Join us on
Star us on
Get Started
Slack
GitHub
Get Started
v2.5 (latest) v2.2 (stable) v2.1 (earlier version) v2.0 (earlier version) v1.3 (earlier version)
  • YUGABYTEDB CORE
    • Quick start
      • 1. Install YugabyteDB
      • 2. Create a local cluster
      • 3. Explore distributed SQL
      • 4. Build an application
        • Java
        • NodeJS
        • Go
        • Python
        • Ruby
        • C#
        • PHP
        • C++
        • C
        • Scala
    • Explore features
      • Linear scalability
      • Fault tolerance
      • Global distribution
      • Auto sharding
      • Follower reads
      • Observability
      • Colocated tables
      • Change data capture (CDC)
      • Two data center (2DC)
    • Develop
      • Learn app development
        • 1. SQL vs NoSQL
        • 2. Data modeling
        • 3. Data types
        • 4. ACID transactions
        • 5. Aggregations
        • 6. Batch operations
        • 7. Date and time
        • 8. Strings and text
        • 9. TTL for data expiration
      • Ecosystem integrations
        • Apache Kafka
        • Apache Spark
        • JanusGraph
        • KairosDB
        • Presto
        • Metabase
      • Build GraphQL apps
        • Hasura
        • Prisma
      • Real-world examples
        • E-Commerce app
        • IoT fleet management
        • Retail Analytics
      • Explore sample apps
      • Best practices
    • Migrate
      • Migration Process
      • Migrating From PostgreSQL
        • Schema Migration
        • App Migration
        • Export Data
        • Prepare Cluster
        • Import Data
        • Verify Migration
    • Deploy
      • Deployment checklist
      • Manual deployment
        • 1. System configuration
        • 2. Install software
        • 3. Start YB-Masters
        • 4. Start YB-TServers
        • 5. Verify deployment
      • Kubernetes
        • Single-zone
          • Open Source
          • Amazon EKS
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
          • Azure Kubernetes Service
        • Multi-zone
          • Amazon EKS
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
        • Multi-cluster
          • Google Kubernetes Engine
        • Best practices
        • Connect clients
      • Docker
      • Public clouds
        • Amazon Web Services
        • Google Cloud Platform
        • Microsoft Azure
      • Multi-DC deployments
        • Three+ data center (3DC)
        • Two data center (2DC)
        • Read replica clusters
      • Change data capture (CDC)
        • CDC to Kafka
    • Benchmark
      • TPC-C
      • sysbench
      • YCSB
      • Key-value workload
      • Large datasets
      • Scalability
        • Scaling queries
      • Resilience
        • Jepsen testing
    • Secure
      • Security checklist
      • Authentication
        • Authentication
        • Fine-grained authentication
      • Encryption in transit
        • Create client certificates
        • Create server certificates
        • Enable server-to-server encryption
        • Enable client-to-server encryption
        • Connect to clusters
      • Encryption at rest
      • Authorization
        • RBAC model
        • Create roles
        • Grant privileges
      • Audit logging
    • Manage
      • Back up and restore
        • Back up data
        • Restore data
        • Snapshot and restore data
      • Migrate data
        • Bulk import
        • Bulk export
      • Change cluster configuration
      • Diagnostics reporting
      • Upgrade a deployment
    • Troubleshoot
      • Troubleshooting
      • Cluster level issues
        • YCQL connection issues
        • YEDIS connection Issues
        • Recover tserver/master
      • Node level issues
        • Check servers
        • Inspect logs
        • System statistics
        • Disk failure
    • Contribute
  • YUGABYTE PLATFORM
    • Yugabyte Platform
      • Overview
        • Install
        • Configure
      • Install Yugabyte Platform
        • Prerequisites
        • Prepare the environment
        • Install software
