Table of Contents
- 11.1. Operator and Function Reference
- 11.2. Operators
- 11.3. Control Flow Functions
- 11.4. String Functions
- 11.5. Numeric Functions
- 11.6. Date and Time Functions
- 11.7. What Calendar Is Used By MySQL?
- 11.8. Full-Text Search Functions
- 11.9. Cast Functions and Operators
- 11.10. XML Functions
- 11.11. Other Functions
- 11.12. Functions and Modifiers for Use with
GROUP BYClauses - 11.13. Spatial Extensions
- 11.14. Precision Math
Expressions can be used at several points in SQL statements, such as
in the ORDER BY or HAVING
clauses of SELECT statements, in the
WHERE clause of a
SELECT,
DELETE, or
UPDATE statement, or in
SET
statements. Expressions can be written using literal values, column
values, NULL, built-in functions, stored
functions, user-defined functions, and operators. This chapter
describes the functions and operators that are allowed for writing
expressions in MySQL. Instructions for writing stored functions and
user-defined functions are given in
Section 18.2, “Using Stored Routines (Procedures and Functions)”, and
Section 21.3, “Adding New Functions to MySQL”. See
Section 8.2.4, “Function Name Parsing and Resolution”, for the rules describing how
the server interprets references to different kinds of functions.
An expression that contains NULL always produces
a NULL value unless otherwise indicated in the
documentation for a particular function or operator.
Note
By default, there must be no whitespace between a function name and the parenthesis following it. This helps the MySQL parser distinguish between function calls and references to tables or columns that happen to have the same name as a function. However, spaces around function arguments are permitted.
You can tell the MySQL server to accept spaces after function names
by starting it with the
--sql-mode=IGNORE_SPACE option. (See
Section 5.1.8, “Server SQL Modes”.) Individual client programs can
request this behavior by using the
CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE option for
mysql_real_connect(). In either
case, all function names become reserved words.
For the sake of brevity, most examples in this chapter display the output from the mysql program in abbreviated form. Rather than showing examples in this format:
mysql> SELECT MOD(29,9);
+-----------+
| mod(29,9) |
+-----------+
| 2 |
+-----------+
1 rows in set (0.00 sec)
This format is used instead:
mysql> SELECT MOD(29,9);
-> 2
Note
This table is part of an ongoing process to expand and simplify the information provided on these elements. Further improvements to the table, and corresponding descriptions will be applied over the coming months.
Table 11.1. Operators/Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ABS() | Return the absolute value |
ACOS() | Return the arc cosine |
ADDDATE()(v4.1.1) | Add time values (intervals) to a date value |
ADDTIME()(v4.1.1) | Add time |
AES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt using AES |
AES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt using AES |
AND, && | Logical AND |
ASCII() | Return numeric value of left-most character |
ASIN() | Return the arc sine |
ATAN2(), ATAN() | Return the arc tangent of the two arguments |
ATAN() | Return the arc tangent |
AVG() | Return the average value of the argument |
BENCHMARK() | Repeatedly execute an expression |
BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is within a range of values |
BIN() | Return a string representation of the argument |
BINARY | Cast a string to a binary string |
BIT_AND() | Return bitwise and |
BIT_COUNT() | Return the number of bits that are set |
BIT_LENGTH() | Return length of argument in bits |
BIT_OR() | Return bitwise or |
BIT_XOR()(v4.1.1) | Return bitwise xor |
& | Bitwise AND |
~ | Invert bits |
| | Bitwise OR |
^ | Bitwise XOR |
CASE | Case operator |
CAST() | Cast a value as a certain type |
CEIL() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CEILING() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CHAR_LENGTH() | Return number of characters in argument |
CHAR() | Return the character for each integer passed |
CHARACTER_LENGTH() | A synonym for CHAR_LENGTH() |
CHARSET()(v4.1.0) | Return the character set of the argument |
COALESCE() | Return the first non-NULL argument |
COERCIBILITY()(v4.1.1) | Return the collation coercibility value of the string argument |
COLLATION()(v4.1.0) | Return the collation of the string argument |
COMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Return result as a binary string |
CONCAT_WS() | Return concatenate with separator |
CONCAT() | Return concatenated string |
CONNECTION_ID() | Return the connection ID (thread ID) for the connection |
CONV() | Convert numbers between different number bases |
CONVERT_TZ()(v4.1.3) | Convert from one timezone to another |
Convert() | Cast a value as a certain type |
COS() | Return the cosine |
COT() | Return the cotangent |
COUNT(DISTINCT) | Return the count of a number of different values |
COUNT() | Return a count of the number of rows returned |
CRC32()(v4.1.0) | Compute a cyclic redundancy check value |
CURDATE() | Return the current date |
CURRENT_DATE(), CURRENT_DATE | Synonyms for CURDATE() |
CURRENT_TIME(), CURRENT_TIME | Synonyms for CURTIME() |
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | Synonyms for NOW() |
CURRENT_USER(), CURRENT_USER | The authenticated user name and host name |
CURTIME() | Return the current time |
DATABASE() | Return the default (current) database name |
DATE_ADD() | Add time values (intervals) to a date value |
DATE_FORMAT() | Format date as specified |
DATE_SUB() | Subtract two dates |
DATE()(v4.1.1) | Extract the date part of a date or datetime expression |
DATEDIFF()(v4.1.1) | Subtract two dates |
DAY()(v4.1.1) | Synonym for DAYOFMONTH() |
DAYNAME()(v4.1.21) | Return the name of the weekday |
DAYOFMONTH() | Return the day of the month (0-31) |
DAYOFWEEK() | Return the weekday index of the argument |
DAYOFYEAR() | Return the day of the year (1-366) |
DECODE() | Decodes a string encrypted using ENCODE() |
DEFAULT() | Return the default value for a table column |
DEGREES() | Convert radians to degrees |
DES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt a string |
DES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
DIV(v4.1.0) | Integer division |
/ | Division operator |
ELT() | Return string at index number |
ENCODE() | Encode a string |
ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
<=> | NULL-safe equal to operator |
= | Equal operator |
EXP() | Raise to the power of |
EXPORT_SET() | Return a string such that for every bit set in the value bits, you get an on string and for every unset bit, you get an off string |
EXTRACT | Extract part of a date |
ExtractValue()(v5.1.5) | Extracts a value from an XML string using XPath notation |
FIELD() | Return the index (position) of the first argument in the subsequent arguments |
FIND_IN_SET() | Return the index position of the first argument within the second argument |
FLOOR() | Return the largest integer value not greater than the argument |
FORMAT() | Return a number formatted to specified number of decimal places |
FOUND_ROWS() | For a SELECT with a LIMIT clause, the number of rows that would be returned were there no LIMIT clause |
FROM_DAYS() | Convert a day number to a date |
FROM_UNIXTIME() | Format UNIX timestamp as a date |
GET_FORMAT()(v4.1.1) | Return a date format string |
GET_LOCK() | Get a named lock |
>= | Greater than or equal operator |
> | Greater than operator |
GREATEST() | Return the largest argument |
GROUP_CONCAT()(v4.1) | Return a concatenated string |
HEX() | Return a hexadecimal representation of a decimal or string value |
HOUR() | Extract the hour |
IF() | If/else construct |
IFNULL() | Null if/else construct |
IN() | Check whether a value is within a set of values |
INET_ATON() | Return the numeric value of an IP address |
INET_NTOA() | Return the IP address from a numeric value |
INSERT() | Insert a substring at the specified position up to the specified number of characters |
INSTR() | Return the index of the first occurrence of substring |
INTERVAL() | Return the index of the argument that is less than the first argument |
IS_FREE_LOCK() | Checks whether the named lock is free |
IS NOT NULL | NOT NULL value test |
IS NOT | Test a value against a boolean |
IS NULL | NULL value test |
IS_USED_LOCK()(v4.1.0) | Checks whether the named lock is in use. Return connection identifier if true. |
IS | Test a value against a boolean |
ISNULL() | Test whether the argument is NULL |
LAST_DAY(v4.1.1) | Return the last day of the month for the argument |
LAST_INSERT_ID() | Value of the AUTOINCREMENT column for the last INSERT |
LCASE() | Synonym for LOWER() |
LEAST() | Return the smallest argument |
<< | Left shift |
LEFT() | Return the leftmost number of characters as specified |
LENGTH() | Return the length of a string in bytes |
<= | Less than or equal operator |
< | Less than operator |
LIKE | Simple pattern matching |
LN() | Return the natural logarithm of the argument |
LOAD_FILE() | Load the named file |
LOCALTIME(), LOCALTIME | Synonym for NOW() |
LOCALTIMESTAMP, LOCALTIMESTAMP()(v4.0.6) | Synonym for NOW() |
LOCATE() | Return the position of the first occurrence of substring |
LOG10() | Return the base-10 logarithm of the argument |
LOG2() | Return the base-2 logarithm of the argument |
LOG() | Return the natural logarithm of the first argument |
LOWER() | Return the argument in lowercase |
LPAD() | Return the string argument, left-padded with the specified string |
LTRIM() | Remove leading spaces |
MAKE_SET() | Return a set of comma-separated strings that have the corresponding bit in bits set |
MAKEDATE()(v4.1.1) | Create a date from the year and day of year |
MAKETIME(v4.1.1) | MAKETIME() |
MASTER_POS_WAIT() | Block until the slave has read and applied all updates up to the specified position |
MATCH | Perform full-text search |
MAX() | Return the maximum value |
MD5() | Calculate MD5 checksum |
MICROSECOND()(v4.1.1) | Return the microseconds from argument |
MID() | Return a substring starting from the specified position |
MIN() | Return the minimum value |
- | Minus operator |
MINUTE() | Return the minute from the argument |
MOD() | Return the remainder |
% | Modulo operator |
MONTH() | Return the month from the date passed |
MONTHNAME()(v4.1.21) | Return the name of the month |
NAME_CONST()(v5.0.12) | Causes the column to have the given name |
NOT BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is not within a range of values |
!=, <> | Not equal operator |
NOT IN() | Check whether a value is not within a set of values |
NOT LIKE | Negation of simple pattern matching |
NOT REGEXP | Negation of REGEXP |
NOT, ! | Negates value |
NOW() | Return the current date and time |
NULLIF() | Return NULL if expr1 = expr2 |
OCT() | Return an octal representation of a decimal number |
OCTET_LENGTH() | A synonym for LENGTH() |
OLD_PASSWORD()(v4.1) | Return the value of the old (pre-4.1) implementation of PASSWORD |
||, OR | Logical OR |
ORD() | Return character code for leftmost character of the argument |
PASSWORD() | Calculate and return a password string |
PERIOD_ADD() | Add a period to a year-month |
PERIOD_DIFF() | Return the number of months between periods |
PI() | Return the value of pi |
+ | Addition operator |
POSITION() | A synonym for LOCATE() |
POW() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
POWER() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
PROCEDURE ANALYSE() | Analyze the results of a query |
QUARTER() | Return the quarter from a date argument |
QUOTE() | Escape the argument for use in an SQL statement |
RADIANS() | Return argument converted to radians |
RAND() | Return a random floating-point value |
REGEXP | Pattern matching using regular expressions |
RELEASE_LOCK() | Releases the named lock |
REPEAT() | Repeat a string the specified number of times |
REPLACE() | Replace occurrences of a specified string |
REVERSE() | Reverse the characters in a string |
>> | Right shift |
RIGHT() | Return the specified rightmost number of characters |
RLIKE | Synonym for REGEXP |
ROUND() | Round the argument |
ROW_COUNT()(v5.0.1) | The number of rows updated |
RPAD() | Append string the specified number of times |
RTRIM() | Remove trailing spaces |
SCHEMA()(v5.0.2) | A synonym for DATABASE() |
SEC_TO_TIME() | Converts seconds to 'HH:MM:SS' format |
SECOND() | Return the second (0-59) |
SESSION_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
SHA1(), SHA() | Calculate an SHA-1 160-bit checksum |
SIGN() | Return the sign of the argument |
SIN() | Return the sine of the argument |
SLEEP()(v5.0.12) | Sleep for a number of seconds |
SOUNDEX() | Return a soundex string |
SOUNDS LIKE(v4.1.0) | Compare sounds |
SPACE() | Return a string of the specified number of spaces |
SQRT() | Return the square root of the argument |
STD() | Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_POP()(v5.0.3) | Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_SAMP()(v5.0.3) | Return the sample standard deviation |
STDDEV() | Return the population standard deviation |
STR_TO_DATE()(v4.1.1) | Convert a string to a date |
STRCMP() | Compare two strings |
SUBDATE() | A synonym for DATE_SUB() when invoked with three arguments |
SUBSTR() | Return the substring as specified |
SUBSTRING_INDEX() | Return a substring from a string before the specified number of occurrences of the delimiter |
SUBSTRING() | Return the substring as specified |
SUBTIME()(v4.1.1) | Subtract times |
SUM() | Return the sum |
SYSDATE() | Return the time at which the function executes |
SYSTEM_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
TAN() | Return the tangent of the argument |
TIME_FORMAT() | Format as time |
TIME_TO_SEC() | Return the argument converted to seconds |
TIME()(v4.1.1) | Extract the time portion of the expression passed |
TIMEDIFF()(v4.1.1) | Subtract time |
* | Times operator |
TIMESTAMP()(v4.1.1) | With a single argument, this function returns the date or datetime expression; with two arguments, the sum of the arguments |
TIMESTAMPADD()(v5.0.0) | Add an interval to a datetime expression |
TIMESTAMPDIFF()(v5.0.0) | Subtract an interval from a datetime expression |
TO_DAYS() | Return the date argument converted to days |
TRIM() | Remove leading and trailing spaces |
TRUNCATE() | Truncate to specified number of decimal places |
UCASE() | Synonym for UPPER() |
- | Change the sign of the argument |
UNCOMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Uncompress a string compressed |
UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH()(v4.1.1) | Return the length of a string before compression |
UNHEX()(v4.1.2) | Convert each pair of hexadecimal digits to a character |
UNIX_TIMESTAMP() | Return a UNIX timestamp |
UpdateXML()(v5.1.5) | Return replaced XML fragment |
UPPER() | Convert to uppercase |
USER() | The user name and host name provided by the client |
UTC_DATE()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC date |
UTC_TIME()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC time |
UTC_TIMESTAMP()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC date and time |
UUID_SHORT()(v5.1.20) | Return an integer-valued universal identifier |
UUID()(v4.1.2) | Return a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) |
VALUES()(v4.1.1) | Defines the values to be used during an INSERT |
VAR_POP()(v5.0.3) | Return the population standard variance |
VAR_SAMP()(v5.0.3) | Return the sample variance |
VARIANCE()(v4.1) | Return the population standard variance |
VERSION() | Returns a string that indicates the MySQL server version |
WEEK() | Return the week number |
WEEKDAY() | Return the weekday index |
WEEKOFYEAR()(v4.1.1) | Return the calendar week of the date (0-53) |
XOR | Logical XOR |
YEAR() | Return the year |
YEARWEEK() | Return the year and week |
Table 11.2. Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AND, && | Logical AND |
BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is within a range of values |
BINARY | Cast a string to a binary string |
& | Bitwise AND |
~ | Invert bits |
| | Bitwise OR |
^ | Bitwise XOR |
CASE | Case operator |
DIV(v4.1.0) | Integer division |
/ | Division operator |
<=> | NULL-safe equal to operator |
= | Equal operator |
>= | Greater than or equal operator |
> | Greater than operator |
IS NOT NULL | NOT NULL value test |
IS NOT | Test a value against a boolean |
IS NULL | NULL value test |
IS | Test a value against a boolean |
<< | Left shift |
<= | Less than or equal operator |
< | Less than operator |
LIKE | Simple pattern matching |
- | Minus operator |
% | Modulo operator |
NOT BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is not within a range of values |
!=, <> | Not equal operator |
NOT LIKE | Negation of simple pattern matching |
NOT REGEXP | Negation of REGEXP |
NOT, ! | Negates value |
||, OR | Logical OR |
+ | Addition operator |
REGEXP | Pattern matching using regular expressions |
>> | Right shift |
RLIKE | Synonym for REGEXP |
SOUNDS LIKE(v4.1.0) | Compare sounds |
* | Times operator |
- | Change the sign of the argument |
XOR | Logical XOR |
Operator precedences are shown in the following list, from highest precedence to the lowest. Operators that are shown together on a line have the same precedence.
INTERVAL BINARY, COLLATE ! - (unary minus), ~ (unary bit inversion) ^ *, /, DIV, %, MOD -, + <<, >> & | =, <=>, >=, >, <=, <, <>, !=, IS, LIKE, REGEXP, IN BETWEEN, CASE, WHEN, THEN, ELSE NOT &&, AND XOR ||, OR :=
The || operator has
a precedence between
^ and the
unary operators if the
PIPES_AS_CONCAT SQL mode is
enabled.
Note
If the HIGH_NOT_PRECEDENCE
SQL mode is enabled, the precedence of
NOT is the same as that of the
! operator. See
Section 5.1.8, “Server SQL Modes”.
The precedence of operators determines the order of evaluation of terms in an expression. To override this order and group terms explicitly, use parentheses. For example:
mysql>SELECT 1+2*3;-> 7 mysql>SELECT (1+2)*3;-> 9
When an operator is used with operands of different types, type conversion occurs to make the operands compatible. Some conversions occur implicitly. For example, MySQL automatically converts numbers to strings as necessary, and vice versa.
mysql>SELECT 1+'1';-> 2 mysql>SELECT CONCAT(2,' test');-> '2 test'
It is also possible to perform explicit conversions. If you want
to convert a number to a string explicitly, use the
CAST() or
CONCAT() function
(CAST() is preferable):
mysql>SELECT 38.8, CAST(38.8 AS CHAR);-> 38.8, '38.8' mysql>SELECT 38.8, CONCAT(38.8);-> 38.8, '38.8'
The following rules describe how conversion occurs for comparison operations:
If one or both arguments are
NULL, the result of the comparison isNULL, except for theNULL-safe<=>equality comparison operator. ForNULL <=> NULL, the result is true.If both arguments in a comparison operation are strings, they are compared as strings.
If both arguments are integers, they are compared as integers.
Hexadecimal values are treated as binary strings if not compared to a number.
If one of the arguments is a
TIMESTAMPorDATETIMEcolumn and the other argument is a constant, the constant is converted to a timestamp before the comparison is performed. This is done to be more ODBC-friendly. Note that this is not done for the arguments toIN()! To be safe, always use complete datetime, date, or time strings when doing comparisons.In all other cases, the arguments are compared as floating-point (real) numbers.
The following examples illustrate conversion of strings to numbers for comparison operations:
mysql>SELECT 1 > '6x';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 7 > '6x';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 0 > 'x6';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 0 = 'x6';-> 1
Note that when you are comparing a string column with a number,
MySQL cannot use an index on the column to look up the value
quickly. If str_col is an indexed
string column, the index cannot be used when performing the
lookup in the following statement:
SELECT * FROMtbl_nameWHEREstr_col=1;
The reason for this is that there are many different strings
that may convert to the value 1, such as
'1', ' 1', or
'1a'.
Comparisons that use floating-point numbers (or values that are converted to floating-point numbers) are approximate because such numbers are inexact. This might lead to results that appear inconsistent:
mysql>SELECT '18015376320243458' = 18015376320243458;-> 1 mysql>SELECT '18015376320243459' = 18015376320243459;-> 0
Such results can occur because the values are converted to floating-point numbers, which have only 53 bits of precision and are subject to rounding:
mysql> SELECT '18015376320243459'+0.0;
-> 1.8015376320243e+16
Furthermore, the conversion from string to floating-point and from integer to floating-point do not necessarily occur the same way. The integer may be converted to floating-point by the CPU, whereas the string is converted digit by digit in an operation that involves floating-point multiplications.
The results shown will vary on different systems, and can be
affected by factors such as computer architecture or the
compiler version or optimization level. One way to avoid such
problems is to use CAST() so that
a value will not be converted implicitly to a float-point
number:
mysql> SELECT CAST('18015376320243459' AS UNSIGNED) = 18015376320243459;
-> 1
For more information about floating-point comparisons, see Section B.1.5.8, “Problems with Floating-Point Comparisons”.
Table 11.3. Comparison Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is within a range of values |
COALESCE() | Return the first non-NULL argument |
<=> | NULL-safe equal to operator |
= | Equal operator |
>= | Greater than or equal operator |
> | Greater than operator |
GREATEST() | Return the largest argument |
IN() | Check whether a value is within a set of values |
INTERVAL() | Return the index of the argument that is less than the first argument |
IS NOT NULL | NOT NULL value test |
IS NOT | Test a value against a boolean |
IS NULL | NULL value test |
IS | Test a value against a boolean |
ISNULL() | Test whether the argument is NULL |
LEAST() | Return the smallest argument |
<= | Less than or equal operator |
< | Less than operator |
LIKE | Simple pattern matching |
NOT BETWEEN ... AND ... | Check whether a value is not within a range of values |
!=, <> | Not equal operator |
NOT IN() | Check whether a value is not within a set of values |
NOT LIKE | Negation of simple pattern matching |
STRCMP() | Compare two strings |
Comparison operations result in a value of 1
(TRUE), 0
(FALSE), or NULL. These
operations work for both numbers and strings. Strings are
automatically converted to numbers and numbers to strings as
necessary.
