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Warning:
As of November 12, 2021, CockroachDB v20.1 is no longer supported. For more details, refer to the Release Support Policy.
Making CockroachDB easy to use is a top priority for us, so we chose to implement SQL. However, even though SQL has a standard, no database implements all of it, nor do any of them have standard implementations of all features.
To understand which standard SQL features we support (as well as common extensions to the standard), use the table below.
- Component lists the components that are commonly considered part of SQL.
- Supported shows CockroachDB's level of support for the component.
- Type indicates whether the component is part of the SQL Standard or is an Extension created by ourselves or others.
- Details provides greater context about the component.
Features
Row values
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Identifiers | ✓ | Standard | Identifiers documentation |
INT |
✓ | Standard | INT documentation |
FLOAT , REAL |
✓ | Standard | FLOAT documentation |
BOOLEAN |
✓ | Standard | BOOL documentation |
DECIMAL , NUMERIC |
✓ | Standard | DECIMAL documentation |
NULL |
✓ | Standard | NULL-handling documentation |
BYTES |
✓ | CockroachDB Extension | BYTES documentation |
Automatic key generation | ✓ | Common Extension | Automatic key generation FAQ |
STRING , CHARACTER |
✓ | Standard | STRING documentation |
COLLATE |
✓ | Standard | COLLATE documentation |
AUTO INCREMENT |
Alternative | Common Extension | Automatic key generation FAQ |
Key-value pairs | Alternative | Extension | Key-Value FAQ |
ARRAY |
✓ | Standard | ARRAY documentation |
UUID |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | UUID documentation |
JSON | ✓ | Common Extension | JSONB documentation |
TIME |
✓ | Standard | TIME documentation |
XML | ✗ | Standard | XML data can be stored as BYTES , but we do not offer XML parsing. |
UNSIGNED INT |
✗ | Common Extension | UNSIGNED INT causes numerous casting issues, so we do not plan to support it. |
SET , ENUM |
✗ | MySQL, PostgreSQL Extension | Only allow rows to contain values from a defined set of terms. |
INET |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | INET documentation |
Constraints
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Not Null | ✓ | Standard | Not Null documentation |
Unique | ✓ | Standard | Unique documentation |
Primary Key | ✓ | Standard | Primary Key documentation |
Check | ✓ | Standard | Check documentation |
Foreign Key | ✓ | Standard | Foreign Key documentation |
Default Value | ✓ | Standard | Default Value documentation |
Transactions
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Transactions (ACID semantics) | ✓ | Standard | Transactions documentation |
BEGIN |
✓ | Standard | BEGIN documentation |
COMMIT |
✓ | Standard | COMMIT documentation |
ROLLBACK |
✓ | Standard | ROLLBACK documentation |
SAVEPOINT |
✓ | Standard with CockroachDB extensions | New in v20.1: CockroachDB supports nested transactions using SAVEPOINT |
Indexes
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | Indexes documentation |
Multi-column indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | We do not limit on the number of columns indexes can include |
Covering indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | Storing Columns documentation |
Inverted indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | Inverted Indexes documentation |
Multiple indexes per query | Planned | Common Extension | Use multiple indexes to filter the table's values for a single query |
Full-text indexes | Planned | Common Extension | GitHub issue tracking full-text index support |
Prefix/Expression Indexes | Potential | Common Extension | Apply expressions (such as LOWER() ) to values before indexing them |
Geospatial indexes | Potential | Common Extension | Improves performance of queries calculating geospatial data |
Hash indexes | ✗ | Common Extension | Improves performance of queries looking for single, exact values |
Partial indexes | ✗ | Common Extension | Only index specific rows from indexed columns |
Schema changes
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
ALTER TABLE |
✓ | Standard | ALTER TABLE documentation |
Database renames | ✓ | Standard | RENAME DATABASE documentation |
Table renames | ✓ | Standard | RENAME TABLE documentation |
Column renames | ✓ | Standard | RENAME COLUMN documentation |
Adding columns | ✓ | Standard | ADD COLUMN documentation |
Removing columns | ✓ | Standard | DROP COLUMN documentation |