        • Prepare nodes (on-prem)
        • Uninstall software
      • Configure Yugabyte Platform
        • Create admin user
        • Configure the cloud provider
        • Configure the backup target
        • Configure alerts and health checking
        • Create and edit instance tags
      • Create deployments
        • Multi-zone universe
        • Multi-region universe
        • Read replica cluster
      • Manage deployments
        • Start and stop processes
        • Add a node
        • Remove a node
        • Edit a universe
        • Edit configuration flags
        • Upgrade the YugabyteDB software
        • Delete a universe
        • Migrate to Helm 3
      • Back up and restore universes
        • Configure backup storage
        • Back up universe data
        • Restore universe data
        • Schedule data backups
      • Security
        • Security checklist
        • Customize ports
        • Authorization platform
        • Create a KMS configuration
        • Enable encryption at rest
        • Enable encryption in transit (TLS)
        • Network security
      • Troubleshoot
        • Install and upgrade
        • Universe
      • Administer Yugabyte Platform
        • Back up and restore Yugabyte Platform
  • YUGABYTE CLOUD
    • Yugabyte Cloud
      • Free tier
      • Create clusters
      • Monitor clusters
      • Create databases
      • Manage database access
      • Connect to clusters
  • REFERENCE
    • Reference
    • Architecture
      • Design goals
      • Key concepts
        • Universe
        • YB-TServer Service
        • YB-Master Service
      • Layered architecture
      • Query layer
        • Overview
      • DocDB transactions layer
        • Transactions overview
        • Transaction isolation levels
        • Explicit locking
        • Single-row transactions
        • Distributed transactions
        • Transactional IO path
      • DocDB sharding layer
        • Hash & range sharding
        • Tablet splitting
        • Colocated tables
      • DocDB replication layer
        • Replication
        • xCluster replication
        • Read replicas
        • Change data capture (CDC)
      • DocDB storage layer
        • Persistence
        • Performance
    • APIs
      • YSQL
        • Statements
          • ABORT
          • ALTER DATABASE
          • ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES
          • ALTER DOMAIN
          • ALTER GROUP
          • ALTER POLICY
          • ALTER ROLE
          • ALTER SEQUENCE
          • ALTER TABLE
          • ALTER USER
          • BEGIN
          • COMMENT
          • COMMIT
          • COPY
          • CREATE AGGREGATE
          • CREATE CAST
          • CREATE DATABASE
          • CREATE DOMAIN
          • CREATE EXTENSION
          • CREATE FUNCTION
          • CREATE GROUP
          • CREATE INDEX
          • CREATE OPERATOR
          • CREATE OPERATOR CLASS
          • CREATE POLICY
          • CREATE PROCEDURE
          • CREATE ROLE
          • CREATE RULE
          • CREATE SCHEMA
          • CREATE SEQUENCE
          • CREATE TABLE
          • CREATE TABLE AS
          • CREATE TRIGGER
          • CREATE TYPE
          • CREATE USER
          • CREATE VIEW
          • DEALLOCATE
          • DELETE
          • DO
          • DROP AGGREGATE
          • DROP CAST
          • DROP DATABASE
          • DROP DOMAIN
          • DROP EXTENSION
          • DROP FUNCTION
          • DROP GROUP
          • DROP OPERATOR
          • DROP OPERATOR CLASS
          • DROP OWNED
          • DROP POLICY
          • DROP PROCEDURE
          • DROP ROLE
          • DROP RULE
          • DROP SEQUENCE
          • DROP TABLE
          • DROP TRIGGER
          • DROP TYPE
          • DROP USER
          • END
          • EXECUTE
          • EXPLAIN
          • GRANT
          • INSERT
          • LOCK
          • PREPARE
          • REASSIGN OWNED
          • RESET
          • REVOKE
          • ROLLBACK
          • SELECT
          • SET
          • SET CONSTRAINTS
          • SET ROLE