The following relational comparison operators can be used to compare not only scalar operands, but row operands:
= > < >= <= <> !=
For examples of row comparisons, see Section 12.2.9.5, “Row Subqueries”.
Some of the functions in this section return values other than
1 (TRUE),
0 (FALSE), or
NULL. For example,
LEAST() and
GREATEST(). However, the value
they return is based on comparison operations performed
according to the rules described in
Section 11.2.2, “Type Conversion in Expression Evaluation”.
To convert a value to a specific type for comparison purposes,
you can use the CAST() function.
String values can be converted to a different character set
using CONVERT(). See
Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.
By default, string comparisons are not case sensitive and use
the current character set. The default is
latin1 (cp1252 West European), which also
works well for English.
Equal:
mysql>
SELECT 1 = 0;-> 0 mysql>SELECT '0' = 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT '0.0' = 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT '0.01' = 0;-> 0 mysql>SELECT '.01' = 0.01;-> 1NULL-safe equal. This operator performs an equality comparison like the=operator, but returns1rather thanNULLif both operands areNULL, and0rather thanNULLif one operand isNULL.mysql>
SELECT 1 <=> 1, NULL <=> NULL, 1 <=> NULL;-> 1, 1, 0 mysql>SELECT 1 = 1, NULL = NULL, 1 = NULL;-> 1, NULL, NULLNot equal:
mysql>
SELECT '.01' <> '0.01';-> 1 mysql>SELECT .01 <> '0.01';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'zapp' <> 'zappp';-> 1Less than or equal:
mysql>
SELECT 0.1 <= 2;-> 1Less than:
mysql>
SELECT 2 < 2;-> 0Greater than or equal:
mysql>
SELECT 2 >= 2;-> 1Greater than:
mysql>
SELECT 2 > 2;-> 0Tests a value against a boolean value, where
boolean_valuecan beTRUE,FALSE, orUNKNOWN.mysql>
SELECT 1 IS TRUE, 0 IS FALSE, NULL IS UNKNOWN;-> 1, 1, 1Tests a value against a boolean value, where
boolean_valuecan beTRUE,FALSE, orUNKNOWN.mysql>
SELECT 1 IS NOT UNKNOWN, 0 IS NOT UNKNOWN, NULL IS NOT UNKNOWN;-> 1, 1, 0Tests whether a value is
NULL.mysql>
SELECT 1 IS NULL, 0 IS NULL, NULL IS NULL;-> 0, 0, 1To work well with ODBC programs, MySQL supports the following extra features when using
IS NULL:You can find the row that contains the most recent
AUTO_INCREMENTvalue by issuing a statement of the following form immediately after generating the value:SELECT * FROM
tbl_nameWHEREauto_colIS NULLThis behavior can be disabled by setting
sql_auto_is_null = 0. See Section 5.1.5, “Session System Variables”.For
DATEandDATETIMEcolumns that are declared asNOT NULL, you can find the special date'0000-00-00'by using a statement like this:SELECT * FROM
tbl_nameWHEREdate_columnIS NULLThis is needed to get some ODBC applications to work because ODBC does not support a
'0000-00-00'date value. See Section 20.1.7.1.1, “Obtaining Auto-Increment Values”.
Tests whether a value is not
NULL.mysql>
SELECT 1 IS NOT NULL, 0 IS NOT NULL, NULL IS NOT NULL;-> 1, 1, 0If
expris greater than or equal tominandexpris less than or equal tomax,BETWEENreturns1, otherwise it returns0. This is equivalent to the expression(if all the arguments are of the same type. Otherwise type conversion takes place according to the rules described in Section 11.2.2, “Type Conversion in Expression Evaluation”, but applied to all the three arguments.min<=exprANDexpr<=max)mysql>
SELECT 2 BETWEEN 1 AND 3, 2 BETWEEN 3 and 1;-> 1, 0 mysql>SELECT 1 BETWEEN 2 AND 3;-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'b' BETWEEN 'a' AND 'c';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 2 BETWEEN 2 AND '3';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 2 BETWEEN 2 AND 'x-3';-> 0For best results when using
BETWEENwith date or time values, you should useCAST()to explicitly convert the values to the desired data type. Examples: If you compare aDATETIMEto twoDATEvalues, convert theDATEvalues toDATETIMEvalues. If you use a string constant such as'2001-1-1'in a comparison to aDATE, cast the string to aDATE.This is the same as
NOT (.exprBETWEENminANDmax)Returns the first non-
NULLvalue in the list, orNULLif there are no non-NULLvalues.mysql>
SELECT COALESCE(NULL,1);-> 1 mysql>SELECT COALESCE(NULL,NULL,NULL);-> NULLWith two or more arguments, returns the largest (maximum-valued) argument. The arguments are compared using the same rules as for
LEAST().mysql>
SELECT GREATEST(2,0);-> 2 mysql>SELECT GREATEST(34.0,3.0,5.0,767.0);-> 767.0 mysql>SELECT GREATEST('B','A','C');-> 'C'GREATEST()returnsNULLif any argument isNULL.Returns
1ifexpris equal to any of the values in theINlist, else returns0. If all values are constants, they are evaluated according to the type ofexprand sorted. The search for the item then is done using a binary search. This meansINis very quick if theINvalue list consists entirely of constants. Otherwise, type conversion takes place according to the rules described in Section 11.2.2, “Type Conversion in Expression Evaluation”, but applied to all the arguments.mysql>
SELECT 2 IN (0,3,5,7);-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'wefwf' IN ('wee','wefwf','weg');-> 1You should never mix quoted and unquoted values in an
INlist because the comparison rules for quoted values (such as strings) and unquoted values (such as numbers) differ. Mixing types may therefore lead to inconsistent results. For example, do not write anINexpression like this:SELECT val1 FROM tbl1 WHERE val1 IN (1,2,'a');
Instead, write it like this:
SELECT val1 FROM tbl1 WHERE val1 IN ('1','2','a');The number of values in the
INlist is only limited by themax_allowed_packetvalue.To comply with the SQL standard,
INreturnsNULLnot only if the expression on the left hand side isNULL, but also if no match is found in the list and one of the expressions in the list isNULL.IN()syntax can also be used to write certain types of subqueries. See Section 12.2.9.3, “Subqueries withANY,IN, andSOME”.This is the same as
NOT (.exprIN (value,...))If
exprisNULL,ISNULL()returns1, otherwise it returns0.mysql>
SELECT ISNULL(1+1);-> 0 mysql>SELECT ISNULL(1/0);-> 1ISNULL()can be used instead of=to test whether a value isNULL. (Comparing a value toNULLusing=always yields false.)The
ISNULL()function shares some special behaviors with theIS NULLcomparison operator. See the description ofIS NULL.Returns
0ifN<N1,1ifN<N2and so on or-1ifNisNULL. All arguments are treated as integers. It is required thatN1<N2<N3<...<Nnfor this function to work correctly. This is because a binary search is used (very fast).mysql>
SELECT INTERVAL(23, 1, 15, 17, 30, 44, 200);-> 3 mysql>SELECT INTERVAL(10, 1, 10, 100, 1000);-> 2 mysql>SELECT INTERVAL(22, 23, 30, 44, 200);-> 0With two or more arguments, returns the smallest (minimum-valued) argument. The arguments are compared using the following rules:
If the return value is used in an
INTEGERcontext or all arguments are integer-valued, they are compared as integers.If the return value is used in a
REALcontext or all arguments are real-valued, they are compared as reals.If any argument is a case-sensitive string, the arguments are compared as case-sensitive strings.
In all other cases, the arguments are compared as case-insensitive strings.
LEAST()returnsNULLif any argument isNULL.mysql>
SELECT LEAST(2,0);-> 0 mysql>SELECT LEAST(34.0,3.0,5.0,767.0);-> 3.0 mysql>SELECT LEAST('B','A','C');-> 'A'Note that the preceding conversion rules can produce strange results in some borderline cases:
mysql>
SELECT CAST(LEAST(3600, 9223372036854775808.0) as SIGNED);-> -9223372036854775808This happens because MySQL reads
9223372036854775808.0in an integer context. The integer representation is not good enough to hold the value, so it wraps to a signed integer.
Table 11.4. Logical Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AND, && | Logical AND |
NOT, ! | Negates value |
||, OR | Logical OR |
XOR | Logical XOR |
In SQL, all logical operators evaluate to
TRUE, FALSE, or
NULL (UNKNOWN). In MySQL,
these are implemented as 1 (TRUE), 0
(FALSE), and NULL. Most of
this is common to different SQL database servers, although some
servers may return any nonzero value for
TRUE.
Note that MySQL evaluates any nonzero or
non-NULL value to TRUE.
For example, the following statements all assess to
TRUE:
mysql>SELECT 10 IS TRUE;-> 1 mysql>SELECT -10 IS TRUE;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'string' IS NOT NULL;-> 1
Logical NOT. Evaluates to
1if the operand is0, to0if the operand is nonzero, andNOT NULLreturnsNULL.mysql>
SELECT NOT 10;-> 0 mysql>SELECT NOT 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT NOT NULL;-> NULL mysql>SELECT ! (1+1);-> 0 mysql>SELECT ! 1+1;-> 1The last example produces
1because the expression evaluates the same way as(!1)+1.Logical AND. Evaluates to
1if all operands are nonzero and notNULL, to0if one or more operands are0, otherwiseNULLis returned.mysql>
SELECT 1 && 1;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 1 && 0;-> 0 mysql>SELECT 1 && NULL;-> NULL mysql>SELECT 0 && NULL;-> 0 mysql>SELECT NULL && 0;-> 0Logical OR. When both operands are non-
NULL, the result is1if any operand is nonzero, and0otherwise. With aNULLoperand, the result is1if the other operand is nonzero, andNULLotherwise. If both operands areNULL, the result isNULL.mysql>
SELECT 1 || 1;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 1 || 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 0 || 0;-> 0 mysql>SELECT 0 || NULL;-> NULL mysql>SELECT 1 || NULL;-> 1Logical XOR. Returns
NULLif either operand isNULL. For non-NULLoperands, evaluates to1if an odd number of operands is nonzero, otherwise0is returned.mysql>
SELECT 1 XOR 1;-> 0 mysql>SELECT 1 XOR 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 1 XOR NULL;-> NULL mysql>SELECT 1 XOR 1 XOR 1;-> 1a XOR bis mathematically equal to(a AND (NOT b)) OR ((NOT a) and b).
Table 11.5. Flow Control Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
CASE | Case operator |
IF() | If/else construct |
IFNULL() | Null if/else construct |
NULLIF() | Return NULL if expr1 = expr2 |
CASEvalueWHEN [compare_value] THENresult[WHEN [compare_value] THENresult...] [ELSEresult] ENDCASE WHEN [condition] THENresult[WHEN [condition] THENresult...] [ELSEresult] ENDThe first version returns the
resultwhere. The second version returns the result for the first condition that is true. If there was no matching result value, the result aftervalue=compare_valueELSEis returned, orNULLif there is noELSEpart.mysql>
SELECT CASE 1 WHEN 1 THEN 'one'->WHEN 2 THEN 'two' ELSE 'more' END;-> 'one' mysql>SELECT CASE WHEN 1>0 THEN 'true' ELSE 'false' END;-> 'true' mysql>SELECT CASE BINARY 'B'->WHEN 'a' THEN 1 WHEN 'b' THEN 2 END;-> NULLThe default return type of a
CASEexpression is the compatible aggregated type of all return values, but also depends on the context in which it is used. If used in a string context, the result is returned as a string. If used in a numeric context, then the result is returned as a decimal, real, or integer value.Note
The syntax of the
CASEexpression shown here differs slightly from that of the SQLCASEstatement described in Section 12.8.6.2, “CASEStatement”, for use inside stored programs. TheCASEstatement cannot have anELSE NULLclause, and it is terminated withEND CASEinstead ofEND.If
expr1isTRUE(andexpr1<> 0) thenexpr1<> NULLIF()returnsexpr2; otherwise it returnsexpr3.IF()returns a numeric or string value, depending on the context in which it is used.mysql>
SELECT IF(1>2,2,3);-> 3 mysql>SELECT IF(1<2,'yes','no');-> 'yes' mysql>SELECT IF(STRCMP('test','test1'),'no','yes');-> 'no'If only one of
expr2orexpr3is explicitlyNULL, the result type of theIF()function is the type of the non-NULLexpression.The default return type of
IF()(which may matter when it is stored into a temporary table) is calculated as follows.Expression Return Value expr2orexpr3returns a stringstring expr2orexpr3returns a floating-point valuefloating-point expr2orexpr3returns an integerinteger If
expr2andexpr3are both strings, the result is case sensitive if either string is case sensitive.Note
There is also an
IFstatement, which differs from theIF()function described here. See Section 12.8.6.1, “IFStatement”.If
expr1is notNULL,IFNULL()returnsexpr1; otherwise it returnsexpr2.IFNULL()returns a numeric or string value, depending on the context in which it is used.mysql>
SELECT IFNULL(1,0);-> 1 mysql>SELECT IFNULL(NULL,10);-> 10 mysql>SELECT IFNULL(1/0,10);-> 10 mysql>SELECT IFNULL(1/0,'yes');-> 'yes'The default result value of
IFNULL(is the more “general” of the two expressions, in the orderexpr1,expr2)STRING,REAL, orINTEGER. Consider the case of a table based on expressions or where MySQL must internally store a value returned byIFNULL()in a temporary table:mysql>
CREATE TABLE tmp SELECT IFNULL(1,'test') AS test;mysql>DESCRIBE tmp;+-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | test | varbinary(4) | NO | | | | +-------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+In this example, the type of the
testcolumn isCHAR(4).Returns
NULLifis true, otherwise returnsexpr1=expr2expr1. This is the same asCASE WHEN.expr1=expr2THEN NULL ELSEexpr1ENDmysql>
SELECT NULLIF(1,1);-> NULL mysql>SELECT NULLIF(1,2);-> 1Note that MySQL evaluates
expr1twice if the arguments are not equal.
Table 11.6. String Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ASCII() | Return numeric value of left-most character |
BIN() | Return a string representation of the argument |
BIT_LENGTH() | Return length of argument in bits |
CHAR_LENGTH() | Return number of characters in argument |
CHAR() | Return the character for each integer passed |
CHARACTER_LENGTH() | A synonym for CHAR_LENGTH() |
CONCAT_WS() | Return concatenate with separator |
CONCAT() | Return concatenated string |
ELT() | Return string at index number |
EXPORT_SET() | Return a string such that for every bit set in the value bits, you get an on string and for every unset bit, you get an off string |
FIELD() | Return the index (position) of the first argument in the subsequent arguments |
FIND_IN_SET() | Return the index position of the first argument within the second argument |
FORMAT() | Return a number formatted to specified number of decimal places |
HEX() | Return a hexadecimal representation of a decimal or string value |
INSERT() | Insert a substring at the specified position up to the specified number of characters |
INSTR() | Return the index of the first occurrence of substring |
LCASE() | Synonym for LOWER() |
LEFT() | Return the leftmost number of characters as specified |
LENGTH() | Return the length of a string in bytes |
LIKE | Simple pattern matching |
LOAD_FILE() | Load the named file |
LOCATE() | Return the position of the first occurrence of substring |
LOWER() | Return the argument in lowercase |
LPAD() | Return the string argument, left-padded with the specified string |
LTRIM() | Remove leading spaces |
MAKE_SET() | Return a set of comma-separated strings that have the corresponding bit in bits set |
MATCH | Perform full-text search |
MID() | Return a substring starting from the specified position |
NOT LIKE | Negation of simple pattern matching |
NOT REGEXP | Negation of REGEXP |
OCTET_LENGTH() | A synonym for LENGTH() |
ORD() | Return character code for leftmost character of the argument |
POSITION() | A synonym for LOCATE() |
QUOTE() | Escape the argument for use in an SQL statement |
REGEXP | Pattern matching using regular expressions |
REPEAT() | Repeat a string the specified number of times |
REPLACE() | Replace occurrences of a specified string |
REVERSE() | Reverse the characters in a string |
RIGHT() | Return the specified rightmost number of characters |
RLIKE | Synonym for REGEXP |
RPAD() | Append string the specified number of times |
RTRIM() | Remove trailing spaces |
SOUNDEX() | Return a soundex string |
SOUNDS LIKE(v4.1.0) | Compare sounds |
SPACE() | Return a string of the specified number of spaces |
STRCMP() | Compare two strings |
SUBSTR() | Return the substring as specified |
SUBSTRING_INDEX() | Return a substring from a string before the specified number of occurrences of the delimiter |
SUBSTRING() | Return the substring as specified |
TRIM() | Remove leading and trailing spaces |
UCASE() | Synonym for UPPER() |
UNHEX()(v4.1.2) | Convert each pair of hexadecimal digits to a character |
UPPER() | Convert to uppercase |
String-valued functions return NULL if the
length of the result would be greater than the value of the
max_allowed_packet system
variable. See Section 7.5.3, “Tuning Server Parameters”.
For functions that operate on string positions, the first position is numbered 1.
For functions that take length arguments, noninteger arguments are rounded to the nearest integer.