Adding constraints | ✓ | Standard | ADD CONSTRAINT documentation |
Removing constraints | ✓ | Standard | DROP CONSTRAINT documentation |
Index renames | ✓ | Standard | RENAME INDEX documentation |
Adding indexes | ✓ | Standard | CREATE INDEX documentation |
Removing indexes | ✓ | Standard | DROP INDEX documentation |
Altering a primary key | ✓ | Standard | New in v20.1: ALTER PRIMARY KEY documentation |
Statements
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Common statements | ✓ | Standard | SQL Statements documentation |
UPSERT |
✓ | PostgreSQL, MSSQL Extension | UPSERT documentation |
EXPLAIN |
✓ | Common Extension | EXPLAIN documentation |
SELECT INTO |
Alternative | Common Extension | You can replicate similar functionality using CREATE TABLE and then INSERT INTO ... SELECT ... . |
SELECT FOR UPDATE |
✓ | Common Extension | New in v20.1: SELECT FOR UPDATE documentation |
Clauses
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Common clauses | ✓ | Standard | SQL Grammar documentation |
LIMIT |
✓ | Common Extension | Limit the number of rows a statement returns. |
LIMIT with OFFSET |
✓ | Common Extension | Skip a number of rows, and then limit the size of the return set. |
RETURNING |
✓ | Common Extension | Retrieve a table of rows statements affect. |
Table expressions
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Table and View references | ✓ | Standard | Table expressions documentation |
AS in table expressions |
✓ | Standard | Aliased table expressions documentation |
JOIN (INNER , LEFT , RIGHT , FULL , CROSS ) |
Functional | Standard | Join expressions documentation |
Sub-queries as table expressions | Partial | Standard | Non-correlated subqueries are supported, as are most correlated subqueries. |
Table generator functions | Partial | PostgreSQL Extension | Table generator functions documentation |
WITH ORDINALITY |
✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Ordinality annotation documentation |
Scalar expressions and boolean formulas
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Common functions | ✓ | Standard | Functions calls and SQL special forms documentation |
Common operators | ✓ | Standard | Operators documentation |
IF /CASE /NULLIF |
✓ | Standard | Conditional expressions documentation |
COALESCE /IFNULL |
✓ | Standard | Conditional expressions documentation |
AND /OR |
✓ | Standard | Conditional expressions documentation |
LIKE /ILIKE |
✓ | Standard | String pattern matching documentation |
SIMILAR TO |
✓ | Standard | SQL regexp pattern matching documentation |
Matching using POSIX regular expressions | ✓ | Common Extension | POSIX regexp pattern matching documentation |
EXISTS |
Partial | Standard | Non-correlated subqueries are supported, as are most correlated subqueries. Currently works only with small data sets. |
Scalar subqueries | Partial | Standard | Non-correlated subqueries are supported, as are most correlated subqueries. Currently works only with small data sets. |
Bitwise arithmetic | ✓ | Common Extension | Operators documentation |
Array constructors and subscripting | Partial | PostgreSQL Extension | Array expression documentation: Constructor syntax and Subscripting |
COLLATE |
✓ | Standard | Collation expressions documentation |
Column ordinal references | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Column references documentation |
Type annotations | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Type annotations documentation |
Permissions
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Users | ✓ | Standard | GRANT documentation |
Privileges | ✓ | Standard | Privileges documentation |
Miscellaneous
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Column families | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Column Families documentation |
Interleaved tables | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Interleaved Tables documentation |
Information Schema | ✓ | Standard | Information Schema documentation |
User-defined Schemas | Planned | Standard | Create, drop, and modify user-defined schemas. |
Views | ✓ | Standard | Views documentation |
Window functions | ✓ | Standard | Window Functions documentation |
Common Table Expressions | Partial | Common Extension | Common Table Expressions documentation |
Stored Procedures | Planned | Common Extension | Execute a procedure explicitly. |
Cursors | ✗ | Standard | Traverse a table's rows. |
Triggers | ✗ | Standard | Execute a set of commands whenever a specified event occurs. |
Sequences | ✓ | Common Extension | CREATE SEQUENCE documentation |