          • SET SESSION AUTHORIZATION
          • SET TRANSACTION
          • SHOW
          • SHOW TRANSACTION
          • TRUNCATE
          • UPDATE
        • Data types
          • Array
            • array[] constructor
            • Literals
              • Text typecasting and literals
              • Array of primitive values
              • Row
              • Array of rows
            • FOREACH loop (PL/pgSQL)
            • array of DOMAINs
            • Functions and operators
              • ANY and ALL
              • Array comparison
              • Array slice operator
              • Array concatenation
              • Array properties
              • array_agg(), unnest(), generate_subscripts()
              • array_fill()
              • array_position(), array_positions()
              • array_remove()
              • array_replace() / set value
              • array_to_string()
              • string_to_array()
          • Binary
          • Boolean
          • Character
          • Date and time
          • JSON
            • JSON literals
            • Primitive and compound data types
            • Code example conventions
            • Indexes and check constraints
            • Functions & operators
              • ::jsonb, ::json, ::text (typecast)
              • ->, ->>, #>, #>> (JSON subvalues)
              • - and #- (remove)
              • || (concatenation)
              • = (equality)
              • @> and <@ (containment)
              • ? and ?| and ?& (key or value existence)
              • array_to_json()
              • jsonb_agg()
              • jsonb_array_elements()
              • jsonb_array_elements_text()
              • jsonb_array_length()
              • jsonb_build_object()
              • jsonb_build_array()
              • jsonb_each()
              • jsonb_each_text()
              • jsonb_extract_path()
              • jsonb_extract_path_text() and json_extract_path_text()
              • jsonb_object()
              • jsonb_object_agg()
              • jsonb_object_keys()
              • jsonb_populate_record()
              • jsonb_populate_recordset()
              • jsonb_pretty()
              • jsonb_set() and jsonb_insert()
              • jsonb_strip_nulls()
              • jsonb_to_record()
              • jsonb_to_recordset()
              • jsonb_typeof()
              • row_to_json()
              • to_jsonb()
          • Money
          • Numeric
          • Serial
          • UUID
        • Functions and operators
          • currval()
          • lastval()
          • nextval()
          • Window functions
            • Informal functionality overview
            • Invocation SQL syntax and semantics
            • Per function signature and purpose
              • row_number(), rank() and dense_rank()
              • percent_rank(), cume_dist() and ntile()
              • first_value(), nth_value(), last_value()
              • lag(), lead()
              • Tables for the code examples
                • table t1
                • table t2
                • table t3
                • table t4
            • Analyzing a normal distribution
              • Bucket allocation scheme
              • do_clean_start.sql
              • cr_show_t4.sql
              • cr_dp_views.sql
              • cr_int_views.sql
              • cr_pr_cd_equality_report.sql
              • cr_bucket_using_width_bucket.sql
              • cr_bucket_dedicated_code.sql
              • do_assert_bucket_ok
              • cr_histogram.sql
              • cr_do_ntile.sql
              • cr_do_percent_rank.sql
              • cr_do_cume_dist.sql
              • do_populate_results.sql
              • do_report_results.sql
              • do_compare_dp_results.sql
              • do_demo.sql
              • Reports
                • Histogram report
                • dp-results
                • compare-dp-results
                • int-results
        • Extensions
        • Keywords
        • Reserved names
      • YCQL
        • ALTER KEYSPACE
        • ALTER ROLE