Returns the numeric value of the leftmost character of the string
str. Returns0ifstris the empty string. ReturnsNULLifstrisNULL.ASCII()works for 8-bit characters.mysql>
SELECT ASCII('2');-> 50 mysql>SELECT ASCII(2);-> 50 mysql>SELECT ASCII('dx');-> 100See also the
ORD()function.Returns a string representation of the binary value of
N, whereNis a longlong (BIGINT) number. This is equivalent toCONV(. ReturnsN,10,2)NULLifNisNULL.mysql>
SELECT BIN(12);-> '1100'Returns the length of the string
strin bits.mysql>
SELECT BIT_LENGTH('text');-> 32CHAR(N,... [USINGcharset_name])CHAR()interprets each argumentNas an integer and returns a string consisting of the characters given by the code values of those integers.NULLvalues are skipped.mysql>
SELECT CHAR(77,121,83,81,'76');-> 'MySQL' mysql>SELECT CHAR(77,77.3,'77.3');-> 'MMM'CHAR()arguments larger than 255 are converted into multiple result bytes. For example,CHAR(256)is equivalent toCHAR(1,0), andCHAR(256*256)is equivalent toCHAR(1,0,0):mysql>
SELECT HEX(CHAR(1,0)), HEX(CHAR(256));+----------------+----------------+ | HEX(CHAR(1,0)) | HEX(CHAR(256)) | +----------------+----------------+ | 0100 | 0100 | +----------------+----------------+ mysql>SELECT HEX(CHAR(1,0,0)), HEX(CHAR(256*256));+------------------+--------------------+ | HEX(CHAR(1,0,0)) | HEX(CHAR(256*256)) | +------------------+--------------------+ | 010000 | 010000 | +------------------+--------------------+By default,
CHAR()returns a binary string. To produce a string in a given character set, use the optionalUSINGclause:mysql>
SELECT CHARSET(CHAR(0x65)), CHARSET(CHAR(0x65 USING utf8));+---------------------+--------------------------------+ | CHARSET(CHAR(0x65)) | CHARSET(CHAR(0x65 USING utf8)) | +---------------------+--------------------------------+ | binary | utf8 | +---------------------+--------------------------------+If
USINGis given and the result string is illegal for the given character set, a warning is issued. Also, if strict SQL mode is enabled, the result fromCHAR()becomesNULL.Returns the length of the string
str, measured in characters. A multi-byte character counts as a single character. This means that for a string containing five two-byte characters,LENGTH()returns10, whereasCHAR_LENGTH()returns5.CHARACTER_LENGTH()is a synonym forCHAR_LENGTH().Returns the string that results from concatenating the arguments. May have one or more arguments. If all arguments are nonbinary strings, the result is a nonbinary string. If the arguments include any binary strings, the result is a binary string. A numeric argument is converted to its equivalent binary string form; if you want to avoid that, you can use an explicit type cast, as in this example:
SELECT CONCAT(CAST(
int_colAS CHAR),char_col);CONCAT()returnsNULLif any argument isNULL.mysql>
SELECT CONCAT('My', 'S', 'QL');-> 'MySQL' mysql>SELECT CONCAT('My', NULL, 'QL');-> NULL mysql>SELECT CONCAT(14.3);-> '14.3'For quoted strings, concatenation can be performed by placing the strings next to each other:
mysql>
SELECT 'My' 'S' 'QL';-> 'MySQL'CONCAT_WS(separator,str1,str2,...)CONCAT_WS()stands for Concatenate With Separator and is a special form ofCONCAT(). The first argument is the separator for the rest of the arguments. The separator is added between the strings to be concatenated. The separator can be a string, as can the rest of the arguments. If the separator isNULL, the result isNULL.mysql>
SELECT CONCAT_WS(',','First name','Second name','Last Name');-> 'First name,Second name,Last Name' mysql>SELECT CONCAT_WS(',','First name',NULL,'Last Name');-> 'First name,Last Name'CONCAT_WS()does not skip empty strings. However, it does skip anyNULLvalues after the separator argument.Returns
str1ifN=1,str2ifN=2, and so on. ReturnsNULLifNis less than1or greater than the number of arguments.ELT()is the complement ofFIELD().mysql>
SELECT ELT(1, 'ej', 'Heja', 'hej', 'foo');-> 'ej' mysql>SELECT ELT(4, 'ej', 'Heja', 'hej', 'foo');-> 'foo'EXPORT_SET(bits,on,off[,separator[,number_of_bits]])Returns a string such that for every bit set in the value
bits, you get anonstring and for every bit not set in the value, you get anoffstring. Bits inbitsare examined from right to left (from low-order to high-order bits). Strings are added to the result from left to right, separated by theseparatorstring (the default being the comma character “,”). The number of bits examined is given bynumber_of_bits(defaults to 64).mysql>
SELECT EXPORT_SET(5,'Y','N',',',4);-> 'Y,N,Y,N' mysql>SELECT EXPORT_SET(6,'1','0',',',10);-> '0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0'Returns the index (position) of
strin thestr1,str2,str3,...list. Returns0ifstris not found.If all arguments to
FIELD()are strings, all arguments are compared as strings. If all arguments are numbers, they are compared as numbers. Otherwise, the arguments are compared as double.If
strisNULL, the return value is0becauseNULLfails equality comparison with any value.FIELD()is the complement ofELT().mysql>
SELECT FIELD('ej', 'Hej', 'ej', 'Heja', 'hej', 'foo');-> 2 mysql>SELECT FIELD('fo', 'Hej', 'ej', 'Heja', 'hej', 'foo');-> 0Returns a value in the range of 1 to
Nif the stringstris in the string liststrlistconsisting ofNsubstrings. A string list is a string composed of substrings separated by “,” characters. If the first argument is a constant string and the second is a column of typeSET, theFIND_IN_SET()function is optimized to use bit arithmetic. Returns0ifstris not instrlistor ifstrlistis the empty string. ReturnsNULLif either argument isNULL. This function does not work properly if the first argument contains a comma (“,”) character.mysql>
SELECT FIND_IN_SET('b','a,b,c,d');-> 2Formats the number
Xto a format like'#,###,###.##', rounded toDdecimal places, and returns the result as a string. IfDis0, the result has no decimal point or fractional part.mysql>
SELECT FORMAT(12332.123456, 4);-> '12,332.1235' mysql>SELECT FORMAT(12332.1,4);-> '12,332.1000' mysql>SELECT FORMAT(12332.2,0);-> '12,332'If
N_or_Sis a number, returns a string representation of the hexadecimal value ofN, whereNis a longlong (BIGINT) number. This is equivalent toCONV(.N,10,16)If
N_or_Sis a string, returns a hexadecimal string representation ofN_or_Swhere each character inN_or_Sis converted to two hexadecimal digits. The inverse of this operation is performed by theUNHEX()function.mysql>
SELECT HEX(255);-> 'FF' mysql>SELECT 0x616263;-> 'abc' mysql>SELECT HEX('abc');-> 616263Returns the string
str, with the substring beginning at positionposandlencharacters long replaced by the stringnewstr. Returns the original string ifposis not within the length of the string. Replaces the rest of the string from positionposiflenis not within the length of the rest of the string. ReturnsNULLif any argument isNULL.mysql>
SELECT INSERT('Quadratic', 3, 4, 'What');-> 'QuWhattic' mysql>SELECT INSERT('Quadratic', -1, 4, 'What');-> 'Quadratic' mysql>SELECT INSERT('Quadratic', 3, 100, 'What');-> 'QuWhat'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the position of the first occurrence of substring
substrin stringstr. This is the same as the two-argument form ofLOCATE(), except that the order of the arguments is reversed.mysql>
SELECT INSTR('foobarbar', 'bar');-> 4 mysql>SELECT INSTR('xbar', 'foobar');-> 0This function is multi-byte safe, and is case sensitive only if at least one argument is a binary string.
Returns the leftmost
lencharacters from the stringstr, orNULLif any argument isNULL.mysql>
SELECT LEFT('foobarbar', 5);-> 'fooba'Returns the length of the string
str, measured in bytes. A multi-byte character counts as multiple bytes. This means that for a string containing five two-byte characters,LENGTH()returns10, whereasCHAR_LENGTH()returns5.mysql>
SELECT LENGTH('text');-> 4Reads the file and returns the file contents as a string. To use this function, the file must be located on the server host, you must specify the full path name to the file, and you must have the
FILEprivilege. The file must be readable by all and its size less thanmax_allowed_packetbytes. If thesecure_file_privsystem variable is set to a nonempty directory name, the file to be loaded must be located in that directory.If the file does not exist or cannot be read because one of the preceding conditions is not satisfied, the function returns
NULL.As of MySQL 5.1.6, the
character_set_filesystemsystem variable controls interpretation of file names that are given as literal strings.mysql>
UPDATE tSET blob_col=LOAD_FILE('/tmp/picture')WHERE id=1;LOCATE(,substr,str)LOCATE(substr,str,pos)The first syntax returns the position of the first occurrence of substring
substrin stringstr. The second syntax returns the position of the first occurrence of substringsubstrin stringstr, starting at positionpos. Returns0ifsubstris not instr.mysql>
SELECT LOCATE('bar', 'foobarbar');-> 4 mysql>SELECT LOCATE('xbar', 'foobar');-> 0 mysql>SELECT LOCATE('bar', 'foobarbar', 5);-> 7This function is multi-byte safe, and is case-sensitive only if at least one argument is a binary string.
Returns the string
strwith all characters changed to lowercase according to the current character set mapping. The default islatin1(cp1252 West European).mysql>
SELECT LOWER('QUADRATICALLY');-> 'quadratically'LOWER()(andUPPER()) are ineffective when applied to binary strings (BINARY,VARBINARY,BLOB). To perform lettercase conversion, convert the string to a nonbinary string:mysql>
SET @str = BINARY 'New York';mysql>SELECT LOWER(@str), LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1));+-------------+-----------------------------------+ | LOWER(@str) | LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1)) | +-------------+-----------------------------------+ | New York | new york | +-------------+-----------------------------------+This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the string
str, left-padded with the stringpadstrto a length oflencharacters. Ifstris longer thanlen, the return value is shortened tolencharacters.mysql>
SELECT LPAD('hi',4,'??');-> '??hi' mysql>SELECT LPAD('hi',1,'??');-> 'h'Returns the string
strwith leading space characters removed.mysql>
SELECT LTRIM(' barbar');-> 'barbar'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns a set value (a string containing substrings separated by “
,” characters) consisting of the strings that have the corresponding bit inbitsset.str1corresponds to bit 0,str2to bit 1, and so on.NULLvalues instr1,str2,...are not appended to the result.mysql>
SELECT MAKE_SET(1,'a','b','c');-> 'a' mysql>SELECT MAKE_SET(1 | 4,'hello','nice','world');-> 'hello,world' mysql>SELECT MAKE_SET(1 | 4,'hello','nice',NULL,'world');-> 'hello' mysql>SELECT MAKE_SET(0,'a','b','c');-> ''MID(is a synonym forstr,pos,len)SUBSTRING(.str,pos,len)OCTET_LENGTH()is a synonym forLENGTH().If the leftmost character of the string
stris a multi-byte character, returns the code for that character, calculated from the numeric values of its constituent bytes using this formula:(1st byte code) + (2nd byte code × 256) + (3rd byte code × 2562) ...
If the leftmost character is not a multi-byte character,
ORD()returns the same value as theASCII()function.mysql>
SELECT ORD('2');-> 50POSITION(is a synonym forsubstrINstr)LOCATE(.substr,str)Quotes a string to produce a result that can be used as a properly escaped data value in an SQL statement. The string is returned enclosed by single quotes and with each instance of single quote (“
'”), backslash (“\”), ASCIINUL, and Control-Z preceded by a backslash. If the argument isNULL, the return value is the word “NULL” without enclosing single quotes.mysql>
SELECT QUOTE('Don\'t!');-> 'Don\'t!' mysql>SELECT QUOTE(NULL);-> NULLReturns a string consisting of the string
strrepeatedcounttimes. Ifcountis less than 1, returns an empty string. ReturnsNULLifstrorcountareNULL.mysql>
SELECT REPEAT('MySQL', 3);-> 'MySQLMySQLMySQL'Returns the string
strwith all occurrences of the stringfrom_strreplaced by the stringto_str.REPLACE()performs a case-sensitive match when searching forfrom_str.mysql>
SELECT REPLACE('www.mysql.com', 'w', 'Ww');-> 'WwWwWw.mysql.com'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the string
strwith the order of the characters reversed.mysql>
SELECT REVERSE('abc');-> 'cba'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the rightmost
lencharacters from the stringstr, orNULLif any argument isNULL.mysql>
SELECT RIGHT('foobarbar', 4);-> 'rbar'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the string
str, right-padded with the stringpadstrto a length oflencharacters. Ifstris longer thanlen, the return value is shortened tolencharacters.mysql>
SELECT RPAD('hi',5,'?');-> 'hi???' mysql>SELECT RPAD('hi',1,'?');-> 'h'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns the string
strwith trailing space characters removed.mysql>
SELECT RTRIM('barbar ');-> 'barbar'This function is multi-byte safe.
Returns a soundex string from
str. Two strings that sound almost the same should have identical soundex strings. A standard soundex string is four characters long, but theSOUNDEX()function returns an arbitrarily long string. You can useSUBSTRING()on the result to get a standard soundex string. All nonalphabetic characters instrare ignored. All international alphabetic characters outside the A-Z range are treated as vowels.Important
When using
SOUNDEX(), you should be aware of the following limitations:This function, as currently implemented, is intended to work well with strings that are in the English language only. Strings in other languages may not produce reliable results.
This function is not guaranteed to provide consistent results with strings that use multi-byte character sets, including
utf-8.We hope to remove these limitations in a future release. See Bug#22638 for more information.
mysql>
SELECT SOUNDEX('Hello');-> 'H400' mysql>SELECT SOUNDEX('Quadratically');-> 'Q36324'Note
This function implements the original Soundex algorithm, not the more popular enhanced version (also described by D. Knuth). The difference is that original version discards vowels first and duplicates second, whereas the enhanced version discards duplicates first and vowels second.
This is the same as
SOUNDEX(.expr1) = SOUNDEX(expr2)Returns a string consisting of
Nspace characters.mysql>
SELECT SPACE(6);-> ' 'SUBSTR(,str,pos)SUBSTR(,strFROMpos)SUBSTR(,str,pos,len)SUBSTR(strFROMposFORlen)SUBSTR()is a synonym forSUBSTRING().SUBSTRING(,str,pos)SUBSTRING(,strFROMpos)SUBSTRING(,str,pos,len)SUBSTRING(strFROMposFORlen)The forms without a
lenargument return a substring from stringstrstarting at positionpos. The forms with alenargument return a substringlencharacters long from stringstr, starting at positionpos. The forms that useFROMare standard SQL syntax. It is also possible to use a negative value forpos. In this case, the beginning of the substring isposcharacters from the end of the string, rather than the beginning. A negative value may be used forposin any of the forms of this function.For all forms of
SUBSTRING(), the position of the first character in the string from which the substring is to be extracted is reckoned as1.mysql>
SELECT SUBSTRING('Quadratically',5);-> 'ratically' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING('foobarbar' FROM 4);-> 'barbar' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING('Quadratically',5,6);-> 'ratica' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING('Sakila', -3);-> 'ila' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING('Sakila', -5, 3);-> 'aki' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING('Sakila' FROM -4 FOR 2);-> 'ki'This function is multi-byte safe.
If
lenis less than 1, the result is the empty string.SUBSTRING_INDEX(str,delim,count)Returns the substring from string
strbeforecountoccurrences of the delimiterdelim. Ifcountis positive, everything to the left of the final delimiter (counting from the left) is returned. Ifcountis negative, everything to the right of the final delimiter (counting from the right) is returned.SUBSTRING_INDEX()performs a case-sensitive match when searching fordelim.mysql>
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('www.mysql.com', '.', 2);-> 'www.mysql' mysql>SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX('www.mysql.com', '.', -2);-> 'mysql.com'This function is multi-byte safe.
TRIM([{BOTH | LEADING | TRAILING} [,remstr] FROM]str)TRIM([remstrFROM]str)Returns the string
strwith allremstrprefixes or suffixes removed. If none of the specifiersBOTH,LEADING, orTRAILINGis given,BOTHis assumed.remstris optional and, if not specified, spaces are removed.mysql>
SELECT TRIM(' bar ');-> 'bar' mysql>SELECT TRIM(LEADING 'x' FROM 'xxxbarxxx');-> 'barxxx' mysql>SELECT TRIM(BOTH 'x' FROM 'xxxbarxxx');-> 'bar' mysql>SELECT TRIM(TRAILING 'xyz' FROM 'barxxyz');-> 'barx'This function is multi-byte safe.
Performs the inverse operation of
HEX(. That is, it interprets each pair of hexadecimal digits in the argument as a number and converts it to the character represented by the number. The resulting characters are returned as a binary string.str)mysql>
SELECT UNHEX('4D7953514C');-> 'MySQL' mysql>SELECT 0x4D7953514C;-> 'MySQL' mysql>SELECT UNHEX(HEX('string'));-> 'string' mysql>SELECT HEX(UNHEX('1267'));-> '1267'The characters in the argument string must be legal hexadecimal digits:
'0'..'9','A'..'F','a'..'f'. IfUNHEX()encounters any nonhexadecimal digits in the argument, it returnsNULL:mysql>
SELECT UNHEX('GG');+-------------+ | UNHEX('GG') | +-------------+ | NULL | +-------------+A
NULLresult can occur if the argument toUNHEX()is aBINARYcolumn, because values are padded with 0x00 bytes when stored but those bytes are not stripped on retrieval. For example'aa'is stored into aCHAR(3)column as'aa 'and retrieved as'aa'(with the trailing pad space stripped), soUNHEX()for the column value returns'A'. By contrast'aa'is stored into aBINARY(3)column as'aa\0'and retrieved as'aa\0'(with the trailing pad0x00byte not stripped).'\0'is not a legal hexadecimal digit, soUNHEX()for the column value returnsNULL.Returns the string
strwith all characters changed to uppercase according to the current character set mapping. The default islatin1(cp1252 West European).mysql>
SELECT UPPER('Hej');-> 'HEJ'UPPER()is ineffective when applied to binary strings (BINARY,VARBINARY,BLOB). The description ofLOWER()shows how to perform lettercase conversion of binary strings.This function is multi-byte safe.
Table 11.7. String Comparison Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
LIKE | Simple pattern matching |
NOT LIKE | Negation of simple pattern matching |
STRCMP() | Compare two strings |
If a string function is given a binary string as an argument, the resulting string is also a binary string. A number converted to a string is treated as a binary string. This affects only comparisons.
Normally, if any expression in a string comparison is case sensitive, the comparison is performed in case-sensitive fashion.
exprLIKEpat[ESCAPE 'escape_char']Pattern matching using SQL simple regular expression comparison. Returns
1(TRUE) or0(FALSE). If eitherexprorpatisNULL, the result isNULL.The pattern need not be a literal string. For example, it can be specified as a string expression or table column.
Per the SQL standard,
LIKEperforms matching on a per-character basis, thus it can produce results different from the=comparison operator:mysql>
SELECT 'ä' LIKE 'ae' COLLATE latin1_german2_ci;+-----------------------------------------+ | 'ä' LIKE 'ae' COLLATE latin1_german2_ci | +-----------------------------------------+ | 0 | +-----------------------------------------+ mysql>SELECT 'ä' = 'ae' COLLATE latin1_german2_ci;+--------------------------------------+ | 'ä' = 'ae' COLLATE latin1_german2_ci | +--------------------------------------+ | 1 | +--------------------------------------+In particular, trailing spaces are significant, which is not true for
CHARorVARCHARcomparisons performed with the=operator:mysql>
SELECT 'a' = 'a ', 'a' LIKE 'a ';+------------+---------------+ | 'a' = 'a ' | 'a' LIKE 'a ' | +------------+---------------+ | 1 | 0 | +------------+---------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)With
LIKEyou can use the following two wildcard characters in the pattern.Character Description %Matches any number of characters, even zero characters _Matches exactly one character mysql>
SELECT 'David!' LIKE 'David_';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'David!' LIKE '%D%v%';-> 1To test for literal instances of a wildcard character, precede it by the escape character. If you do not specify the
ESCAPEcharacter, “\” is assumed.String Description \%Matches one “ %” character\_Matches one “ _” charactermysql>
SELECT 'David!' LIKE 'David\_';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'David_' LIKE 'David\_';-> 1To specify a different escape character, use the
ESCAPEclause:mysql>
SELECT 'David_' LIKE 'David|_' ESCAPE '|';-> 1The escape sequence should be empty or one character long. As of MySQL 5.1.2, if the
NO_BACKSLASH_ESCAPESSQL mode is enabled, the sequence cannot be empty.The following two statements illustrate that string comparisons are not case sensitive unless one of the operands is a binary string:
mysql>
SELECT 'abc' LIKE 'ABC';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'abc' LIKE BINARY 'ABC';-> 0In MySQL,
LIKEis allowed on numeric expressions. (This is an extension to the standard SQLLIKE.)mysql>
SELECT 10 LIKE '1%';-> 1Note
Because MySQL uses C escape syntax in strings (for example, “
\n” to represent a newline character), you must double any “\” that you use inLIKEstrings. For example, to search for “\n”, specify it as “\\n”. To search for “\”, specify it as “\\\\”; this is because the backslashes are stripped once by the parser and again when the pattern match is made, leaving a single backslash to be matched against.Exception: At the end of the pattern string, backslash can be specified as “
\\”. At the end of the string, backslash stands for itself because there is nothing following to escape. Suppose a table contains the following values:mysql>
SELECT filename FROM t1;+--------------+ | filename | +--------------+ | C: | | C:\ | | C:\Programs | | C:\Programs\ | +--------------+To test for values that end with backslash, you can match the values using either of the following patterns:
mysql>
SELECT filename, filename LIKE '%\\' FROM t1;+--------------+---------------------+ | filename | filename LIKE '%\\' | +--------------+---------------------+ | C: | 0 | | C:\ | 1 | | C:\Programs | 0 | | C:\Programs\ | 1 | +--------------+---------------------+ mysql>SELECT filename, filename LIKE '%\\\\' FROM t1;+--------------+-----------------------+ | filename | filename LIKE '%\\\\' | +--------------+-----------------------+ | C: | 0 | | C:\ | 1 | | C:\Programs | 0 | | C:\Programs\ | 1 | +--------------+-----------------------+exprNOT LIKEpat[ESCAPE 'escape_char']This is the same as
NOT (.exprLIKEpat[ESCAPE 'escape_char'])Note
Aggregate queries involving
NOT LIKEcomparisons with columns containingNULLmay yield unexpected results. For example, consider the following table and data:CREATE TABLE foo (bar VARCHAR(10)); INSERT INTO foo VALUES (NULL), (NULL);
The query
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM foo WHERE bar LIKE '%baz%';returns0. You might assume thatSELECT COUNT(*) FROM foo WHERE bar NOT LIKE '%baz%';would return2. However, this is not the case: The second query returns0. This is becauseNULL NOT LIKEalways returnsexprNULL, regardless of the value ofexpr. The same is true for aggregate queries involvingNULLand comparisons usingNOT RLIKEorNOT REGEXP. In such cases, you must test explicitly forNOT NULLusingOR(and notAND), as shown here:SELECT COUNT(*) FROM foo WHERE bar NOT LIKE '%baz%' OR bar IS NULL;
STRCMP()returns0if the strings are the same,-1if the first argument is smaller than the second according to the current sort order, and1otherwise.mysql>
SELECT STRCMP('text', 'text2');-> -1 mysql>SELECT STRCMP('text2', 'text');-> 1 mysql>SELECT STRCMP('text', 'text');-> 0STRCMP()uses the current character set when performing comparisons. This makes the default comparison behavior case insensitive unless one or both of the operands are binary strings.
Table 11.8. String Regular Expression Operators
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
NOT REGEXP | Negation of REGEXP |
REGEXP | Pattern matching using regular expressions |
RLIKE | Synonym for REGEXP |
A regular expression is a powerful way of specifying a pattern for a complex search.
