Skip to content
Open in Gitpod
On this page

Scalar Functions

Scalar functions operate on one or more values and then return a single value. They can be used wherever a value expression is valid.

Scalar functions are divided into serval kinds.

Type Casting Functions

Our SQL supports explicit type casting in the form of CAST(expr AS type) or expr :: type. Target type can be one of the follows:

  • INTEGER
  • FLOAT
  • NUMERIC
  • BOOLEAN
  • BYTEA
  • STRING
  • DATE
  • TIME
  • TIMESTAMP
  • INTERVAL
  • JSONB
  • <type>[] (array)

JSON Functions

To use JSON data conveniently, we support the following functions:

  • <json> -> <text>, which gets the corresponded field and return as JSON format.
  • <json> ->> <text>, which gets the corresponded field and return as text format.
  • <json> #> <array_of_text/int>, which gets the corresponded field in the specified path and return as JSON format.
  • <json> #>> <array_of_text/int>, which gets the corresponded field in the specified path and return as text format.

Array Accessing Functions

To access fields of arrays, we support the following functions:

  • <array> [<index>], <array> [<start_index>:], <array> [:<end_index>] and <array> [<start_index>:<end_index>]

Trigonometric Functions

All trigonometric functions perform a calculation, operate on a single numeric value and then return a single numeric value.

For values outside the domain, NaN is returned.

sql
SIN(num_expr)
SINH(num_expr)
ASIN(num_expr)
ASINH(num_expr)
COS(num_expr)
COSH(num_expr)
ACOS(num_expr)
ACOSH(num_expr)
TAN(num_expr)
TANH(num_expr)
ATAN(num_expr)
ATANH(num_expr)

Arithmetic Functions

The following functions perform a calculation, operate on a single numeric value and then return a single numeric value.

sql
ABS(num_expr)

Absolute value.

sql
CEIL(num_expr)

The function application CEIL(n) returns the least integer not less than n.

sql
FLOOR(num_expr)

The function application FLOOR(n) returns the greatest integer not greater than n.

sql
ROUND(num_expr)

The function application ROUND(n) returns the nearest integer to n the even integer if n is equidistant between two integers.

sql
SQRT(num_expr)

The square root of a numeric value.

sql
LOG(num_expr)
LOG2(num_expr)
LOG10(num_expr)
EXP(num_expr)
sql
SIGN(num_expr)

The function application SIGN(n) returns the sign of a numeric value as an Integer.

  • returns -1 if n is negative
  • returns 0 if n is exact zero
  • returns 1 if n is positive
  • returns null if n is exact null

Predicate Functions

Function applications of the form IS_A(x) where A is the name of a type returns TRUE if the argument x is of type A, otherwise FALSE.

sql
IS_INT(val_expr)
IS_FLOAT(val_expr)
IS_NUM(val_expr)
IS_BOOL(val_expr)
IS_STR(val_expr)
IS_ARRAY(val_expr)
IS_DATE(val_expr)
IS_TIME(val_expr)

String Functions

sql
TO_STR(val_expr)

Convert a value expression to a readable string.

sql
TO_LOWER(str)

Convert a string to lower case, using simple case conversion.

sql
TO_UPPER(str)

Convert a string to upper case, using simple case conversion.

sql
TRIM(str)

Remove leading and trailing white space from a string.

sql
LEFT_TRIM(str)

Remove leading white space from a string.

sql
RIGHT_TRIM(str)

Remove trailing white space from a string.

sql
REVERSE(str)

Reverse the characters of a string.

sql
STRLEN(str)

Returns the number of characters in a string.

sql
TAKE(num_expr, str)

The function application TAKE(n, s) returns the prefix of the string of length n.

sql
TAKEEND(num_expr, str)

The function application TAKEEND(n, s) returns the suffix remaining after taking n characters from the end of the string.

sql
DROP(num_expr, str)

The function application DROP(n, s) returns the suffix of the string after the first n characters, or the empty string if n is greater than the length of the string.

sql
DROPEND(num_expr, str)

The function application DROPEND(n, s) returns the prefix remaining after dropping n characters from the end of the string.

Null Functions

sql
IFNULL(val_expr, val_expr)

The function application IFNULL(x, y) returns y if x is NULL, otherwise x.

When the argument type is a complex type, for example, ARRAY, the contents of the complex type are not inspected.

sql
NULLIF(val_expr, val_expr)

The function application NULLIF(x, y) returns NULL if x is equal to y, otherwise x.

When the argument type is a complex type, for example, ARRAY, the contents of the complex type are not inspected.

Time and Date Functions

Time Format

Formats are analogous to strftime.

Format NameRaw Format String
simpleDateFormat"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
iso8061DateFormat"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z"
webDateFormat"%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S GMT"
mailDateFormat"%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z"
sql
DATETOSTRING(val_expr, str)

Formatting seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to string in GMT with the second string argument as the given format name.

sql
STRINGTODATE(str, str)

Formatting string to seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC in GMT with the second string argument as the given format name.

Array Functions

sql
ARRAY_CONTAINS(arr_expr, val_expr)

Given an array, checks if the search value is contained in the array (of the same type).

sql
ARRAY_DISTINCT(arr_expr)

Returns an array of all the distinct values, including NULL if present, from the input array. The output array elements are in order of their first occurrence in the input.

Returns NULL if the argument is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_EXCEPT(arr_expr, arr_expr)

Returns an array of all the distinct elements from an array, except for those also present in a second array. The order of entries in the first array is preserved but duplicates are removed.

Returns NULL if either input is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_INTERSECT(arr_expr, arr_expr)

Returns an array of all the distinct elements from the intersection of both input arrays. If the first list contains duplicates, so will the result. If the element is found in both the first and the second list, the element from the first list will be used.

Returns NULL if either input is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_UNION(arr_expr, arr_expr)

Returns the array union of the two arrays. Duplicates, and elements of the first list, are removed from the second list, but if the first list contains duplicates, so will the result.

Returns NULL if either input is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_JOIN(arr_expr)
ARRAY_JOIN(arr_expr, str)

Creates a flat string representation of all the primitive elements contained in the given array. The elements in the resulting string are separated by the chosen delimiter, which is an optional parameter that falls back to a comma ,.

sql
ARRAY_LENGTH(arr_expr)

Returns the length of a finite list.

Returns NULL if the argument is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_MAX(arr_expr)

Returns the maximum value from within a given array of elements.

Returns NULL if the argument is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_MIN(arr_expr)

Returns the minimum value from within a given array of elements.

Returns NULL if the argument is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_REMOVE(arr_expr, val_expr)

Removes all elements from the input array equal to the second argument.

Returns NULL if the first argument is NULL.

sql
ARRAY_SORT(arr_expr)

Sort an array. Elements are arranged from lowest to highest, keeping duplicates in the order they appeared in the input.

Returns NULL if the first argument is NULL.