        • ALTER TABLE
        • CREATE INDEX
        • CREATE KEYSPACE
        • CREATE ROLE
        • CREATE TABLE
        • CREATE TYPE
        • DROP INDEX
        • DROP KEYSPACE
        • DROP ROLE
        • DROP TABLE
        • DROP TYPE
        • GRANT PERMISSION
        • GRANT ROLE
        • REVOKE PERMISSION
        • REVOKE ROLE
        • USE
        • INSERT
        • SELECT
        • EXPLAIN
        • UPDATE
        • DELETE
        • TRANSACTION
        • TRUNCATE
        • Simple expressions
        • Subscripted expressions
        • Function call
        • Operators
        • BLOB
        • BOOLEAN
        • Collection
        • FROZEN
        • INET
        • Integer and counter
        • Non-integer
        • TEXT
        • DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP
        • UUID and TIMEUUID
        • JSONB
        • Date and time
        • BATCH
    • CLIs
      • yb-ctl
      • yb-docker-ctl
      • ysqlsh
      • ycqlsh
      • yb-admin
      • yb-ts-cli
      • ysql_dump
      • ysql_dumpall
    • Configuration
      • yb-tserver
      • yb-master
      • yugabyted
      • Default ports
    • Drivers
      • Client drivers for YSQL API
      • YugabyteDB JDBC Driver
      • Client drivers for YCQL
      • Spring Data YugabyteDB
    • Connectors
      • Kafka Connect YugabyteDB
    • Third party tools
      • DBeaver
      • DbSchema
      • pgAdmin
      • SQL Workbench/J
      • TablePlus
      • Visual Studio Code
    • Sample datasets
      • Chinook
      • Northwind
      • PgExercises
      • SportsDB
  • RELEASES
    • Releases
    • Releases overview
    • Release versioning
    • What's new
      • 2.3 (latest)
      • 2.2 (stable)
    • Earlier releases
      • v2.1.8
      • v2.1.6
      • v2.1.5
      • v2.1.4
      • v2.1.3
      • v2.1.2
      • v2.1.1
      • v2.1.0
      • v2.0.11
      • v2.0.10
      • v2.0.9
      • v2.0.8
      • v2.0.7
      • v2.0.6
      • v2.0.5
      • v2.0.3
      • v2.0.1
      • v2.0.0
      • v1.3.1
      • v1.3.0
      • v1.2.12
      • v1.2.11
      • v1.2.10
      • v1.2.9
      • v1.2.8
      • v1.2.6
      • v1.2.5
      • v1.2.4
  • FAQ
    • Comparisons
      • Amazon Aurora
      • Google Cloud Spanner
      • CockroachDB
      • TiDB
      • Vitess
      • MongoDB
      • FoundationDB
      • Amazon DynamoDB
      • Azure Cosmos DB
      • Apache Cassandra
      • PostgreSQL
      • Redis in-memory store
      • Apache HBase
    • FAQs
      • General FAQ
      • Operations FAQ
      • API compatibility FAQ
      • Yugabyte Platform FAQ
  • MISC
    • YEDIS
      • Quick start
      • Develop
        • Build an application
        • C#
        • C++
        • Go
        • Java
        • NodeJS
        • Python
      • API reference
        • APPEND
        • AUTH
        • CONFIG
        • CREATEDB
        • DELETEDB
        • LISTDB
        • SELECT
        • DEL
        • ECHO
        • EXISTS
        • EXPIRE
        • EXPIREAT
        • FLUSHALL
        • FLUSHDB
        • GET
        • GETRANGE
        • GETSET
        • HDEL
        • HEXISTS
        • HGET
        • HGETALL
        • HINCRBY
        • HKEYS
        • HLEN
        • HMGET
        • HMSET
        • HSET
        • HSTRLEN
        • HVALS
        • INCR
        • INCRBY
        • KEYS
        • MONITOR
        • PEXPIRE
        • PEXPIREAT
        • PTTL
        • ROLE
        • SADD
        • SCARD
        • RENAME
        • SET
        • SETEX
        • PSETEX
        • SETRANGE
        • SISMEMBER
        • SMEMBERS
        • SREM
        • STRLEN
        • ZRANGE
        • TSADD
        • TSCARD
        • TSGET
        • TSLASTN
        • TSRANGEBYTIME
        • TSREM
        • TSREVRANGEBYTIME
        • TTL
        • ZADD
        • ZCARD
        • ZRANGEBYSCORE
        • ZREM
        • ZREVRANGE
        • ZSCORE
        • PUBSUB
        • PUBLISH
        • SUBSCRIBE
        • UNSUBSCRIBE
        • PSUBSCRIBE
        • PUNSUBSCRIBE
    • Legal
      • Third party software
Yugabyte Cloud Query Language (YCQL)
> APIs >