MySQL uses Henry Spencer's implementation of regular
expressions, which is aimed at conformance with POSIX 1003.2.
See Section 1.8, “Credits”. MySQL uses the extended version
to support pattern-matching operations performed with the
REGEXP operator in SQL statements.
This section summarizes, with examples, the special characters
and constructs that can be used in MySQL for
REGEXP operations. It does not
contain all the details that can be found in Henry Spencer's
regex(7) manual page. That manual page is
included in MySQL source distributions, in the
regex.7 file under the
regex directory. See also
Section 3.3.4.7, “Pattern Matching”.
,exprNOT REGEXPpatexprNOT RLIKEpatThis is the same as
NOT (.exprREGEXPpat),exprREGEXPpatexprRLIKEpatPerforms a pattern match of a string expression
expragainst a patternpat. The pattern can be an extended regular expression. The syntax for regular expressions is discussed in Section 11.4.2, “Regular Expressions”. Returns1ifexprmatchespat; otherwise it returns0. If eitherexprorpatisNULL, the result isNULL.RLIKEis a synonym forREGEXP, provided formSQLcompatibility.The pattern need not be a literal string. For example, it can be specified as a string expression or table column.
Note
Because MySQL uses the C escape syntax in strings (for example, “
\n” to represent the newline character), you must double any “\” that you use in yourREGEXPstrings.REGEXPis not case sensitive, except when used with binary strings.mysql>
SELECT 'Monty!' REGEXP 'm%y%%';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'Monty!' REGEXP '.*';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'new*\n*line' REGEXP 'new\\*.\\*line';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'a' REGEXP 'A', 'a' REGEXP BINARY 'A';-> 1 0 mysql>SELECT 'a' REGEXP '^[a-d]';-> 1REGEXPandRLIKEuse the current character set when deciding the type of a character. The default islatin1(cp1252 West European).Warning
The
REGEXPandRLIKEoperators work in byte-wise fashion, so they are not multi-byte safe and may produce unexpected results with multi-byte character sets. In addition, these operators compare characters by their byte values and accented characters may not compare as equal even if a given collation treats them as equal.
A regular expression describes a set of strings. The simplest
regular expression is one that has no special characters in it.
For example, the regular expression hello
matches hello and nothing else.
Nontrivial regular expressions use certain special constructs so
that they can match more than one string. For example, the
regular expression hello|word matches either
the string hello or the string
word.
As a more complex example, the regular expression
B[an]*s matches any of the strings
Bananas, Baaaaas,
Bs, and any other string starting with a
B, ending with an s, and
containing any number of a or
n characters in between.
A regular expression for the REGEXP
operator may use any of the following special characters and
constructs:
^Match the beginning of a string.
mysql>
SELECT 'fo\nfo' REGEXP '^fo$';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'fofo' REGEXP '^fo';-> 1$Match the end of a string.
mysql>
SELECT 'fo\no' REGEXP '^fo\no$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'fo\no' REGEXP '^fo$';-> 0.Match any character (including carriage return and newline).
mysql>
SELECT 'fofo' REGEXP '^f.*$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'fo\r\nfo' REGEXP '^f.*$';-> 1a*Match any sequence of zero or more
acharacters.mysql>
SELECT 'Ban' REGEXP '^Ba*n';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'Baaan' REGEXP '^Ba*n';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'Bn' REGEXP '^Ba*n';-> 1a+Match any sequence of one or more
acharacters.mysql>
SELECT 'Ban' REGEXP '^Ba+n';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'Bn' REGEXP '^Ba+n';-> 0a?Match either zero or one
acharacter.mysql>
SELECT 'Bn' REGEXP '^Ba?n';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'Ban' REGEXP '^Ba?n';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'Baan' REGEXP '^Ba?n';-> 0de|abcMatch either of the sequences
deorabc.mysql>
SELECT 'pi' REGEXP 'pi|apa';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'axe' REGEXP 'pi|apa';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'apa' REGEXP 'pi|apa';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'apa' REGEXP '^(pi|apa)$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'pi' REGEXP '^(pi|apa)$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'pix' REGEXP '^(pi|apa)$';-> 0(abc)*Match zero or more instances of the sequence
abc.mysql>
SELECT 'pi' REGEXP '^(pi)*$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'pip' REGEXP '^(pi)*$';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'pipi' REGEXP '^(pi)*$';-> 1{1},{2,3}{n}or{m,n}notation provides a more general way of writing regular expressions that match many occurrences of the previous atom (or “piece”) of the pattern.mandnare integers.a*Can be written as
a{0,}.a+Can be written as
a{1,}.a?Can be written as
a{0,1}.
To be more precise,
a{n}matches exactlyninstances ofa.a{n,}matchesnor more instances ofa.a{m,n}matchesmthroughninstances ofa, inclusive.mandnmust be in the range from0toRE_DUP_MAX(default 255), inclusive. If bothmandnare given,mmust be less than or equal ton.mysql>
SELECT 'abcde' REGEXP 'a[bcd]{2}e';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'abcde' REGEXP 'a[bcd]{3}e';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'abcde' REGEXP 'a[bcd]{1,10}e';-> 1[a-dX],[^a-dX]Matches any character that is (or is not, if ^ is used) either
a,b,c,dorX. A-character between two other characters forms a range that matches all characters from the first character to the second. For example,[0-9]matches any decimal digit. To include a literal]character, it must immediately follow the opening bracket[. To include a literal-character, it must be written first or last. Any character that does not have a defined special meaning inside a[]pair matches only itself.mysql>
SELECT 'aXbc' REGEXP '[a-dXYZ]';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'aXbc' REGEXP '^[a-dXYZ]$';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'aXbc' REGEXP '^[a-dXYZ]+$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'aXbc' REGEXP '^[^a-dXYZ]+$';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'gheis' REGEXP '^[^a-dXYZ]+$';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'gheisa' REGEXP '^[^a-dXYZ]+$';-> 0[.characters.]Within a bracket expression (written using
[and]), matches the sequence of characters of that collating element.charactersis either a single character or a character name likenewline. The following table lists the allowable character names.The following table shows the allowable character names and the characters that they match. For characters given as numeric values, the values are represented in octal.
Name Character Name Character NUL0SOH001STX002ETX003EOT004ENQ005ACK006BEL007alert007BS010backspace'\b'HT011tab'\t'LF012newline'\n'VT013vertical-tab'\v'FF014form-feed'\f'CR015carriage-return'\r'SO016SI017DLE020DC1021DC2022DC3023DC4024NAK025SYN026ETB027CAN030EM031SUB032ESC033IS4034FS034IS3035GS035IS2036RS036IS1037US037space' 'exclamation-mark'!'quotation-mark'"'number-sign'#'dollar-sign'$'percent-sign'%'ampersand'&'apostrophe'\''left-parenthesis'('right-parenthesis')'asterisk'*'plus-sign'+'comma','hyphen'-'hyphen-minus'-'period'.'full-stop'.'slash'/'solidus'/'zero'0'one'1'two'2'three'3'four'4'five'5'six'6'seven'7'eight'8'nine'9'colon':'semicolon';'less-than-sign'<'equals-sign'='greater-than-sign'>'question-mark'?'commercial-at'@'left-square-bracket'['backslash'\\'reverse-solidus'\\'right-square-bracket']'circumflex'^'circumflex-accent'^'underscore'_'low-line'_'grave-accent'`'left-brace'{'left-curly-bracket'{'vertical-line'|'right-brace'}'right-curly-bracket'}'tilde'~'DEL177mysql>
SELECT '~' REGEXP '[[.~.]]';-> 1 mysql>SELECT '~' REGEXP '[[.tilde.]]';-> 1[=character_class=]Within a bracket expression (written using
[and]),[=character_class=]represents an equivalence class. It matches all characters with the same collation value, including itself. For example, ifoand(+)are the members of an equivalence class, then[[=o=]],[[=(+)=]], and[o(+)]are all synonymous. An equivalence class may not be used as an endpoint of a range.[:character_class:]Within a bracket expression (written using
[and]),[:character_class:]represents a character class that matches all characters belonging to that class. The following table lists the standard class names. These names stand for the character classes defined in thectype(3)manual page. A particular locale may provide other class names. A character class may not be used as an endpoint of a range.alnumAlphanumeric characters alphaAlphabetic characters blankWhitespace characters cntrlControl characters digitDigit characters graphGraphic characters lowerLowercase alphabetic characters printGraphic or space characters punctPunctuation characters spaceSpace, tab, newline, and carriage return upperUppercase alphabetic characters xdigitHexadecimal digit characters mysql>
SELECT 'justalnums' REGEXP '[[:alnum:]]+';-> 1 mysql>SELECT '!!' REGEXP '[[:alnum:]]+';-> 0[[:<:]],[[:>:]]These markers stand for word boundaries. They match the beginning and end of words, respectively. A word is a sequence of word characters that is not preceded by or followed by word characters. A word character is an alphanumeric character in the
alnumclass or an underscore (_).mysql>
SELECT 'a word a' REGEXP '[[:<:]]word[[:>:]]';-> 1 mysql>SELECT 'a xword a' REGEXP '[[:<:]]word[[:>:]]';-> 0
To use a literal instance of a special character in a regular
expression, precede it by two backslash (\) characters. The
MySQL parser interprets one of the backslashes, and the regular
expression library interprets the other. For example, to match
the string 1+2 that contains the special
+ character, only the last of the following
regular expressions is the correct one:
mysql>SELECT '1+2' REGEXP '1+2';-> 0 mysql>SELECT '1+2' REGEXP '1\+2';-> 0 mysql>SELECT '1+2' REGEXP '1\\+2';-> 1
Table 11.9. Numeric Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ABS() | Return the absolute value |
ACOS() | Return the arc cosine |
ASIN() | Return the arc sine |
ATAN2(), ATAN() | Return the arc tangent of the two arguments |
ATAN() | Return the arc tangent |
CEIL() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CEILING() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CONV() | Convert numbers between different number bases |
COS() | Return the cosine |
COT() | Return the cotangent |
CRC32()(v4.1.0) | Compute a cyclic redundancy check value |
DEGREES() | Convert radians to degrees |
DIV(v4.1.0) | Integer division |
/ | Division operator |
EXP() | Raise to the power of |
FLOOR() | Return the largest integer value not greater than the argument |
LN() | Return the natural logarithm of the argument |
LOG10() | Return the base-10 logarithm of the argument |
LOG2() | Return the base-2 logarithm of the argument |
LOG() | Return the natural logarithm of the first argument |
- | Minus operator |
MOD() | Return the remainder |
% | Modulo operator |
OCT() | Return an octal representation of a decimal number |
PI() | Return the value of pi |
+ | Addition operator |
POW() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
POWER() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
RADIANS() | Return argument converted to radians |
RAND() | Return a random floating-point value |
ROUND() | Round the argument |
SIGN() | Return the sign of the argument |
SIN() | Return the sine of the argument |
SQRT() | Return the square root of the argument |
TAN() | Return the tangent of the argument |
* | Times operator |
TRUNCATE() | Truncate to specified number of decimal places |
- | Change the sign of the argument |
Table 11.10. Arithmetic Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
DIV(v4.1.0) | Integer division |
/ | Division operator |
- | Minus operator |
% | Modulo operator |
+ | Addition operator |
* | Times operator |
- | Change the sign of the argument |
The usual arithmetic operators are available. The result is determined according to the following rules:
In the case of
-,+, and*, the result is calculated withBIGINT(64-bit) precision if both arguments are integers.If one of the arguments is an unsigned integer, and the other argument is also an integer, the result is an unsigned integer.
If any of the operands of a
+,-,/,*,%is a real or string value, then the precision of the result is the precision of the argument with the maximum precision.In division performed with
/, the scale of the result when using two exact values is the scale of the first argument plus the value of thediv_precision_incrementsystem variable (which is 4 by default). For example, the result of the expression5.05 / 0.014has a scale of six decimal places (360.714286).
These rules are applied for each operation, such that nested
calculations imply the precision of each component. Hence,
(14620 / 9432456) / (24250 / 9432456), would
resolve first to (0.0014) / (0.0026), with
the final result having 8 decimal places
(0.60288653).
Because of these rules and the way they are applied, care should be taken to ensure that components and sub-components of a calculation use the appropriate level of precision. See Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.
Addition:
mysql>
SELECT 3+5;-> 8Subtraction:
mysql>
SELECT 3-5;-> -2Unary minus. This operator changes the sign of the argument.
mysql>
SELECT - 2;-> -2Multiplication:
mysql>
SELECT 3*5;-> 15 mysql>SELECT 18014398509481984*18014398509481984.0;-> 324518553658426726783156020576256.0 mysql>SELECT 18014398509481984*18014398509481984;-> 0The result of the last expression is incorrect because the result of the integer multiplication exceeds the 64-bit range of
BIGINTcalculations. (See Section 10.2, “Numeric Types”.)Division:
mysql>
SELECT 3/5;-> 0.60Division by zero produces a
NULLresult:mysql>
SELECT 102/(1-1);-> NULLA division is calculated with
BIGINTarithmetic only if performed in a context where its result is converted to an integer.Integer division. Similar to
FLOOR(), but is safe withBIGINTvalues. Incorrect results may occur for noninteger operands that exceedBIGINTrange.mysql>
SELECT 5 DIV 2;-> 2Modulo operation. Returns the remainder of
Ndivided byM. For more information, see the description for theMOD()function in Section 11.5.2, “Mathematical Functions”.
Table 11.11. Mathematical Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ABS() | Return the absolute value |
ACOS() | Return the arc cosine |
ASIN() | Return the arc sine |
ATAN2(), ATAN() | Return the arc tangent of the two arguments |
ATAN() | Return the arc tangent |
CEIL() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CEILING() | Return the smallest integer value not less than the argument |
CONV() | Convert numbers between different number bases |
COS() | Return the cosine |
COT() | Return the cotangent |
CRC32()(v4.1.0) | Compute a cyclic redundancy check value |
DEGREES() | Convert radians to degrees |
EXP() | Raise to the power of |
FLOOR() | Return the largest integer value not greater than the argument |
LN() | Return the natural logarithm of the argument |
LOG10() | Return the base-10 logarithm of the argument |
LOG2() | Return the base-2 logarithm of the argument |
LOG() | Return the natural logarithm of the first argument |
MOD() | Return the remainder |
OCT() | Return an octal representation of a decimal number |
PI() | Return the value of pi |
POW() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
POWER() | Return the argument raised to the specified power |
RADIANS() | Return argument converted to radians |
RAND() | Return a random floating-point value |
ROUND() | Round the argument |
SIGN() | Return the sign of the argument |
SIN() | Return the sine of the argument |
SQRT() | Return the square root of the argument |
TAN() | Return the tangent of the argument |
TRUNCATE() | Truncate to specified number of decimal places |
All mathematical functions return NULL in the
event of an error.
Returns the absolute value of
X.mysql>
SELECT ABS(2);-> 2 mysql>SELECT ABS(-32);-> 32This function is safe to use with
BIGINTvalues.Returns the arc cosine of
X, that is, the value whose cosine isX. ReturnsNULLifXis not in the range-1to1.mysql>
SELECT ACOS(1);-> 0 mysql>SELECT ACOS(1.0001);-> NULL mysql>SELECT ACOS(0);-> 1.5707963267949Returns the arc sine of
X, that is, the value whose sine isX. ReturnsNULLifXis not in the range-1to1.mysql>
SELECT ASIN(0.2);-> 0.20135792079033 mysql>SELECT ASIN('foo');+-------------+ | ASIN('foo') | +-------------+ | 0 | +-------------+ 1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec) mysql>SHOW WARNINGS;+---------+------+-----------------------------------------+ | Level | Code | Message | +---------+------+-----------------------------------------+ | Warning | 1292 | Truncated incorrect DOUBLE value: 'foo' | +---------+------+-----------------------------------------+Returns the arc tangent of
X, that is, the value whose tangent isX.mysql>
SELECT ATAN(2);-> 1.1071487177941 mysql>SELECT ATAN(-2);-> -1.1071487177941Returns the arc tangent of the two variables
XandY. It is similar to calculating the arc tangent of, except that the signs of both arguments are used to determine the quadrant of the result.Y/Xmysql>
SELECT ATAN(-2,2);-> -0.78539816339745 mysql>SELECT ATAN2(PI(),0);-> 1.5707963267949Returns the smallest integer value not less than
X.mysql>
SELECT CEILING(1.23);-> 2 mysql>SELECT CEILING(-1.23);-> -1For exact-value numeric arguments, the return value has an exact-value numeric type. For string or floating-point arguments, the return value has a floating-point type.
Converts numbers between different number bases. Returns a string representation of the number
N, converted from basefrom_baseto baseto_base. ReturnsNULLif any argument isNULL. The argumentNis interpreted as an integer, but may be specified as an integer or a string. The minimum base is2and the maximum base is36. Ifto_baseis a negative number,Nis regarded as a signed number. Otherwise,Nis treated as unsigned.CONV()works with 64-bit precision.mysql>
SELECT CONV('a',16,2);-> '1010' mysql>SELECT CONV('6E',18,8);-> '172' mysql>SELECT CONV(-17,10,-18);-> '-H' mysql>SELECT CONV(10+'10'+'10'+0xa,10,10);-> '40'Returns the cosine of
X, whereXis given in radians.mysql>
SELECT COS(PI());-> -1Returns the cotangent of
X.mysql>
SELECT COT(12);-> -1.5726734063977 mysql>SELECT COT(0);-> NULLComputes a cyclic redundancy check value and returns a 32-bit unsigned value. The result is
NULLif the argument isNULL. The argument is expected to be a string and (if possible) is treated as one if it is not.mysql>
SELECT CRC32('MySQL');-> 3259397556 mysql>SELECT CRC32('mysql');-> 2501908538Returns the argument
X, converted from radians to degrees.mysql>
SELECT DEGREES(PI());-> 180 mysql>SELECT DEGREES(PI() / 2);-> 90Returns the value of e (the base of natural logarithms) raised to the power of
X. The inverse of this function isLOG()(using a single argument only) orLN().mysql>
SELECT EXP(2);-> 7.3890560989307 mysql>SELECT EXP(-2);-> 0.13533528323661 mysql>SELECT EXP(0);-> 1Returns the largest integer value not greater than
X.mysql>
SELECT FLOOR(1.23);-> 1 mysql>SELECT FLOOR(-1.23);-> -2For exact-value numeric arguments, the return value has an exact-value numeric type. For string or floating-point arguments, the return value has a floating-point type.
Formats the number
Xto a format like'#,###,###.##', rounded toDdecimal places, and returns the result as a string. For details, see Section 11.4, “String Functions”.This function can be used to obtain a hexadecimal representation of a decimal number or a string; the manner in which it does so varies according to the argument's type. See this function's description in Section 11.4, “String Functions”, for details.
