name	designatedTimestamp	partitionBy	maxUncommittedRows	o3MaxLag	walEnabled	directoryName
1	my_table	ts	DAY	500000	30000000 0	false	my_table
2	device_data	null	NONE	10000	30000000	false	device_data
3	short_lived	null	HOUR	10000	30000000	false	short_lived (->)

All tables in reverse alphabetical order

tables() ORDER BY name DESC;

id	name	designatedTimestamp	partitionBy	maxUncommittedRows	o3MaxLag	walEnabled	directoryName
2	device_data	null	NONE	10000	30000000	false	device_data
1	my_table	ts	DAY	500000	300000000	false	my_table
3	short_lived	ts	HOUR	10000	30000000	false	short_lived (->)

note

(->) means the table was created using the IN VOLUME clause.

All tables with a daily partitioning strategy

tables() WHERE partitionBy = 'DAY'

id	name	designatedTimestamp	partitionBy	maxUncommittedRows	walEnabled	directoryName
1	my_table	ts	DAY	500000	true	my_table

wal_tables#

wal_tables() returns the WAL status for all WAL tables in the database.

Arguments:

wal_tables() does not require arguments.

Return value:

Returns a table including the following information:

name - table name
suspended - suspended status flag
writerTxn - the last committed transaction in TableWriter
sequencerTxn - the last committed transaction in the sequencer

Examples:

List all tables

wal_tables();

name	suspended	writerTxn	sequencerTxn
sensor_wal	false	2	4
weather_wal	false	3	3
test_wal	true	7	9

table_columns#

table_columns('tableName') returns the schema of a table.

Arguments:

tableName is the name of an existing table as a string.

Return value:

Returns a table with the following columns:

column - name of the available columns in the table
type - type of the column
indexed - if indexing is applied to this column
indexBlockCapacity - how many row IDs to store in a single storage block on disk
symbolCached - whether this symbol column is cached
symbolCapacity - how many distinct values this column of symbol type is expected to have
designated - if this is set as the designated timestamp column for this table

For more details on the meaning and use of these values, see the CREATE TABLE documentation.

Examples:

Get all columns in a table

table_columns('my_table')

column	type	indexed	indexBlockCapacity	symbolCached	symbolCapacity	designated
symb	SYMBOL	true	1048576	false	256	false
price	DOUBLE	false	0	false	0	false
ts	TIMESTAMP	false	0	false	0	true
s	STRING	false	0	false	0	false

Get designated timestamp column

SELECT column, type, designated FROM table_columns('my_table') WHERE designated = true;

column	type	designated
ts	TIMESTAMP	true

Get the count of column types

SELECT type, count() FROM table_columns('my_table');

type	count
SYMBOL	1
DOUBLE	1
TIMESTAMP	1
STRING	1

table_partitions#

table_partitions('tableName') returns information for the partitions of a table with the option to filter the partitions.

Arguments:

tableName is the name of an existing table as a string.

Return value:

Returns a table with the following columns:

index - INTEGER, index of the partition (NaN when the partition is not attached)
partitionBy - STRING, one of NONE, HOUR, DAY, WEEK, MONTH and YEAR
name - STRING, name of the partition, e.g. 2023-03-14, 2023-03-14.detached, 2023-03-14.attachable
minTimestamp - LONG, min timestamp of the partition (NaN when the table is not partitioned)
maxTimestamp - LONG, max timestamp of the partition (NaN when the table is not partitioned)
numRows - LONG, number of rows in the partition
diskSize - LONG, size of the partition in bytes
diskSizeHuman - STRING, size of the partition meant for humans to read (same output as function size_pretty)
readOnly - BOOLEAN, true if the partition is attached via soft link
active - BOOLEAN, true if the partition is the last partition, and whether we are writing to it (at least one record)
attached - BOOLEAN, true if the partition is attached
detached - BOOLEAN, true if the partition is detached (name of the partition will contain the .detached extension)
attachable - BOOLEAN, true if the partition is detached and can be attached (name of the partition will contain the .attachable extension)

Examples:

Create table my_table

CREATE TABLE my_table AS (
    SELECT
        rnd_symbol('EURO', 'USD', 'OTHER') symbol,
        rnd_double() * 50.0 price,
        rnd_double() * 20.0 amount,
        to_timestamp('2023-01-01', 'yyyy-MM-dd') + x * 6 * 3600 * 100000L timestamp
    FROM long_sequence(700)
), INDEX(symbol capacity 32) TIMESTAMP(timestamp) PARTITION BY WEEK;

Get all partitions from my_table

table_partitions('my_table');

index	partitionBy	name	minTimestamp	maxTimestamp	numRows	diskSize	diskSizeHuman	readOnly	active	attached	detached	attachable
0	WEEK	2022-W52	2023-01-01 00:36:00.0	2023-01-01 23:24:00.0	39	98304	96.0 KiB	false	false	true	false	false
1	WEEK	2023-W01	2023-01-02 00:00:00.0	2023-01-08 23:24:00.0	280	98304	96.0 KiB	false	false	true	false	false
2	WEEK	2023-W02	2023-01-09 00:00:00.0	2023-01-15 23:24:00.0	280	98304	96.0 KiB	false	false	true	false	false
3	WEEK	2023-W03	2023-01-16 00:00:00.0	2023-01-18 12:00:00.0	101	83902464	80.0 MiB	false	true	true	false	false

Get size of a table in disk

SELECT size_pretty(sum(diskSize)) FROM table_partitions('my_table')

size_pretty
80.3 MB

Get active partition of a table

SELECT * FROM table_partitions('my_table') WHERE active = true

index	partitionBy	name	minTimestamp	maxTimestamp	numRows	diskSize	diskSizeHuman	readOnly	active	attached	detached	attachable
3	WEEK	2023-W03	2023-01-16 00:00:00.0	2023-01-18 12:00:00.0	101	83902464	80.0 MiB	false	true	true	false	false

version/pg_catalog.version#

version() or pg_catalog.version() returns the supported version of the PostgreSQL Wire Protocol.

Arguments:

version() or pg_catalog.version() does not require arguments.

Return value:

Returns string.

Examples:

SELECT version();

--The above equals to:

SELECT pg_catalog.version();

version
PostgreSQL 12.3, compiled by Visual C++ build 1914, 64-bit, QuestDB