Yugabyte Cloud Query Language (YCQL)

Attention

This page documents an earlier version. Go to the latest (v2.3) version.

Introduction

Yugabyte Cloud Query Language (YCQL) is a semi-relational SQL API that is best fit for internet-scale OLTP and HTAP applications needing massive data ingestion and blazing-fast queries. It supports strongly consistent secondary indexes, a native JSON column type, and distributed transactions. It has its roots in the Cassandra Query Language (CQL).

This page covers the following YCQL features.

  • Data definition language (DDL) statements.
  • Data manipulation language (DML) statements.
  • Builtin functions and Expression operators.
  • Primitive user-defined data types.

Quick Start

You can explore the basics of the YCQL API using the Quick start steps.

DDL statements

Data definition language (DDL) statements are instructions for the following database operations.

  • Create, alter, and drop database objects
  • Create, grant, and revoke users and roles
Statement Description
ALTER TABLE Alter a table
ALTER KEYSPACE Alter a keyspace
CREATE INDEX Create a new index on a table
CREATE KEYSPACE Create a new keyspace
CREATE TABLE Create a new table
CREATE TYPE Create a user-defined data type
DROP INDEX Remove an index
DROP KEYSPACE Remove a keyspace
DROP TABLE Remove a table
DROP TYPE Remove a user-defined data type
USE Use an existing keyspace for subsequent commands

DDL security statements

Security statements are instructions for managing and restricting operations on the database objects.

This feature is enabled by setting the YB-TServer configuration flag --use_cassandra_authentication to true.

  • Create, grant, and revoke users and roles
  • Grant, and revoke permissions on database objects
Statement Description
ALTER ROLE Alter a role
CREATE ROLE Create a new role
DROP ROLE Remove a role
GRANT PERMISSION Grant a permission on an object to a role
REVOKE PERMISSION Revoke a permission on an object from a role
GRANT ROLE Grant a role to another role
REVOKE ROLE Revoke a role from another role
  • The following table lists all security statements that are not yet implemented.
Primitive Type
LIST ROLES
LIST PERMISSIONS

DML statements

Data manipulation language (DML) statements are used to read from and write to the existing database objects. YugabyteDB implicitly commits any updates by DML statements (similar to how Apache Cassandra behaves).

Statement Description
INSERT Insert rows into a table
SELECT Select rows from a table
UPDATE Update rows in a table
DELETE Delete specific rows from a table
TRANSACTION Makes changes to multiple rows in one or more tables in a transaction
TRUNCATE Remove all rows from a table

Expressions

An expression is a finite combination of one or more values, operators, functions, and expressions that specifies a computation. Expressions can be used in the following components.

  • The select list of SELECT statement. For example, SELECT id + 1 FROM sample_table;.
  • The WHERE clause in SELECT, DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE.
  • The IF clause in DELETE, INSERT, or UPDATE.
  • The VALUES clause in INSERT.
  • The SET clause in UPDATE.

Currently, the following expressions are supported.

Expression Description
Simple Value Column, constant, or null. Column alias cannot be used in expression yet.
Subscript [] Subscripting columns of collection data types
Operator Call Builtin operators only
Function Call Builtin function calls only

Data types

  • The following table lists all supported primitive types.
Primitive Type Allowed in Key Type Parameters Description
BIGINT Yes - 64-bit signed integer
BLOB Yes - String of binary characters
BOOLEAN Yes - Boolean
COUNTER No - 64-bit signed integer
DECIMAL Yes - Exact, arbitrary-precision number, no upper-bound on decimal precision
DATE Yes - Date
DOUBLE Yes - 64-bit, inexact, floating-point number
FLOAT Yes - 64-bit, inexact, floating-point number
FROZEN Yes 1 Collection in binary format
INET Yes - String representation of IP address
INT | INTEGER Yes - 32-bit signed integer
LIST No 1 Collection of ordered elements
MAP No 2 Collection of pairs of key-and-value elements
SET No 1 Collection of unique elements
SMALLINT Yes - 16-bit signed integer
TEXT | VARCHAR Yes - String of Unicode characters
TIME Yes - Time of day
TIMESTAMP Yes - Date-and-time
TIMEUUID Yes - Timed UUID
TINYINT Yes - 8-bit signed integer
UUID Yes - Standard UUID
VARINT Yes - Arbitrary-precision integer
JSONB No - JSON data type similar to PostgreSQL jsonb
  • User-defined data types are also supported.

  • The following table lists all YCQL primitive types that are not yet implemented.

Primitive Type
TUPLE
Ask our community
  • Slack
  • Github
  • Forum
  • StackOverflow
Yugabyte
Contact us

Copyright © 2017-2020 Yugabyte, Inc. All rights reserved.