Returns the natural logarithm of
X; that is, the base-e logarithm ofX. IfXis less than or equal to 0, thenNULLis returned.mysql>
SELECT LN(2);-> 0.69314718055995 mysql>SELECT LN(-2);-> NULLThis function is synonymous with
LOG(. The inverse of this function is theX)EXP()function.If called with one parameter, this function returns the natural logarithm of
X. IfXis less than or equal to 0, thenNULLis returned.The inverse of this function (when called with a single argument) is the
EXP()function.mysql>
SELECT LOG(2);-> 0.69314718055995 mysql>SELECT LOG(-2);-> NULLIf called with two parameters, this function returns the logarithm of
Xto the baseB. IfXis less than or equal to 0, or ifBis less than or equal to 1, thenNULLis returned.mysql>
SELECT LOG(2,65536);-> 16 mysql>SELECT LOG(10,100);-> 2 mysql>SELECT LOG(1,100);-> NULLLOG(is equivalent toB,X)LOG(.X) / LOG(B)Returns the base-2 logarithm of
.Xmysql>
SELECT LOG2(65536);-> 16 mysql>SELECT LOG2(-100);-> NULLLOG2()is useful for finding out how many bits a number requires for storage. This function is equivalent to the expressionLOG(.X) / LOG(2)Returns the base-10 logarithm of
X.mysql>
SELECT LOG10(2);-> 0.30102999566398 mysql>SELECT LOG10(100);-> 2 mysql>SELECT LOG10(-100);-> NULLModulo operation. Returns the remainder of
Ndivided byM.mysql>
SELECT MOD(234, 10);-> 4 mysql>SELECT 253 % 7;-> 1 mysql>SELECT MOD(29,9);-> 2 mysql>SELECT 29 MOD 9;-> 2This function is safe to use with
BIGINTvalues.MOD()also works on values that have a fractional part and returns the exact remainder after division:mysql>
SELECT MOD(34.5,3);-> 1.5MOD(returnsN,0)NULL.Returns a string representation of the octal value of
N, whereNis a longlong (BIGINT) number. This is equivalent toCONV(. ReturnsN,10,8)NULLifNisNULL.mysql>
SELECT OCT(12);-> '14'Returns the value of π (pi). The default number of decimal places displayed is seven, but MySQL uses the full double-precision value internally.
mysql>
SELECT PI();-> 3.141593 mysql>SELECT PI()+0.000000000000000000;-> 3.141592653589793116Returns the value of
Xraised to the power ofY.mysql>
SELECT POW(2,2);-> 4 mysql>SELECT POW(2,-2);-> 0.25This is a synonym for
POW().Returns the argument
X, converted from degrees to radians. (Note that π radians equals 180 degrees.)mysql>
SELECT RADIANS(90);-> 1.5707963267949Returns a random floating-point value
vin the range0<=v<1.0. If a constant integer argumentNis specified, it is used as the seed value, which produces a repeatable sequence of column values. In the following example, note that the sequences of values produced byRAND(3)is the same both places where it occurs.mysql>
CREATE TABLE t (i INT);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.42 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES(1),(2),(3);Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec) Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>SELECT i, RAND() FROM t;+------+------------------+ | i | RAND() | +------+------------------+ | 1 | 0.61914388706828 | | 2 | 0.93845168309142 | | 3 | 0.83482678498591 | +------+------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT i, RAND(3) FROM t;+------+------------------+ | i | RAND(3) | +------+------------------+ | 1 | 0.90576975597606 | | 2 | 0.37307905813035 | | 3 | 0.14808605345719 | +------+------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT i, RAND() FROM t;+------+------------------+ | i | RAND() | +------+------------------+ | 1 | 0.35877890638893 | | 2 | 0.28941420772058 | | 3 | 0.37073435016976 | +------+------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT i, RAND(3) FROM t;+------+------------------+ | i | RAND(3) | +------+------------------+ | 1 | 0.90576975597606 | | 2 | 0.37307905813035 | | 3 | 0.14808605345719 | +------+------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.01 sec)With a constant initializer, the seed is initialized once when the statement is compiled, prior to execution. As of MySQL 5.1.16, if a nonconstant initializer (such as a column name) is used as the argument, the seed is initialized with the value for each invocation of
RAND(). (One implication of this is that for equal argument values,RAND()will return the same value each time.) From MySQL 5.1.3 to 5.1.15, nonconstant arguments are disallowed. Before that, the effect of using a nonconstant argument is undefined.To obtain a random integer
Rin the rangei<=R<j, use the expressionFLOOR(. For example, to obtain a random integer in the range the rangei+ RAND() * (j–i))7<=R<12, you could use the following statement:SELECT FLOOR(7 + (RAND() * 5));
RAND()in aWHEREclause is re-evaluated every time theWHEREis executed.You cannot use a column with
RAND()values in anORDER BYclause, becauseORDER BYwould evaluate the column multiple times. However, you can retrieve rows in random order like this:mysql>
SELECT * FROMtbl_nameORDER BY RAND();ORDER BY RAND()combined withLIMITis useful for selecting a random sample from a set of rows:mysql>
SELECT * FROM table1, table2 WHERE a=b AND c<d->ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1000;RAND()is not meant to be a perfect random generator, but instead is a fast way to generate ad hoc random numbers which is portable between platforms for the same MySQL version.Rounds the argument
XtoDdecimal places. The rounding algorithm depends on the data type ofX.Ddefaults to 0 if not specified.Dcan be negative to causeDdigits left of the decimal point of the valueXto become zero.mysql>
SELECT ROUND(-1.23);-> -1 mysql>SELECT ROUND(-1.58);-> -2 mysql>SELECT ROUND(1.58);-> 2 mysql>SELECT ROUND(1.298, 1);-> 1.3 mysql>SELECT ROUND(1.298, 0);-> 1 mysql>SELECT ROUND(23.298, -1);-> 20The return type is the same type as that of the first argument (assuming that it is integer, double, or decimal). This means that for an integer argument, the result is an integer (no decimal places):
mysql>
SELECT ROUND(150.000,2), ROUND(150,2);+------------------+--------------+ | ROUND(150.000,2) | ROUND(150,2) | +------------------+--------------+ | 150.00 | 150 | +------------------+--------------+ROUND()uses the following rules depending on the type of the first argument:For exact-value numbers,
ROUND()uses the “round half up” or “round toward nearest” rule: A value with a fractional part of .5 or greater is rounded up to the next integer if positive or down to the next integer if negative. (In other words, it is rounded away from zero.) A value with a fractional part less than .5 is rounded down to the next integer if positive or up to the next integer if negative.For approximate-value numbers, the result depends on the C library. On many systems, this means that
ROUND()uses the "round to nearest even" rule: A value with any fractional part is rounded to the nearest even integer.
The following example shows how rounding differs for exact and approximate values:
mysql>
SELECT ROUND(2.5), ROUND(25E-1);+------------+--------------+ | ROUND(2.5) | ROUND(25E-1) | +------------+--------------+ | 3 | 2 | +------------+--------------+For more information, see Section 11.14, “Precision Math”.
Returns the sign of the argument as
-1,0, or1, depending on whetherXis negative, zero, or positive.mysql>
SELECT SIGN(-32);-> -1 mysql>SELECT SIGN(0);-> 0 mysql>SELECT SIGN(234);-> 1Returns the sine of
X, whereXis given in radians.mysql>
SELECT SIN(PI());-> 1.2246063538224e-16 mysql>SELECT ROUND(SIN(PI()));-> 0Returns the square root of a nonnegative number
X.mysql>
SELECT SQRT(4);-> 2 mysql>SELECT SQRT(20);-> 4.4721359549996 mysql>SELECT SQRT(-16);-> NULLReturns the tangent of
X, whereXis given in radians.mysql>
SELECT TAN(PI());-> -1.2246063538224e-16 mysql>SELECT TAN(PI()+1);-> 1.5574077246549Returns the number
X, truncated toDdecimal places. IfDis0, the result has no decimal point or fractional part.Dcan be negative to causeDdigits left of the decimal point of the valueXto become zero.mysql>
SELECT TRUNCATE(1.223,1);-> 1.2 mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(1.999,1);-> 1.9 mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(1.999,0);-> 1 mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(-1.999,1);-> -1.9 mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(122,-2);-> 100 mysql>SELECT TRUNCATE(10.28*100,0);-> 1028All numbers are rounded toward zero.
This section describes the functions that can be used to manipulate temporal values. See Section 10.3, “Date and Time Types”, for a description of the range of values each date and time type has and the valid formats in which values may be specified.
Table 11.12. Date/Time Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ADDDATE()(v4.1.1) | Add time values (intervals) to a date value |
ADDTIME()(v4.1.1) | Add time |
CONVERT_TZ()(v4.1.3) | Convert from one timezone to another |
CURDATE() | Return the current date |
CURRENT_DATE(), CURRENT_DATE | Synonyms for CURDATE() |
CURRENT_TIME(), CURRENT_TIME | Synonyms for CURTIME() |
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(), CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | Synonyms for NOW() |
CURTIME() | Return the current time |
DATE_ADD() | Add time values (intervals) to a date value |
DATE_FORMAT() | Format date as specified |
DATE_SUB() | Subtract two dates |
DATE()(v4.1.1) | Extract the date part of a date or datetime expression |
DATEDIFF()(v4.1.1) | Subtract two dates |
DAY()(v4.1.1) | Synonym for DAYOFMONTH() |
DAYNAME()(v4.1.21) | Return the name of the weekday |
DAYOFMONTH() | Return the day of the month (0-31) |
DAYOFWEEK() | Return the weekday index of the argument |
DAYOFYEAR() | Return the day of the year (1-366) |
EXTRACT | Extract part of a date |
FROM_DAYS() | Convert a day number to a date |
FROM_UNIXTIME() | Format UNIX timestamp as a date |
GET_FORMAT()(v4.1.1) | Return a date format string |
HOUR() | Extract the hour |
LAST_DAY(v4.1.1) | Return the last day of the month for the argument |
LOCALTIME(), LOCALTIME | Synonym for NOW() |
LOCALTIMESTAMP, LOCALTIMESTAMP()(v4.0.6) | Synonym for NOW() |
MAKEDATE()(v4.1.1) | Create a date from the year and day of year |
MAKETIME(v4.1.1) | MAKETIME() |
MICROSECOND()(v4.1.1) | Return the microseconds from argument |
MINUTE() | Return the minute from the argument |
MONTH() | Return the month from the date passed |
MONTHNAME()(v4.1.21) | Return the name of the month |
NOW() | Return the current date and time |
PERIOD_ADD() | Add a period to a year-month |
PERIOD_DIFF() | Return the number of months between periods |
QUARTER() | Return the quarter from a date argument |
SEC_TO_TIME() | Converts seconds to 'HH:MM:SS' format |
SECOND() | Return the second (0-59) |
STR_TO_DATE()(v4.1.1) | Convert a string to a date |
SUBDATE() | A synonym for DATE_SUB() when invoked with three arguments |
SUBTIME()(v4.1.1) | Subtract times |
SYSDATE() | Return the time at which the function executes |
TIME_FORMAT() | Format as time |
TIME_TO_SEC() | Return the argument converted to seconds |
TIME()(v4.1.1) | Extract the time portion of the expression passed |
TIMEDIFF()(v4.1.1) | Subtract time |
TIMESTAMP()(v4.1.1) | With a single argument, this function returns the date or datetime expression; with two arguments, the sum of the arguments |
TIMESTAMPADD()(v5.0.0) | Add an interval to a datetime expression |
TIMESTAMPDIFF()(v5.0.0) | Subtract an interval from a datetime expression |
TO_DAYS() | Return the date argument converted to days |
UNIX_TIMESTAMP() | Return a UNIX timestamp |
UTC_DATE()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC date |
UTC_TIME()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC time |
UTC_TIMESTAMP()(v4.1.1) | Return the current UTC date and time |
WEEK() | Return the week number |
WEEKDAY() | Return the weekday index |
WEEKOFYEAR()(v4.1.1) | Return the calendar week of the date (0-53) |
YEAR() | Return the year |
YEARWEEK() | Return the year and week |
Here is an example that uses date functions. The following query
selects all rows with a date_col value
from within the last 30 days:
mysql>SELECT->somethingFROMtbl_nameWHERE DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),INTERVAL 30 DAY) <=date_col;
The query also selects rows with dates that lie in the future.
Functions that expect date values usually accept datetime values and ignore the time part. Functions that expect time values usually accept datetime values and ignore the date part.
Functions that return the current date or time each are evaluated
only once per query at the start of query execution. This means
that multiple references to a function such as
NOW() within a single query always
produce the same result. (For our purposes, a single query also
includes a call to a stored program (stored routine, trigger, or
event) and all sub-programs called by that program.) This
principle also applies to
CURDATE(),
CURTIME(),
UTC_DATE(),
UTC_TIME(),
UTC_TIMESTAMP(), and to any of
their synonyms.
The CURRENT_TIMESTAMP(),
CURRENT_TIME(),
CURRENT_DATE(), and
FROM_UNIXTIME() functions return
values in the connection's current time zone, which is available
as the value of the time_zone
system variable. In addition,
UNIX_TIMESTAMP() assumes that its
argument is a datetime value in the current time zone. See
Section 9.7, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.
Some date functions can be used with “zero” dates or
incomplete dates such as '2001-11-00', whereas
others cannot. Functions that extract parts of dates typically
work with incomplete dates and thus can return 0 when you might
otherwise expect a nonzero value. For example:
mysql> SELECT DAYOFMONTH('2001-11-00'), MONTH('2005-00-00');
-> 0, 0
Other functions expect complete dates and return
NULL for incomplete dates. These include
functions that perform date arithmetic or that map parts of dates
to names. For example:
mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2006-05-00',INTERVAL 1 DAY);-> NULL mysql>SELECT DAYNAME('2006-05-00');-> NULL
ADDDATE(,date,INTERVALexprunit)ADDDATE(expr,days)When invoked with the
INTERVALform of the second argument,ADDDATE()is a synonym forDATE_ADD(). The related functionSUBDATE()is a synonym forDATE_SUB(). For information on theINTERVALunitargument, see the discussion forDATE_ADD().mysql>
SELECT DATE_ADD('2008-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);-> '2008-02-02' mysql>SELECT ADDDATE('2008-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);-> '2008-02-02'When invoked with the
daysform of the second argument, MySQL treats it as an integer number of days to be added toexpr.mysql>
SELECT ADDDATE('2008-01-02', 31);-> '2008-02-02'ADDTIME()addsexpr2toexpr1and returns the result.expr1is a time or datetime expression, andexpr2is a time expression.mysql>
SELECT ADDTIME('2007-12-31 23:59:59.999999', '1 1:1:1.000002');-> '2008-01-02 01:01:01.000001' mysql>SELECT ADDTIME('01:00:00.999999', '02:00:00.999998');-> '03:00:01.999997'CONVERT_TZ()converts a datetime valuedtfrom the time zone given byfrom_tzto the time zone given byto_tzand returns the resulting value. Time zones are specified as described in Section 9.7, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”. This function returnsNULLif the arguments are invalid.If the value falls out of the supported range of the
TIMESTAMPtype when converted fromfrom_tzto UTC, no conversion occurs. TheTIMESTAMPrange is described in Section 10.1.2, “Overview of Date and Time Types”.mysql>
SELECT CONVERT_TZ('2004-01-01 12:00:00','GMT','MET');-> '2004-01-01 13:00:00' mysql>SELECT CONVERT_TZ('2004-01-01 12:00:00','+00:00','+10:00');-> '2004-01-01 22:00:00'Note
To use named time zones such as
'MET'or'Europe/Moscow', the time zone tables must be properly set up. See Section 9.7, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”, for instructions.Before MySQL 5.1.17, if you intend to use
CONVERT_TZ()while other tables are locked withLOCK TABLES, you must also lock themysql.time_zone_nametable. See Section 12.4.5, “LOCK TABLESandUNLOCK TABLESSyntax”.Returns the current date as a value in
'YYYY-MM-DD'orYYYYMMDDformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.mysql>
SELECT CURDATE();-> '2008-06-13' mysql>SELECT CURDATE() + 0;-> 20080613CURRENT_DATEandCURRENT_DATE()are synonyms forCURDATE().Returns the current time as a value in
'HH:MM:SS'orHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context. The value is expressed in the current time zone.mysql>
SELECT CURTIME();-> '23:50:26' mysql>SELECT CURTIME() + 0;-> 235026.000000CURRENT_TIMEandCURRENT_TIME()are synonyms forCURTIME().CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()CURRENT_TIMESTAMPandCURRENT_TIMESTAMP()are synonyms forNOW().Extracts the date part of the date or datetime expression
expr.mysql>
SELECT DATE('2003-12-31 01:02:03');-> '2003-12-31'DATEDIFF()returnsexpr1–expr2expressed as a value in days from one date to the other.expr1andexpr2are date or date-and-time expressions. Only the date parts of the values are used in the calculation.mysql>
SELECT DATEDIFF('2007-12-31 23:59:59','2007-12-30');-> 1 mysql>SELECT DATEDIFF('2010-11-30 23:59:59','2010-12-31');-> -31DATE_ADD(,date,INTERVALexprunit)DATE_SUB(date,INTERVALexprunit)These functions perform date arithmetic. The
dateargument specifies the starting date or datetime value.expris an expression specifying the interval value to be added or subtracted from the starting date.expris a string; it may start with a “-” for negative intervals.unitis a keyword indicating the units in which the expression should be interpreted.The
INTERVALkeyword and theunitspecifier are not case sensitive.The following table shows the expected form of the
exprargument for eachunitvalue.unitValueExpected exprFormatMICROSECONDMICROSECONDSSECONDSECONDSMINUTEMINUTESHOURHOURSDAYDAYSWEEKWEEKSMONTHMONTHSQUARTERQUARTERSYEARYEARSSECOND_MICROSECOND'SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'MINUTE_MICROSECOND'MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'MINUTE_SECOND'MINUTES:SECONDS'HOUR_MICROSECOND'HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'HOUR_SECOND'HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'HOUR_MINUTE'HOURS:MINUTES'DAY_MICROSECOND'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS.MICROSECONDS'DAY_SECOND'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS'DAY_MINUTE'DAYS HOURS:MINUTES'DAY_HOUR'DAYS HOURS'YEAR_MONTH'YEARS-MONTHS'The return value depends on the arguments:
To ensure that the result is
DATETIME, you can useCAST()to convert the first argument toDATETIME.MySQL allows any punctuation delimiter in the
exprformat. Those shown in the table are the suggested delimiters. If thedateargument is aDATEvalue and your calculations involve onlyYEAR,MONTH, andDAYparts (that is, no time parts), the result is aDATEvalue. Otherwise, the result is aDATETIMEvalue.Date arithmetic also can be performed using
INTERVALtogether with the+or-operator:date+ INTERVALexprunitdate- INTERVALexprunitINTERVALis allowed on either side of theexprunit+operator if the expression on the other side is a date or datetime value. For the-operator,INTERVALis allowed only on the right side, because it makes no sense to subtract a date or datetime value from an interval.exprunitmysql>
SELECT '2008-12-31 23:59:59' + INTERVAL 1 SECOND;-> '2009-01-01 00:00:00' mysql>SELECT INTERVAL 1 DAY + '2008-12-31';-> '2009-01-01' mysql>SELECT '2005-01-01' - INTERVAL 1 SECOND;-> '2004-12-31 23:59:59' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2000-12-31 23:59:59',->INTERVAL 1 SECOND);-> '2001-01-01 00:00:00' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2010-12-31 23:59:59',->INTERVAL 1 DAY);-> '2011-01-01 23:59:59' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2100-12-31 23:59:59',->INTERVAL '1:1' MINUTE_SECOND);-> '2101-01-01 00:01:00' mysql>SELECT DATE_SUB('2005-01-01 00:00:00',->INTERVAL '1 1:1:1' DAY_SECOND);-> '2004-12-30 22:58:59' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('1900-01-01 00:00:00',->INTERVAL '-1 10' DAY_HOUR);-> '1899-12-30 14:00:00' mysql>SELECT DATE_SUB('1998-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);-> '1997-12-02' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('1992-12-31 23:59:59.000002',->INTERVAL '1.999999' SECOND_MICROSECOND);-> '1993-01-01 00:00:01.000001'If you specify an interval value that is too short (does not include all the interval parts that would be expected from the
unitkeyword), MySQL assumes that you have left out the leftmost parts of the interval value. For example, if you specify aunitofDAY_SECOND, the value ofexpris expected to have days, hours, minutes, and seconds parts. If you specify a value like'1:10', MySQL assumes that the days and hours parts are missing and the value represents minutes and seconds. In other words,'1:10' DAY_SECONDis interpreted in such a way that it is equivalent to'1:10' MINUTE_SECOND. This is analogous to the way that MySQL interpretsTIMEvalues as representing elapsed time rather than as a time of day.Because
expris treated as a string, be careful if you specify a nonstring value withINTERVAL. For example, with an interval specifier ofHOUR_MINUTE,6/4evaluates to1.5000and is treated as 1 hour, 5000 minutes:mysql>
SELECT 6/4;-> 1.5000 mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2009-01-01', INTERVAL 6/4 HOUR_MINUTE);-> '2009-01-04 12:20:00'To ensure interpretation of the interval value as you expect, a
CAST()operation may be used. To treat6/4as 1 hour, 5 minutes, cast it to aDECIMALvalue with a single fractional digit:mysql>
SELECT CAST(6/4 AS DECIMAL(3,1));-> 1.5 mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('1970-01-01 12:00:00',->INTERVAL CAST(6/4 AS DECIMAL(3,1)) HOUR_MINUTE);-> '1970-01-01 13:05:00'If you add to or subtract from a date value something that contains a time part, the result is automatically converted to a datetime value:
mysql>
SELECT DATE_ADD('2013-01-01', INTERVAL 1 DAY);-> '2013-01-02' mysql>SELECT DATE_ADD('2013-01-01', INTERVAL 1 HOUR);-> '2013-01-01 01:00:00'If you add
MONTH,YEAR_MONTH, orYEARand the resulting date has a day that is larger than the maximum day for the new month, the day is adjusted to the maximum days in the new month:mysql>
SELECT DATE_ADD('2009-01-30', INTERVAL 1 MONTH);-> '2009-02-28'Date arithmetic operations require complete dates and do not work with incomplete dates such as
'2006-07-00'or badly malformed dates:mysql>
SELECT DATE_ADD('2006-07-00', INTERVAL 1 DAY);-> NULL mysql>SELECT '2005-03-32' + INTERVAL 1 MONTH;-> NULLFormats the
datevalue according to theformatstring.The following specifiers may be used in the
formatstring. The “%” character is required before format specifier characters.Specifier Description %aAbbreviated weekday name ( Sun..Sat)%bAbbreviated month name ( Jan..Dec)%cMonth, numeric ( 0..12)%DDay of the month with English suffix ( 0th,1st,2nd,3rd, …)%dDay of the month, numeric ( 00..31)%eDay of the month, numeric ( 0..31)%fMicroseconds ( 000000..999999)%HHour ( 00..23)%hHour ( 01..12)%IHour ( 01..12)%iMinutes, numeric ( 00..59)%jDay of year ( 001..366)%kHour ( 0..23)%lHour ( 1..12)%MMonth name ( January..December)%mMonth, numeric ( 00..12)%pAMorPM%rTime, 12-hour ( hh:mm:ssfollowed byAMorPM)%SSeconds ( 00..59)%sSeconds ( 00..59)%TTime, 24-hour ( hh:mm:ss)%UWeek ( 00..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week%uWeek ( 00..53), where Monday is the first day of the week%VWeek ( 01..53), where Sunday is the first day of the week; used with%X%vWeek ( 01..53), where Monday is the first day of the week; used with%x%WWeekday name ( Sunday..Saturday)%wDay of the week ( 0=Sunday..6=Saturday)%XYear for the week where Sunday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %V%xYear for the week, where Monday is the first day of the week, numeric, four digits; used with %v%YYear, numeric, four digits %yYear, numeric (two digits) %%A literal “ %” character%xx, for any “x” not listed aboveRanges for the month and day specifiers begin with zero due to the fact that MySQL allows the storing of incomplete dates such as
'2014-00-00'.As of MySQL 5.1.12, the language used for day and month names and abbreviations is controlled by the value of the
lc_time_namessystem variable (Section 9.8, “MySQL Server Locale Support”).As of MySQL 5.1.15,
