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Warning:
As of November 18, 2022, CockroachDB v21.1 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 |
---|---|---|---|
ARRAY |
✓ | Standard | ARRAY documentation |
AUTO INCREMENT (Automatic key generation) |
Alternative | Common Extension | Automatic key generation FAQ |
BIT |
✓ | Standard | BIT documentation |
BYTES |
✓ | CockroachDB Extension | BYTES documentation |
BOOLEAN |
✓ | Standard | BOOL documentation |
COLLATE |
✓ | Standard | COLLATE documentation |
DATE |
✓ | Standard | DATE documentation |
DECIMAL , NUMERIC |
✓ | Standard | DECIMAL documentation |
ENUM |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | ENUM documentation |
FLOAT , REAL |
✓ | Standard | FLOAT documentation |
INET |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | INET documentation |
INT |
✓ | Standard | INT documentation |
INTERVAL |
✓ | Standard | INTERVAL documentation |
JSON /JSONB |
✓ | Common Extension | JSONB documentation |
NULL |
✓ | Standard | NULL-handling documentation |
SERIAL |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | SERIAL documentation |
SET |
✗ | MySQL | Only allow rows to contain values from a defined set of terms. |
STRING , CHARACTER |
✓ | Standard | STRING documentation |
TIME |
✓ | Standard | TIME documentation |
TIMESTAMP /TIMESTAMPTZ |
✓ | Standard | TIMESTAMP documentation |
UNSIGNED INT |
✗ | Common Extension | UNSIGNED INT causes numerous casting issues, so we do not plan to support it. |
UUID |
✓ | PostgreSQL Extension | UUID documentation |
Identifiers | ✓ | Standard | Identifiers documentation |
Key-value pairs | Alternative | Extension | Key-Value FAQ |
XML | ✗ | Standard | XML data can be stored as BYTES , but we do not offer XML parsing. |
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 | 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 |
GIN indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | GIN Indexes documentation |
Partial indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | Partial indexes documentation |
Spatial indexes | ✓ | Common Extension | Spatial indexes documentation |
Multiple indexes per query | Partial | Common Extension | Use multiple indexes 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 |
Hash indexes | ✗ | Common Extension | Improves performance of queries looking for single, exact values |
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 |
Altering a column's data type | ✓ | Standard | ALTER 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 | ALTER PRIMARY KEY documentation |
Adding user-defined schemas | ✓ | Standard | CREATE SCHEMA documentation |
Removing user-defined schemas | ✓ | Standard | DROP SCHEMA documentation |
Altering user-defined schemas | ✓ | Standard | ALTER SCHEMA documentation |
Converting a database to a user-defined schema | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | CONVERT TO SCHEMA documentation |
Statements
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Common statements | ✓ | Standard, PostgreSQL/CockroachDB Extension | 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 | 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. Works only with small data sets. |
Scalar subqueries | Partial | Standard | Non-correlated subqueries are supported, as are most correlated subqueries. 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 | Users documentation |
Roles | ✓ | Standard | Roles documentation |
Object ownership | ✓ | Common Extension | Ownership documentation |
Privileges | ✓ | Standard | Privileges documentation |
Miscellaneous
Component | Supported | Type | Details |
---|---|---|---|
Column families | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Column Families documentation |
Computed columns (stored and virtual) | ✓ | Common Extension | Computed Columns documentation |
Interleaved tables | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Interleaved Tables documentation Warning: Interleaving data was deprecated in v20.2, disabled by default in v21.1, and permanently removed in v21.2. For details, see the interleaving deprecation notice. |
Multi-region capabilities | ✓ | CockroachDB Extension | Multi-region documentation |
System catalog schemas | ✓ | Standard, PostgreSQL/CockroachDB Extension | crdb_internal (CockroachDB Extension)information_schema (Standard)pg_catalog (PostgreSQL Extension)pg_extension (PostgreSQL Extension) |
Sequences | ✓ | Common Extension | CREATE SEQUENCE documentation |
Views | ✓ | Standard | Views documentation |
Materialized views | ✓ | Common Extension | Materialized views documentation |
Window functions | ✓ | Standard | Window Functions documentation |
Common table expressions | Partial | Common Extension | Common Table Expressions documentation |
Stored procedures | ✗ | 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. |