DATE_FORMAT()returns a string with a character set and collation given bycharacter_set_connectionandcollation_connectionso that it can return month and weekday names containing non-ASCII characters. Before 5.1.15, the return value is a binary string.mysql>
SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2009-10-04 22:23:00', '%W %M %Y');-> 'Sunday October 2009' mysql>SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2007-10-04 22:23:00', '%H:%i:%s');-> '22:23:00' mysql>SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1900-10-04 22:23:00',->'%D %y %a %d %m %b %j');-> '4th 00 Thu 04 10 Oct 277' mysql>SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1997-10-04 22:23:00',->'%H %k %I %r %T %S %w');-> '22 22 10 10:23:00 PM 22:23:00 00 6' mysql>SELECT DATE_FORMAT('1999-01-01', '%X %V');-> '1998 52' mysql>SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2006-06-00', '%d');-> '00'DATE_SUB(date,INTERVALexprunit)See the description for
DATE_ADD().DAY()is a synonym forDAYOFMONTH().Returns the name of the weekday for
date. As of MySQL 5.1.12, the language used for the name is controlled by the value of thelc_time_namessystem variable (Section 9.8, “MySQL Server Locale Support”).mysql>
SELECT DAYNAME('2007-02-03');-> 'Saturday'Returns the day of the month for
date, in the range1to31, or0for dates such as'0000-00-00'or'2008-00-00'that have a zero day part.mysql>
SELECT DAYOFMONTH('2007-02-03');-> 3Returns the weekday index for
date(1= Sunday,2= Monday, …,7= Saturday). These index values correspond to the ODBC standard.mysql>
SELECT DAYOFWEEK('2007-02-03');-> 7Returns the day of the year for
date, in the range1to366.mysql>
SELECT DAYOFYEAR('2007-02-03');-> 34The
EXTRACT()function uses the same kinds of unit specifiers asDATE_ADD()orDATE_SUB(), but extracts parts from the date rather than performing date arithmetic.mysql>
SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR FROM '2009-07-02');-> 2009 mysql>SELECT EXTRACT(YEAR_MONTH FROM '2009-07-02 01:02:03');-> 200907 mysql>SELECT EXTRACT(DAY_MINUTE FROM '2009-07-02 01:02:03');-> 20102 mysql>SELECT EXTRACT(MICROSECOND->FROM '2003-01-02 10:30:00.000123');-> 123Given a day number
N, returns aDATEvalue.mysql>
SELECT FROM_DAYS(730669);-> '2007-07-03'Use
FROM_DAYS()with caution on old dates. It is not intended for use with values that precede the advent of the Gregorian calendar (1582). See Section 11.7, “What Calendar Is Used By MySQL?”.FROM_UNIXTIME(,unix_timestamp)FROM_UNIXTIME(unix_timestamp,format)Returns a representation of the
unix_timestampargument as a value in'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'orYYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context. The value is expressed in the current time zone.unix_timestampis an internal timestamp value such as is produced by theUNIX_TIMESTAMP()function.If
formatis given, the result is formatted according to theformatstring, which is used the same way as listed in the entry for theDATE_FORMAT()function.mysql>
SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1196440219);-> '2007-11-30 10:30:19' mysql>SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1196440219) + 0;-> 20071130103019.000000 mysql>SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(UNIX_TIMESTAMP(),->'%Y %D %M %h:%i:%s %x');-> '2007 30th November 10:30:59 2007'Note: If you use
UNIX_TIMESTAMP()andFROM_UNIXTIME()to convert betweenTIMESTAMPvalues and Unix timestamp values, the conversion is lossy because the mapping is not one-to-one in both directions. For details, see the description of theUNIX_TIMESTAMP()function.GET_FORMAT({DATE|TIME|DATETIME}, {'EUR'|'USA'|'JIS'|'ISO'|'INTERNAL'})Returns a format string. This function is useful in combination with the
DATE_FORMAT()and theSTR_TO_DATE()functions.The possible values for the first and second arguments result in several possible format strings (for the specifiers used, see the table in the
DATE_FORMAT()function description). ISO format refers to ISO 9075, not ISO 8601.Function Call Result GET_FORMAT(DATE,'USA')'%m.%d.%Y'GET_FORMAT(DATE,'JIS')'%Y-%m-%d'GET_FORMAT(DATE,'ISO')'%Y-%m-%d'GET_FORMAT(DATE,'EUR')'%d.%m.%Y'GET_FORMAT(DATE,'INTERNAL')'%Y%m%d'GET_FORMAT(DATETIME,'USA')'%Y-%m-%d %H.%i.%s'GET_FORMAT(DATETIME,'JIS')'%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s'GET_FORMAT(DATETIME,'ISO')'%Y-%m-%d %H:%i:%s'GET_FORMAT(DATETIME,'EUR')'%Y-%m-%d %H.%i.%s'GET_FORMAT(DATETIME,'INTERNAL')'%Y%m%d%H%i%s'GET_FORMAT(TIME,'USA')'%h:%i:%s %p'GET_FORMAT(TIME,'JIS')'%H:%i:%s'GET_FORMAT(TIME,'ISO')'%H:%i:%s'GET_FORMAT(TIME,'EUR')'%H.%i.%s'GET_FORMAT(TIME,'INTERNAL')'%H%i%s'TIMESTAMPcan also be used as the first argument toGET_FORMAT(), in which case the function returns the same values as forDATETIME.mysql>
SELECT DATE_FORMAT('2003-10-03',GET_FORMAT(DATE,'EUR'));-> '03.10.2003' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('10.31.2003',GET_FORMAT(DATE,'USA'));-> '2003-10-31'Returns the hour for
time. The range of the return value is0to23for time-of-day values. However, the range ofTIMEvalues actually is much larger, soHOURcan return values greater than23.mysql>
SELECT HOUR('10:05:03');-> 10 mysql>SELECT HOUR('272:59:59');-> 272Takes a date or datetime value and returns the corresponding value for the last day of the month. Returns
NULLif the argument is invalid.mysql>
SELECT LAST_DAY('2003-02-05');-> '2003-02-28' mysql>SELECT LAST_DAY('2004-02-05');-> '2004-02-29' mysql>SELECT LAST_DAY('2004-01-01 01:01:01');-> '2004-01-31' mysql>SELECT LAST_DAY('2003-03-32');-> NULLLOCALTIMEandLOCALTIME()are synonyms forNOW().LOCALTIMESTAMP,LOCALTIMESTAMP()LOCALTIMESTAMPandLOCALTIMESTAMP()are synonyms forNOW().Returns a date, given year and day-of-year values.
dayofyearmust be greater than 0 or the result isNULL.mysql>
SELECT MAKEDATE(2011,31), MAKEDATE(2011,32);-> '2011-01-31', '2011-02-01' mysql>SELECT MAKEDATE(2011,365), MAKEDATE(2014,365);-> '2011-12-31', '2014-12-31' mysql>SELECT MAKEDATE(2011,0);-> NULLReturns a time value calculated from the
hour,minute, andsecondarguments.mysql>
SELECT MAKETIME(12,15,30);-> '12:15:30'Returns the microseconds from the time or datetime expression
expras a number in the range from0to999999.mysql>
SELECT MICROSECOND('12:00:00.123456');-> 123456 mysql>SELECT MICROSECOND('2009-12-31 23:59:59.000010');-> 10Returns the minute for
time, in the range0to59.mysql>
SELECT MINUTE('2008-02-03 10:05:03');-> 5Returns the month for
date, in the range1to12for January to December, or0for dates such as'0000-00-00'or'2008-00-00'that have a zero month part.mysql>
SELECT MONTH('2008-02-03');-> 2Returns the full name of the month for
date. As of MySQL 5.1.12, the language used for the name is controlled by the value of thelc_time_namessystem variable (Section 9.8, “MySQL Server Locale Support”).mysql>
SELECT MONTHNAME('2008-02-03');-> 'February'Returns the current date and time as a value in
'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'orYYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context. The value is expressed in the current time zone.mysql>
SELECT NOW();-> '2007-12-15 23:50:26' mysql>SELECT NOW() + 0;-> 20071215235026.000000NOW()returns a constant time that indicates the time at which the statement began to execute. (Within a stored function or trigger,NOW()returns the time at which the function or triggering statement began to execute.) This differs from the behavior forSYSDATE(), which returns the exact time at which it executes.mysql>
SELECT NOW(), SLEEP(2), NOW();+---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | NOW() | SLEEP(2) | NOW() | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | 2006-04-12 13:47:36 | 0 | 2006-04-12 13:47:36 | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ mysql>SELECT SYSDATE(), SLEEP(2), SYSDATE();+---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | SYSDATE() | SLEEP(2) | SYSDATE() | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | 2006-04-12 13:47:44 | 0 | 2006-04-12 13:47:46 | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+In addition, the
SET TIMESTAMPstatement affects the value returned byNOW()but not bySYSDATE(). This means that timestamp settings in the binary log have no effect on invocations ofSYSDATE().See the description for
SYSDATE()for additional information about the differences between the two functions.Adds
Nmonths to periodP(in the formatYYMMorYYYYMM). Returns a value in the formatYYYYMM. Note that the period argumentPis not a date value.mysql>
SELECT PERIOD_ADD(200801,2);-> 200803Returns the number of months between periods
P1andP2.P1andP2should be in the formatYYMMorYYYYMM. Note that the period argumentsP1andP2are not date values.mysql>
SELECT PERIOD_DIFF(200802,200703);-> 11Returns the quarter of the year for
date, in the range1to4.mysql>
SELECT QUARTER('2008-04-01');-> 2Returns the second for
time, in the range0to59.mysql>
SELECT SECOND('10:05:03');-> 3Returns the
secondsargument, converted to hours, minutes, and seconds, as aTIMEvalue. The range of the result is constrained to that of theTIMEdata type. A warning occurs if the argument corresponds to a value outside that range.mysql>
SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(2378);-> '00:39:38' mysql>SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(2378) + 0;-> 3938This is the inverse of the
DATE_FORMAT()function. It takes a stringstrand a format stringformat.STR_TO_DATE()returns aDATETIMEvalue if the format string contains both date and time parts, or aDATEorTIMEvalue if the string contains only date or time parts. If the date, time, or datetime value extracted fromstris illegal,STR_TO_DATE()returnsNULLand produces a warning.The server scans
strattempting to matchformatto it. The format string can contain literal characters and format specifiers beginning with%. Literal characters informatmust match literally instr. Format specifiers informatmust match a date or time part instr. For the specifiers that can be used informat, see theDATE_FORMAT()function description.mysql>
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('01,5,2013','%d,%m,%Y');-> '2013-05-01' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('May 1, 2013','%M %d,%Y');-> '2013-05-01'Scanning starts at the beginning of
strand fails ifformatis found not to match. Extra characters at the end ofstrare ignored.mysql>
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('a09:30:17','a%h:%i:%s');-> '09:30:17' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('a09:30:17','%h:%i:%s');-> NULL mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('09:30:17a','%h:%i:%s');-> '09:30:17'Unspecified date or time parts have a value of 0, so incompletely specified values in
strproduce a result with some or all parts set to 0:mysql>
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('abc','abc');-> '0000-00-00' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('9','%m');-> '0000-09-00' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('9','%s');-> '00:00:09'Range checking on the parts of date values is as described in Section 10.3.1, “The
DATETIME,DATE, andTIMESTAMPTypes”. This means, for example, that “zero” dates or dates with part values of 0 are allowed unless the SQL mode is set to disallow such values.mysql>
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('00/00/0000', '%m/%d/%Y');-> '0000-00-00' mysql>SELECT STR_TO_DATE('04/31/2004', '%m/%d/%Y');-> '2004-04-31'Note
You cannot use format
"%X%V"to convert a year-week string to a date because the combination of a year and week does not uniquely identify a year and month if the week crosses a month boundary. To convert a year-week to a date, then you should also specify the weekday:mysql>
SELECT STR_TO_DATE('200442 Monday', '%X%V %W');-> '2004-10-18'SUBDATE(,date,INTERVALexprunit)SUBDATE(expr,days)When invoked with the
INTERVALform of the second argument,SUBDATE()is a synonym forDATE_SUB(). For information on theINTERVALunitargument, see the discussion forDATE_ADD().mysql>
SELECT DATE_SUB('2008-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);-> '2007-12-02' mysql>SELECT SUBDATE('2008-01-02', INTERVAL 31 DAY);-> '2007-12-02'The second form allows the use of an integer value for
days. In such cases, it is interpreted as the number of days to be subtracted from the date or datetime expressionexpr.mysql>
SELECT SUBDATE('2008-01-02 12:00:00', 31);-> '2007-12-02 12:00:00'SUBTIME()returnsexpr1–expr2expressed as a value in the same format asexpr1.expr1is a time or datetime expression, andexpr2is a time expression.mysql>
SELECT SUBTIME('2007-12-31 23:59:59.999999','1 1:1:1.000002');-> '2007-12-30 22:58:58.999997' mysql>SELECT SUBTIME('01:00:00.999999', '02:00:00.999998');-> '-00:59:59.999999'Returns the current date and time as a value in
'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'orYYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.SYSDATE()returns the time at which it executes. This differs from the behavior forNOW(), which returns a constant time that indicates the time at which the statement began to execute. (Within a stored function or trigger,NOW()returns the time at which the function or triggering statement began to execute.)mysql>
SELECT NOW(), SLEEP(2), NOW();+---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | NOW() | SLEEP(2) | NOW() | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | 2006-04-12 13:47:36 | 0 | 2006-04-12 13:47:36 | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ mysql>SELECT SYSDATE(), SLEEP(2), SYSDATE();+---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | SYSDATE() | SLEEP(2) | SYSDATE() | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+ | 2006-04-12 13:47:44 | 0 | 2006-04-12 13:47:46 | +---------------------+----------+---------------------+In addition, the
SET TIMESTAMPstatement affects the value returned byNOW()but not bySYSDATE(). This means that timestamp settings in the binary log have no effect on invocations ofSYSDATE().Because
SYSDATE()can return different values even within the same statement, and is not affected bySET TIMESTAMP, it is nondeterministic and therefore unsafe for replication if statement-based binary logging is used. If that is a problem, you can use row-based logging, or start the server with the--sysdate-is-nowoption to causeSYSDATE()to be an alias forNOW(). The nondeterministic nature ofSYSDATE()also means that indexes cannot be used for evaluating expressions that refer to it.Extracts the time part of the time or datetime expression
exprand returns it as a string.mysql>
SELECT TIME('2003-12-31 01:02:03');-> '01:02:03' mysql>SELECT TIME('2003-12-31 01:02:03.000123');-> '01:02:03.000123'TIMEDIFF()returnsexpr1–expr2expressed as a time value.expr1andexpr2are time or date-and-time expressions, but both must be of the same type.mysql>
SELECT TIMEDIFF('2000:01:01 00:00:00',->'2000:01:01 00:00:00.000001');-> '-00:00:00.000001' mysql>SELECT TIMEDIFF('2008-12-31 23:59:59.000001',->'2008-12-30 01:01:01.000002');-> '46:58:57.999999'TIMESTAMP(,expr)TIMESTAMP(expr1,expr2)With a single argument, this function returns the date or datetime expression
expras a datetime value. With two arguments, it adds the time expressionexpr2to the date or datetime expressionexpr1and returns the result as a datetime value.mysql>
SELECT TIMESTAMP('2003-12-31');-> '2003-12-31 00:00:00' mysql>SELECT TIMESTAMP('2003-12-31 12:00:00','12:00:00');-> '2004-01-01 00:00:00'TIMESTAMPADD(unit,interval,datetime_expr)Adds the integer expression
intervalto the date or datetime expressiondatetime_expr. The unit forintervalis given by theunitargument, which should be one of the following values:FRAC_SECOND(microseconds),SECOND,MINUTE,HOUR,DAY,WEEK,MONTH,QUARTER, orYEAR.Beginning with MySQL 5.1.24, it is possible to use
MICROSECONDin place ofFRAC_SECONDwith this function, andFRAC_SECONDis deprecated.The
unitvalue may be specified using one of keywords as shown, or with a prefix ofSQL_TSI_. For example,DAYandSQL_TSI_DAYboth are legal.mysql>
SELECT TIMESTAMPADD(MINUTE,1,'2003-01-02');-> '2003-01-02 00:01:00' mysql>SELECT TIMESTAMPADD(WEEK,1,'2003-01-02');-> '2003-01-09'TIMESTAMPDIFF(unit,datetime_expr1,datetime_expr2)Returns
, wheredatetime_expr2–datetime_expr1datetime_expr1anddatetime_expr2are date or datetime expressions. One expression may be a date and the other a datetime; a date value is treated as a datetime having the time part'00:00:00'where necessary. The unit for the result (an integer) is given by theunitargument. The legal values forunitare the same as those listed in the description of theTIMESTAMPADD()function.mysql>
SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(MONTH,'2003-02-01','2003-05-01');-> 3 mysql>SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(YEAR,'2002-05-01','2001-01-01');-> -1 mysql>SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(MINUTE,'2003-02-01','2003-05-01 12:05:55');-> 128885Note
The order of the date or datetime arguments for this function is the opposite of that used with the
TIMESTAMP()function when invoked with 2 arguments.This is used like the
DATE_FORMAT()function, but theformatstring may contain format specifiers only for hours, minutes, seconds, and microseconds. Other specifiers produce aNULLvalue or0.If the
timevalue contains an hour part that is greater than23, the%Hand%khour format specifiers produce a value larger than the usual range of0..23. The other hour format specifiers produce the hour value modulo 12.mysql>
SELECT TIME_FORMAT('100:00:00', '%H %k %h %I %l');-> '100 100 04 04 4'Returns the
timeargument, converted to seconds.mysql>
SELECT TIME_TO_SEC('22:23:00');-> 80580 mysql>SELECT TIME_TO_SEC('00:39:38');-> 2378Given a date
date, returns a day number (the number of days since year 0).mysql>
SELECT TO_DAYS(950501);-> 728779 mysql>SELECT TO_DAYS('2007-10-07');-> 733321TO_DAYS()is not intended for use with values that precede the advent of the Gregorian calendar (1582), because it does not take into account the days that were lost when the calendar was changed. For dates before 1582 (and possibly a later year in other locales), results from this function are not reliable. See Section 11.7, “What Calendar Is Used By MySQL?”, for details.Remember that MySQL converts two-digit year values in dates to four-digit form using the rules in Section 10.3, “Date and Time Types”. For example,
'2008-10-07'and'08-10-07'are seen as identical dates:mysql>
SELECT TO_DAYS('2008-10-07'), TO_DAYS('08-10-07');-> 733687, 733687UNIX_TIMESTAMP(),UNIX_TIMESTAMP(date)If called with no argument, returns a Unix timestamp (seconds since
'1970-01-01 00:00:00'UTC) as an unsigned integer. IfUNIX_TIMESTAMP()is called with adateargument, it returns the value of the argument as seconds since'1970-01-01 00:00:00'UTC.datemay be aDATEstring, aDATETIMEstring, aTIMESTAMP, or a number in the formatYYMMDDorYYYYMMDD. The server interpretsdateas a value in the current time zone and converts it to an internal value in UTC. Clients can set their time zone as described in Section 9.7, “MySQL Server Time Zone Support”.mysql>
SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP();-> 1196440210 mysql>SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2007-11-30 10:30:19');-> 1196440219When
UNIX_TIMESTAMP()is used on aTIMESTAMPcolumn, the function returns the internal timestamp value directly, with no implicit “string-to-Unix-timestamp” conversion. If you pass an out-of-range date toUNIX_TIMESTAMP(), it returns0.Note: If you use
UNIX_TIMESTAMP()andFROM_UNIXTIME()to convert betweenTIMESTAMPvalues and Unix timestamp values, the conversion is lossy because the mapping is not one-to-one in both directions. For example, due to conventions for local time zone changes, it is possible for twoUNIX_TIMESTAMP()to map twoTIMESTAMPvalues to the same Unix timestamp value.FROM_UNIXTIME()will map that value back to only one of the originalTIMESTAMPvalues. Here is an example, usingTIMESTAMPvalues in theCETtime zone:mysql>
SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 03:00:00');+---------------------------------------+ | UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 03:00:00') | +---------------------------------------+ | 1111885200 | +---------------------------------------+ mysql>SELECT UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 02:00:00');+---------------------------------------+ | UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2005-03-27 02:00:00') | +---------------------------------------+ | 1111885200 | +---------------------------------------+ mysql>SELECT FROM_UNIXTIME(1111885200);+---------------------------+ | FROM_UNIXTIME(1111885200) | +---------------------------+ | 2005-03-27 03:00:00 | +---------------------------+If you want to subtract
UNIX_TIMESTAMP()columns, you might want to cast the result to signed integers. See Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.Returns the current UTC date as a value in
'YYYY-MM-DD'orYYYYMMDDformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.mysql>
SELECT UTC_DATE(), UTC_DATE() + 0;-> '2003-08-14', 20030814Returns the current UTC time as a value in
'HH:MM:SS'orHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.mysql>
SELECT UTC_TIME(), UTC_TIME() + 0;-> '18:07:53', 180753.000000UTC_TIMESTAMP,UTC_TIMESTAMP()Returns the current UTC date and time as a value in
'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'orYYYYMMDDHHMMSS.uuuuuuformat, depending on whether the function is used in a string or numeric context.mysql>
SELECT UTC_TIMESTAMP(), UTC_TIMESTAMP() + 0;-> '2003-08-14 18:08:04', 20030814180804.000000This function returns the week number for
date. The two-argument form ofWEEK()allows you to specify whether the week starts on Sunday or Monday and whether the return value should be in the range from0to53or from1to53. If themodeargument is omitted, the value of thedefault_week_formatsystem variable is used. See Section 5.1.4, “Server System Variables”.The following table describes how the
modeargument works.Mode First day of week Range Week 1 is the first week … 0 Sunday 0-53 with a Sunday in this year 1 Monday 0-53 with more than 3 days this year 2 Sunday 1-53 with a Sunday in this year 3 Monday 1-53 with more than 3 days this year 4 Sunday 0-53 with more than 3 days this year 5 Monday 0-53 with a Monday in this year 6 Sunday 1-53 with more than 3 days this year 7 Monday 1-53 with a Monday in this year mysql>
SELECT WEEK('2008-02-20');-> 7 mysql>SELECT WEEK('2008-02-20',0);-> 7 mysql>SELECT WEEK('2008-02-20',1);-> 8 mysql>SELECT WEEK('2008-12-31',1);-> 53Note that if a date falls in the last week of the previous year, MySQL returns
0if you do not use2,3,6, or7as the optionalmodeargument:mysql>
SELECT YEAR('2000-01-01'), WEEK('2000-01-01',0);-> 2000, 0One might argue that MySQL should return
52for theWEEK()function, because the given date actually occurs in the 52nd week of 1999. We decided to return0instead because we want the function to return “the week number in the given year.” This makes use of theWEEK()function reliable when combined with other functions that extract a date part from a date.If you would prefer the result to be evaluated with respect to the year that contains the first day of the week for the given date, use
0,2,5, or7as the optionalmodeargument.mysql>
SELECT WEEK('2000-01-01',2);-> 52Alternatively, use the
YEARWEEK()function:mysql>
SELECT YEARWEEK('2000-01-01');-> 199952 mysql>SELECT MID(YEARWEEK('2000-01-01'),5,2);-> '52'Returns the weekday index for
date(0= Monday,1= Tuesday, …6= Sunday).mysql>
SELECT WEEKDAY('2008-02-03 22:23:00');-> 6 mysql>SELECT WEEKDAY('2007-11-06');-> 1Returns the calendar week of the date as a number in the range from
1to53.WEEKOFYEAR()is a compatibility function that is equivalent toWEEK(.date,3)mysql>
SELECT WEEKOFYEAR('2008-02-20');-> 8Returns the year for
date, in the range1000to9999, or0for the “zero” date.mysql>
SELECT YEAR('1987-01-01');-> 1987YEARWEEK(,date)YEARWEEK(date,mode)Returns year and week for a date. The
modeargument works exactly like themodeargument toWEEK(). The year in the result may be different from the year in the date argument for the first and the last week of the year.mysql>
SELECT YEARWEEK('1987-01-01');-> 198653Note that the week number is different from what the
WEEK()function would return (0) for optional arguments0or1, asWEEK()then returns the week in the context of the given year.
MySQL uses what is known as a proleptic Gregorian calendar.
Every country that has switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar has had to discard at least ten days during the switch. To see how this works, consider the month of October 1582, when the first Julian-to-Gregorian switch occurred.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
There are no dates between October 4 and October 15. This discontinuity is called the cutover. Any dates before the cutover are Julian, and any dates following the cutover are Gregorian. Dates during a cutover are nonexistent.
A calendar applied to dates when it wasn't actually in use is
called proleptic. Thus, if we assume there
was never a cutover and Gregorian rules always rule, we have a
proleptic Gregorian calendar. This is what is used by MySQL, as is
required by standard SQL. For this reason, dates prior to the
cutover stored as MySQL DATE or
DATETIME values must be adjusted to
compensate for the difference. It is important to realize that the
cutover did not occur at the same time in all countries, and that
the later it happened, the more days were lost. For example, in
Great Britain, it took place in 1752, when Wednesday September 2
was followed by Thursday September 14. Russia remained on the
Julian calendar until 1918, losing 13 days in the process, and
what is popularly referred to as its “October
Revolution” occurred in November according to the Gregorian
calendar.
MATCH
(
col1,col2,...)
AGAINST (expr
[search_modifier])
search_modifier:
{
IN BOOLEAN MODE
| IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE
| IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE WITH QUERY EXPANSION
| WITH QUERY EXPANSION
}
MySQL has support for full-text indexing and searching:
A full-text index in MySQL is an index of type
FULLTEXT.Full-text indexes can be used only with
MyISAMtables, and can be created only forCHAR,VARCHAR, orTEXTcolumns.A
FULLTEXTindex definition can be given in theCREATE TABLEstatement when a table is created, or added later usingALTER TABLEorCREATE INDEX.For large data sets, it is much faster to load your data into a table that has no
FULLTEXTindex and then create the index after that, than to load data into a table that has an existingFULLTEXTindex.
Full-text searching is performed using
MATCH() ... AGAINST syntax.
MATCH() takes a comma-separated
list that names the columns to be searched.
AGAINST takes a string to search for, and an
optional modifier that indicates what type of search to perform.
The search string must be a literal string, not a variable or a
column name. There are three types of full-text searches:
A boolean search interprets the search string using the rules of a special query language. The string contains the words to search for. It can also contain operators that specify requirements such that a word must be present or absent in matching rows, or that it should be weighted higher or lower than usual. Common words such as “some” or “then” are stopwords and do not match if present in the search string. The
IN BOOLEAN MODEmodifier specifies a boolean search. For more information, see Section 11.8.2, “Boolean Full-Text Searches”.A natural language search interprets the search string as a phrase in natural human language (a phrase in free text). There are no special operators. The stopword list applies. In addition, words that are present in 50% or more of the rows are considered common and do not match. Full-text searches are natural language searches if the
IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODEmodifier is given or if no modifier is given.A query expansion search is a modification of a natural language search. The search string is used to perform a natural language search. Then words from the most relevant rows returned by the search are added to the search string and the search is done again. The query returns the rows from the second search. The
IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE WITH QUERY EXPANSIONorWITH QUERY EXPANSIONmodifier specifies a query expansion search. For more information, see Section 11.8.3, “Full-Text Searches with Query Expansion”.
The IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE and IN
NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE WITH QUERY EXPANSION modifiers
were added in MySQL 5.1.7.
Constraints on full-text searching are listed in Section 11.8.5, “Full-Text Restrictions”.
By default or with the IN NATURAL LANGUAGE
MODE modifier, the
MATCH() function performs a
natural language search for a string against a text
collection. A collection is a set of one or more
columns included in a FULLTEXT index. The
search string is given as the argument to
AGAINST(). For each row in the table,
MATCH() returns a relevance
value; that is, a similarity measure between the search string
and the text in that row in the columns named in the
MATCH() list.
mysql>CREATE TABLE articles (->id INT UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,->title VARCHAR(200),->body TEXT,->FULLTEXT (title,body)->);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO articles (title,body) VALUES->('MySQL Tutorial','DBMS stands for DataBase ...'),->('How To Use MySQL Well','After you went through a ...'),->('Optimizing MySQL','In this tutorial we will show ...'),->('1001 MySQL Tricks','1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ...'),->('MySQL vs. YourSQL','In the following database comparison ...'),->('MySQL Security','When configured properly, MySQL ...');Query OK, 6 rows affected (0.00 sec) Records: 6 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>SELECT * FROM articles->WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('database' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | id | title | body | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | 5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... | | 1 | MySQL Tutorial | DBMS stands for DataBase ... | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
By default, the search is performed in case-insensitive fashion.
However, you can perform a case-sensitive full-text search by
using a binary collation for the indexed columns. For example, a
column that uses the latin1 character set of
can be assigned a collation of latin1_bin to
make it case sensitive for full-text searches.
When MATCH() is used in a
WHERE clause, as in the example shown
earlier, the rows returned are automatically sorted with the
highest relevance first. Relevance values are nonnegative
floating-point numbers. Zero relevance means no similarity.
Relevance is computed based on the number of words in the row,
the number of unique words in that row, the total number of
words in the collection, and the number of documents (rows) that
contain a particular word.
To simply count matches, you could use a query like this:
mysql>SELECT COUNT(*) FROM articles->WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('database' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);+----------+ | COUNT(*) | +----------+ | 2 | +----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
However, you might find it quicker to rewrite the query as follows:
mysql>SELECT->COUNT(IF(MATCH (title,body) AGAINST ('database' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE), 1, NULL))->AS count->FROM articles;+-------+ | count | +-------+ | 2 | +-------+ 1 row in set (0.03 sec)
The first query sorts the results by relevance whereas the second does not. However, the second query performs a full table scan and the first does not. The first may be faster if the search matches few rows; otherwise, the second may be faster because it would read many rows anyway.
For natural-language full-text searches, it is a requirement
that the columns named in the
MATCH() function be the same
columns included in some FULLTEXT index in
your table. For the preceding query, note that the columns named
in the MATCH() function
(title and body) are the
same as those named in the definition of the
article table's FULLTEXT
index. If you wanted to search the title or
body separately, you would need to create
separate FULLTEXT indexes for each column.
It is also possible to perform a boolean search or a search with query expansion. These search types are described in Section 11.8.2, “Boolean Full-Text Searches”, and Section 11.8.3, “Full-Text Searches with Query Expansion”.
A full-text search that uses an index can name columns only from
a single table in the MATCH()
clause because an index cannot span multiple tables. A boolean
search can be done in the absence of an index (albeit more
slowly), in which case it is possible to name columns from
multiple tables.
The preceding example is a basic illustration that shows how to
use the MATCH() function where
rows are returned in order of decreasing relevance. The next
example shows how to retrieve the relevance values explicitly.
Returned rows are not ordered because the
SELECT statement includes neither
WHERE nor ORDER BY
clauses:
mysql>SELECT id, MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('Tutorial' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE) AS score->FROM articles;+----+------------------+ | id | score | +----+------------------+ | 1 | 0.65545833110809 | | 2 | 0 | | 3 | 0.66266459226608 | | 4 | 0 | | 5 | 0 | | 6 | 0 | +----+------------------+ 6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The following example is more complex. The query returns the
relevance values and it also sorts the rows in order of
decreasing relevance. To achieve this result, you should specify
MATCH() twice: once in the
SELECT list and once in the
WHERE clause. This causes no additional
overhead, because the MySQL optimizer notices that the two
MATCH() calls are identical and
invokes the full-text search code only once.
mysql>SELECT id, body, MATCH (title,body) AGAINST->('Security implications of running MySQL as root'->IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE) AS score->FROM articles WHERE MATCH (title,body) AGAINST->('Security implications of running MySQL as root'->IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);+----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+ | id | body | score | +----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+ | 4 | 1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ... | 1.5219271183014 | | 6 | When configured properly, MySQL ... | 1.3114095926285 | +----+-------------------------------------+-----------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The MySQL FULLTEXT implementation regards any
sequence of true word characters (letters, digits, and
underscores) as a word. That sequence may also contain
apostrophes (“'”), but not more
than one in a row. This means that aaa'bbb is
regarded as one word, but aaa''bbb is
regarded as two words. Apostrophes at the beginning or the end
of a word are stripped by the FULLTEXT
parser; 'aaa'bbb' would be parsed as
aaa'bbb.
The FULLTEXT parser determines where words
start and end by looking for certain delimiter characters; for
example, “ ” (space),
“,” (comma), and
“.” (period). If words are not
separated by delimiters (as in, for example, Chinese), the
FULLTEXT parser cannot determine where a word
begins or ends. To be able to add words or other indexed terms
in such languages to a FULLTEXT index, you
must preprocess them so that they are separated by some
arbitrary delimiter such as “"”.
In MySQL 5.1, it is possible to write a plugin that
replaces the built-in full-text parser. For details, see
Section 21.2, “The MySQL Plugin Interface”. For example parser plugin source
code, see the plugin/fulltext directory of
a MySQL source distribution.
Some words are ignored in full-text searches:
Any word that is too short is ignored. The default minimum length of words that are found by full-text searches is four characters.
Words in the stopword list are ignored. A stopword is a word such as “the” or “some” that is so common that it is considered to have zero semantic value. There is a built-in stopword list, but it can be overwritten by a user-defined list.
The default stopword list is given in Section 11.8.4, “Full-Text Stopwords”. The default minimum word length and stopword list can be changed as described in Section 11.8.6, “Fine-Tuning MySQL Full-Text Search”.
Every correct word in the collection and in the query is weighted according to its significance in the collection or query. Consequently, a word that is present in many documents has a lower weight (and may even have a zero weight), because it has lower semantic value in this particular collection. Conversely, if the word is rare, it receives a higher weight. The weights of the words are combined to compute the relevance of the row.
Such a technique works best with large collections (in fact, it
was carefully tuned this way). For very small tables, word
distribution does not adequately reflect their semantic value,
and this model may sometimes produce bizarre results. For
example, although the word “MySQL” is present in
every row of the articles table shown
earlier, a search for the word produces no results:
mysql>SELECT * FROM articles->WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('MySQL' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);Empty set (0.00 sec)
The search result is empty because the word “MySQL” is present in at least 50% of the rows. As such, it is effectively treated as a stopword. For large data sets, this is the most desirable behavior: A natural language query should not return every second row from a 1GB table. For small data sets, it may be less desirable.
A word that matches half of the rows in a table is less likely to locate relevant documents. In fact, it most likely finds plenty of irrelevant documents. We all know this happens far too often when we are trying to find something on the Internet with a search engine. It is with this reasoning that rows containing the word are assigned a low semantic value for the particular data set in which they occur. A given word may reach the 50% threshold in one data set but not another.
The 50% threshold has a significant implication when you first try full-text searching to see how it works: If you create a table and insert only one or two rows of text into it, every word in the text occurs in at least 50% of the rows. As a result, no search returns any results. Be sure to insert at least three rows, and preferably many more. Users who need to bypass the 50% limitation can use the boolean search mode; see Section 11.8.2, “Boolean Full-Text Searches”.
MySQL can perform boolean full-text searches using the
IN BOOLEAN MODE modifier:
mysql>SELECT * FROM articles WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('+MySQL -YourSQL' IN BOOLEAN MODE);+----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+ | id | title | body | +----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+ | 1 | MySQL Tutorial | DBMS stands for DataBase ... | | 2 | How To Use MySQL Well | After you went through a ... | | 3 | Optimizing MySQL | In this tutorial we will show ... | | 4 | 1001 MySQL Tricks | 1. Never run mysqld as root. 2. ... | | 6 | MySQL Security | When configured properly, MySQL ... | +----+-----------------------+-------------------------------------+
The + and - operators
indicate that a word is required to be present or absent,
respectively, for a match to occur. Thus, this query retrieves
all the rows that contain the word “MySQL” but that
do not contain the word
“YourSQL”.
Note
In implementing this feature, MySQL uses what is sometimes referred to as implied Boolean logic, in which
+stands forAND-stands forNOT[no operator] implies
OR
Boolean full-text searches have these characteristics:
They do not use the 50% threshold.
They do not automatically sort rows in order of decreasing relevance. You can see this from the preceding query result: The row with the highest relevance is the one that contains “MySQL” twice, but it is listed last, not first.
They can work even without a
FULLTEXTindex, although a search executed in this fashion would be quite slow.The minimum and maximum word length full-text parameters apply.
The stopword list applies.
The boolean full-text search capability supports the following operators:
+A leading plus sign indicates that this word must be present in each row that is returned.
-A leading minus sign indicates that this word must not be present in any of the rows that are returned.
Note: The
-operator acts only to exclude rows that are otherwise matched by other search terms. Thus, a boolean-mode search that contains only terms preceded by-returns an empty result. It does not return “all rows except those containing any of the excluded terms.”(no operator)
By default (when neither
+nor-is specified) the word is optional, but the rows that contain it are rated higher. This mimics the behavior ofMATCH() ... AGAINST()without theIN BOOLEAN MODEmodifier.> <These two operators are used to change a word's contribution to the relevance value that is assigned to a row. The
>operator increases the contribution and the<operator decreases it. See the example following this list.( )Parentheses group words into subexpressions. Parenthesized groups can be nested.
~A leading tilde acts as a negation operator, causing the word's contribution to the row's relevance to be negative. This is useful for marking “noise” words. A row containing such a word is rated lower than others, but is not excluded altogether, as it would be with the
-operator.*The asterisk serves as the truncation (or wildcard) operator. Unlike the other operators, it should be appended to the word to be affected. Words match if they begin with the word preceding the
*operator.If a stopword or too-short word is specified with the truncation operator, it will not be stripped from a boolean query. For example, a search for
'+word +stopword*'will likely return fewer rows than a search for'+word +stopword'because the former query remains as is and requiresstopword*to be present in a document. The latter query is transformed to+word."A phrase that is enclosed within double quote (“
"”) characters matches only rows that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed. The full-text engine splits the phrase into words, performs a search in theFULLTEXTindex for the words. Nonword characters need not be matched exactly: Phrase searching requires only that matches contain exactly the same words as the phrase and in the same order. For example,"test phrase"matches"test, phrase".If the phrase contains no words that are in the index, the result is empty. For example, if all words are either stopwords or shorter than the minimum length of indexed words, the result is empty.
The following examples demonstrate some search strings that use boolean full-text operators:
'apple banana'Find rows that contain at least one of the two words.
'+apple +juice'Find rows that contain both words.
'+apple macintosh'Find rows that contain the word “apple”, but rank rows higher if they also contain “macintosh”.
'+apple -macintosh'Find rows that contain the word “apple” but not “macintosh”.
'+apple ~macintosh'Find rows that contain the word “apple”, but if the row also contains the word “macintosh”, rate it lower than if row does not. This is “softer” than a search for
'+apple -macintosh', for which the presence of “macintosh” causes the row not to be returned at all.'+apple +(>turnover <strudel)'Find rows that contain the words “apple” and “turnover”, or “apple” and “strudel” (in any order), but rank “apple turnover” higher than “apple strudel”.
'apple*'Find rows that contain words such as “apple”, “apples”, “applesauce”, or “applet”.
'"some words"'Find rows that contain the exact phrase “some words” (for example, rows that contain “some words of wisdom” but not “some noise words”). Note that the “
"” characters that enclose the phrase are operator characters that delimit the phrase. They are not the quotes that enclose the search string itself.
Full-text search supports query expansion (and in particular, its variant “blind query expansion”). This is generally useful when a search phrase is too short, which often means that the user is relying on implied knowledge that the full-text search engine lacks. For example, a user searching for “database” may really mean that “MySQL”, “Oracle”, “DB2”, and “RDBMS” all are phrases that should match “databases” and should be returned, too. This is implied knowledge.
Blind query expansion (also known as automatic relevance
feedback) is enabled by adding WITH QUERY
EXPANSION or IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE WITH
QUERY EXPANSION following the search phrase. It works
by performing the search twice, where the search phrase for the
second search is the original search phrase concatenated with
the few most highly relevant documents from the first search.
Thus, if one of these documents contains the word
“databases” and the word “MySQL”, the
second search finds the documents that contain the word
“MySQL” even if they do not contain the word
“database”. The following example shows this
difference:
mysql>SELECT * FROM articles->WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('database' IN NATURAL LANGUAGE MODE);+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | id | title | body | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | 5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... | | 1 | MySQL Tutorial | DBMS stands for DataBase ... | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT * FROM articles->WHERE MATCH (title,body)->AGAINST ('database' WITH QUERY EXPANSION);+----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | id | title | body | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ | 1 | MySQL Tutorial | DBMS stands for DataBase ... | | 5 | MySQL vs. YourSQL | In the following database comparison ... | | 3 | Optimizing MySQL | In this tutorial we will show ... | +----+-------------------+------------------------------------------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Another example could be searching for books by Georges Simenon about Maigret, when a user is not sure how to spell “Maigret”. A search for “Megre and the reluctant witnesses” finds only “Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses” without query expansion. A search with query expansion finds all books with the word “Maigret” on the second pass.
Note
Because blind query expansion tends to increase noise significantly by returning nonrelevant documents, it is meaningful to use only when a search phrase is rather short.
The following table shows the default list of full-text stopwords.
| a's | able | about | above | according |
| accordingly | across | actually | after | afterwards |
| again | against | ain't | all | allow |
| allows | almost | alone | along | already |
| also | although | always | am | among |
| amongst | an | and | another | any |
| anybody | anyhow | anyone | anything | anyway |
| anyways | anywhere | apart | appear | appreciate |
| appropriate | are | aren't | around | as |
| aside | ask | asking | associated | at |
| available | away | awfully | be | became |
| because | become | becomes | becoming | been |
| before | beforehand | behind | being | believe |
| below | beside | besides | best | better |
| between | beyond | both | brief | but |
| by | c'mon | c's | came | can |
| can't | cannot | cant | cause | causes |
| certain | certainly | changes | clearly | co |
| com | come | comes | concerning | consequently |
| consider | considering | contain | containing | contains |
| corresponding | could | couldn't | course | currently |
| definitely | described | despite | did | didn't |
| different | do | does | doesn't | doing |
| don't | done | down | downwards | during |
| each | edu | eg | eight | either |
| else | elsewhere | enough | entirely | especially |
| et | etc | even | ever | every |
| everybody | everyone | everything | everywhere | ex |
| exactly | example | except | far | few |
| fifth | first | five | followed | following |
| follows | for | former | formerly | forth |
| four | from | further | furthermore | get |
| gets | getting | given | gives | go |
| goes | going | gone | got | gotten |
| greetings | had | hadn't | happens | hardly |
| has | hasn't | have | haven't | having |
| he | he's | hello | help | hence |
| her | here | here's | hereafter | hereby |
| herein | hereupon | hers | herself | hi |
| him | himself | his | hither | hopefully |
| how | howbeit | however | i'd | i'll |
| i'm | i've | ie | if | ignored |
| immediate | in | inasmuch | inc | indeed |
| indicate | indicated | indicates | inner | insofar |
| instead | into | inward | is | isn't |
| it | it'd | it'll | it's | its |
| itself | just | keep | keeps | kept |
| know | knows | known | last | lately |
| later | latter | latterly | least | less |
| lest | let | let's | like | liked |
| likely | little | look | looking | looks |
| ltd | mainly | many | may | maybe |
| me | mean | meanwhile | merely | might |
| more | moreover | most | mostly | much |
| must | my | myself | name | namely |
| nd | near | nearly | necessary | need |
| needs | neither | never | nevertheless | new |
| next | nine | no | nobody | non |
| none | noone | nor | normally | not |
| nothing | novel | now | nowhere | obviously |
| of | off | often | oh | ok |
| okay | old | on | once | one |
| ones | only | onto | or | other |
| others | otherwise | ought | our | ours |
| ourselves | out | outside | over | overall |
| own | particular | particularly | per | perhaps |
| placed | please | plus | possible | presumably |
| probably | provides | que | quite | qv |
| rather | rd | re | really | reasonably |
| regarding | regardless | regards | relatively | respectively |
| right | said | same | saw | say |
| saying | says | second | secondly | see |
| seeing | seem | seemed | seeming | seems |
| seen | self | selves | sensible | sent |
| serious | seriously | seven | several | shall |
| she | should | shouldn't | since | six |
| so | some | somebody | somehow | someone |
| something | sometime | sometimes | somewhat | somewhere |
| soon | sorry | specified | specify | specifying |
| still | sub | such | sup | sure |
| t's | take | taken | tell | tends |
| th | than | thank | thanks | thanx |
| that | that's | thats | the | their |
| theirs | them | themselves | then | thence |
| there | there's | thereafter | thereby | therefore |
| therein | theres | thereupon | these | they |
| they'd | they'll | they're | they've | think |
| third | this | thorough | thoroughly | those |
| though | three | through | throughout | thru |
| thus | to | together | too | took |
| toward | towards | tried | tries | truly |
| try | trying | twice | two | un |
| under | unfortunately | unless | unlikely | until |
| unto | up | upon | us | use |
| used | useful | uses | using | usually |
| value | various | very | via | viz |
| vs | want | wants | was | wasn't |
| way | we | we'd | we'll | we're |
| we've | welcome | well | went | were |
| weren't | what | what's | whatever | when |
| whence | whenever | where | where's | whereafter |
| whereas | whereby | wherein | whereupon | wherever |
| whether | which | while | whither | who |
| who's | whoever | whole | whom | whose |
| why | will | willing | wish | with |
| within | without | won't | wonder | would |
| would | wouldn't | yes | yet | you |
| you'd | you'll | you're | you've | your |
| yours | yourself | yourselves | zero |
Full-text searches are supported for
MyISAMtables only.Full-text searches can be used with most multi-byte character sets. The exception is that for Unicode, the
utf8character set can be used, but not theucs2character set. However, althoughFULLTEXTindexes onucs2columns cannot be used, you can performIN BOOLEAN MODEsearches on aucs2column that has no such index.Ideographic languages such as Chinese and Japanese do not have word delimiters. Therefore, the
FULLTEXTparser cannot determine where words begin and end in these and other such languages. The implications of this and some workarounds for the problem are described in Section 11.8, “Full-Text Search Functions”.Although the use of multiple character sets within a single table is supported, all columns in a
FULLTEXTindex must use the same character set and collation.The
MATCH()column list must match exactly the column list in someFULLTEXTindex definition for the table, unless thisMATCH()isIN BOOLEAN MODE. Boolean-mode searches can be done on nonindexed columns, although they are likely to be slow.The argument to
AGAINST()must be a constant string.Index hints are more limited for
FULLTEXTsearches than for non-FULLTEXTsearches. See Section 12.2.8.2, “Index Hint Syntax”.
MySQL's full-text search capability has few user-tunable parameters. You can exert more control over full-text searching behavior if you have a MySQL source distribution because some changes require source code modifications. See Section 2.10, “MySQL Installation Using a Source Distribution”.
Note that full-text search is carefully tuned for the most effectiveness. Modifying the default behavior in most cases can actually decrease effectiveness. Do not alter the MySQL sources unless you know what you are doing.
Most full-text variables described in this section must be set at server startup time. A server restart is required to change them; they cannot be modified while the server is running.
Some variable changes require that you rebuild the
FULLTEXT indexes in your tables. Instructions
for doing this are given at the end of this section.
The minimum and maximum lengths of words to be indexed are defined by the
ft_min_word_lenandft_max_word_lensystem variables. (See Section 5.1.4, “Server System Variables”.) The default minimum value is four characters; the default maximum is version dependent. If you change either value, you must rebuild yourFULLTEXTindexes. For example, if you want three-character words to be searchable, you can set theft_min_word_lenvariable by putting the following lines in an option file:[mysqld] ft_min_word_len=3
Then you must restart the server and rebuild your
FULLTEXTindexes. Note particularly the remarks regarding myisamchk in the instructions following this list.To override the default stopword list, set the
ft_stopword_filesystem variable. (See Section 5.1.4, “Server System Variables”.) The variable value should be the path name of the file containing the stopword list, or the empty string to disable stopword filtering. After changing the value of this variable or the contents of the stopword file, restart the server and rebuild yourFULLTEXTindexes.The stopword list is free-form. That is, you may use any nonalphanumeric character such as newline, space, or comma to separate stopwords. Exceptions are the underscore character (“
_”) and a single apostrophe (“'”) which are treated as part of a word. The character set of the stopword list is the server's default character set; see Section 9.1.3.1, “Server Character Set and Collation”.The 50% threshold for natural language searches is determined by the particular weighting scheme chosen. To disable it, look for the following line in
storage/myisam/ftdefs.h:#define GWS_IN_USE GWS_PROB
Change that line to this:
#define GWS_IN_USE GWS_FREQ
Then recompile MySQL. There is no need to rebuild the indexes in this case.
Note
By making this change, you severely decrease MySQL's ability to provide adequate relevance values for the
MATCH()function. If you really need to search for such common words, it would be better to search usingIN BOOLEAN MODEinstead, which does not observe the 50% threshold.To change the operators used for boolean full-text searches, set the
ft_boolean_syntaxsystem variable. This variable can be changed while the server is running, but you must have theSUPERprivilege to do so. No rebuilding of indexes is necessary in this case. See Section 5.1.4, “Server System Variables”, which describes the rules governing how to set this variable.If you want to change the set of characters that are considered word characters, you can do so in two ways. Suppose that you want to treat the hyphen character ('-') as a word character. Use either of these methods:
Modify the MySQL source: In
storage/myisam/ftdefs.h, see thetrue_word_char()andmisc_word_char()macros. Add'-'to one of those macros and recompile MySQL.Modify a character set file: This requires no recompilation. The
true_word_char()macro uses a “character type” table to distinguish letters and numbers from other characters. . You can edit the<ctype><map>contents in one of the character set XML files to specify that'-'is a “letter.” Then use the given character set for yourFULLTEXTindexes.
After making the modification, you must rebuild the indexes for each table that contains any
FULLTEXTindexes.
If you modify full-text variables that affect indexing
(ft_min_word_len,
ft_max_word_len, or
ft_stopword_file), or if you
change the stopword file itself, you must rebuild your
FULLTEXT indexes after making the changes and
restarting the server. To rebuild the indexes in this case, it
is sufficient to do a QUICK repair operation:
mysql> REPAIR TABLE tbl_name QUICK;
Each table that contains any FULLTEXT index
must be repaired as just shown. Otherwise, queries for the table
may yield incorrect results, and modifications to the table will
cause the server to see the table as corrupt and in need of
repair.
Note that if you use myisamchk to perform an
operation that modifies table indexes (such as repair or
analyze), the FULLTEXT indexes are rebuilt
using the default full-text parameter
values for minimum word length, maximum word length, and
stopword file unless you specify otherwise. This can result in
queries failing.
The problem occurs because these parameters are known only by
the server. They are not stored in MyISAM
index files. To avoid the problem if you have modified the
minimum or maximum word length or stopword file values used by
the server, specify the same
ft_min_word_len,
ft_max_word_len, and
ft_stopword_file values to
myisamchk that you use for
mysqld. For example, if you have set the
minimum word length to 3, you can repair a table with
myisamchk like this:
shell> myisamchk --recover --ft_min_word_len=3 tbl_name.MYI
To ensure that myisamchk and the server use
the same values for full-text parameters, place each one in both
the [mysqld] and
[myisamchk] sections of an option file:
[mysqld] ft_min_word_len=3 [myisamchk] ft_min_word_len=3
An alternative to using myisamchk is to use
the REPAIR TABLE,
ANALYZE TABLE,
OPTIMIZE TABLE, or
ALTER TABLE statements. These
statements are performed by the server, which knows the proper
full-text parameter values to use.
Table 11.13. Cast Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
BINARY | Cast a string to a binary string |
CAST() | Cast a value as a certain type |
Convert() | Cast a value as a certain type |
The
BINARYoperator casts the string following it to a binary string. This is an easy way to force a column comparison to be done byte by byte rather than character by character. This causes the comparison to be case sensitive even if the column isn't defined asBINARYorBLOB.BINARYalso causes trailing spaces to be significant.mysql>
SELECT 'a' = 'A';-> 1 mysql>SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'A';-> 0 mysql>SELECT 'a' = 'a ';-> 1 mysql>SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'a ';-> 0In a comparison,
BINARYaffects the entire operation; it can be given before either operand with the same result.BINARYis shorthand forstrCAST(.strAS BINARY)Note that in some contexts, if you cast an indexed column to
BINARY, MySQL is not able to use the index efficiently.The
CAST()function takes a value of one type and produce a value of another type, similar toCONVERT(). See the description ofCONVERT()for more information.CONVERT(,expr,type)CONVERT(exprUSINGtranscoding_name)The
CONVERT()andCAST()functions take a value of one type and produce a value of another type.The
typecan be one of the following values:BINARYproduces a string with theBINARYdata type. See Section 10.4.2, “TheBINARYandVARBINARYTypes” for a description of how this affects comparisons. If the optional lengthNis given,BINARY(causes the cast to use no more thanN)Nbytes of the argument. Values shorter thanNbytes are padded with0x00bytes to a length ofN.CHAR(causes the cast to use no more thanN)Ncharacters of the argument.CAST()andCONVERT(... USING ...)are standard SQL syntax. The non-USINGform ofCONVERT()is ODBC syntax.CONVERT()withUSINGis used to convert data between different character sets. In MySQL, transcoding names are the same as the corresponding character set names. For example, this statement converts the string'abc'in the default character set to the corresponding string in theutf8character set:SELECT CONVERT('abc' USING utf8);
Normally, you cannot compare a BLOB
value or other binary string in case-insensitive fashion because
binary strings have no character set, and thus no concept of
lettercase. To perform a case-insensitive comparison, use the
CONVERT() function to convert the
value to a nonbinary string. If the character set of the result
has a case-insensitive collation, the
LIKE operation is not case sensitive:
SELECT 'A' LIKE CONVERT(blob_colUSING latin1) FROMtbl_name;
To use a different character set, substitute its name for
latin1 in the preceding statement. To ensure
that a case-insensitive collation is used, specify a
COLLATE clause following the
CONVERT() call.
CONVERT() can be used more
generally for comparing strings that are represented in different
character sets.
The cast functions are useful when you want to create a column
with a specific type in a CREATE ... SELECT
statement:
CREATE TABLE new_table SELECT CAST('2000-01-01' AS DATE);
The functions also can be useful for sorting
ENUM columns in lexical order.
Normally, sorting of ENUM columns
occurs using the internal numeric values. Casting the values to
CHAR results in a lexical sort:
SELECTenum_colFROMtbl_nameORDER BY CAST(enum_colAS CHAR);
CAST( is the same thing as
str AS
BINARY)BINARY
.
strCAST( treats the expression as a string with the default
character set.
expr AS
CHAR)
CAST() also changes the result if
you use it as part of a more complex expression such as
CONCAT('Date: ',CAST(NOW() AS
DATE)).
You should not use CAST() to
extract data in different formats but instead use string functions
like LEFT() or
EXTRACT(). See
Section 11.6, “Date and Time Functions”.
To cast a string to a numeric value in numeric context, you normally do not have to do anything other than to use the string value as though it were a number:
mysql> SELECT 1+'1';
-> 2
If you use a number in string context, the number automatically is
converted to a BINARY string.
mysql> SELECT CONCAT('hello you ',2);
-> 'hello you 2'
MySQL supports arithmetic with both signed and unsigned 64-bit
values. If you are using numeric operators (such as
+ or
-) and one of the
operands is an unsigned integer, the result is unsigned. You can
override this by using the SIGNED and
UNSIGNED cast operators to cast the operation
to a signed or unsigned 64-bit integer, respectively.
mysql>SELECT CAST(1-2 AS UNSIGNED)-> 18446744073709551615 mysql>SELECT CAST(CAST(1-2 AS UNSIGNED) AS SIGNED);-> -1
Note that if either operand is a floating-point value, the result
is a floating-point value and is not affected by the preceding
rule. (In this context, DECIMAL
column values are regarded as floating-point values.)
mysql> SELECT CAST(1 AS UNSIGNED) - 2.0;
-> -1.0
If you are using a string in an arithmetic operation, this is converted to a floating-point number.
If you convert a “zero” date string to a date,
CONVERT() and
CAST() return
NULL and produce a warning when the
NO_ZERO_DATE SQL mode is
enabled.
Table 11.14. XML Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
ExtractValue()(v5.1.5) | Extracts a value from an XML string using XPath notation |
UpdateXML()(v5.1.5) | Return replaced XML fragment |
This section discusses XML and related functionality in MySQL.
Note
It is possible to obtain XML-formatted output from MySQL in the
mysql and mysqldump
clients by invoking them with the
--xml option. See
Section 4.5.1, “mysql — The MySQL Command-Line Tool”, and Section 4.5.4, “mysqldump — A Database Backup Program”.
Beginning with MySQL 5.1.5, two functions providing basic XPath 1.0 (XML Path Language, version 1.0) capabilities are available. Some basic information about XPath syntax and usage is provided later in this section; however, an in-depth discussion of these topics is beyond the scope of this Manual, and you should refer to the XML Path Language (XPath) 1.0 standard for definitive information. A useful resource for those new to XPath or who desire a refresher in the basics is the Zvon.org XPath Tutorial, which is available in several languages.
Note
These functions remain under development. We continue to improve these and other aspects of XML and XPath functionality in MySQL 5.1 and onwards. You may discuss these, ask questions about them, and obtain help from other users with them in the MySQL XML User Forum.
Beginning with MySQL 5.1.20, XPath expressions used with these functions support user variables and local stored program variables. User variables are weakly checked; variables local to stored programs are strongly checked (see also Bug#26518):
User variables (weak checking). Variables using the syntax
$@(that is, user variables) are not checked. No warnings or errors are issued by the server if a variable has the wrong type or has previously not been assigned a value. This also means the user is fully responsible for any typographical errors, since no warnings will be given if (for example)variable_name$@myvairableis used where$@myvariablewas intended.Example.
mysql>
SET @xml = '<a><b>X</b><b>Y</b></a>';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SET @i =1, @j = 2;Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT @i, ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@i]');+------+--------------------------------+ | @i | ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@i]') | +------+--------------------------------+ | 1 | X | +------+--------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT @j, ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@j]');+------+--------------------------------+ | @j | ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@j]') | +------+--------------------------------+ | 2 | Y | +------+--------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT @k, ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@k]');+------+--------------------------------+ | @k | ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[$@k]') | +------+--------------------------------+ | NULL | | +------+--------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)Variables in stored programs (strong checking). Variables using the syntax
$can be declared and used with these functions when they are called inside stored programs. Such variables are local to the stored program in which they are defined, and are strongly checked for type and value.variable_nameExample.
mysql>
DELIMITER |mysql>CREATE PROCEDURE myproc ()->BEGIN->DECLARE i INT DEFAULT 1;->DECLARE xml VARCHAR(25) DEFAULT '<a>X</a><a>Y</a><a>Z</a>';-> ->WHILE i < 4 DO->SELECT xml, i, ExtractValue(xml, '//a[$i]');->SET i = i+1;->END WHILE;->END |Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) mysql>DELIMITER ;mysql>CALL myproc;+--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | xml | i | ExtractValue(xml, '//a[$i]') | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | <a>X</a><a>Y</a><a>Z</a> | 1 | X | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | xml | i | ExtractValue(xml, '//a[$i]') | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | <a>X</a><a>Y</a><a>Z</a> | 2 | Y | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec) +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | xml | i | ExtractValue(xml, '//a[$i]') | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ | <a>X</a><a>Y</a><a>Z</a> | 3 | Z | +--------------------------+---+------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)Parameters. Variables used in XPath expressions inside stored routines that are passed in as parameters are also subject to strong checking.
Expressions containing user variables or variables local to stored programs must otherwise (except for notation) conform to the rules for XPath expressions containing variables as given in the XPath 1.0 specification.
Note
Currently, a user variable used to store an XPath expression is treated as an empty string. Because of this, it is not possible to store an XPath expression as a user variable. We intend to fix this issue in a future MySQL release. (Bug#32911)
ExtractValue(xml_frag,xpath_expr)ExtractValue()takes two string arguments, a fragment of XML markupxml_fragand an XPath expressionxpath_expr(also known as a locator); it returns the text (CDATA) of the first text node which is a child of the element(s) matched by the XPath expression. It is the equivalent of performing a match using thexpath_exprafter appending/text(). In other words,ExtractValue('<a><b>Sakila</b></a>', '/a/b')andExtractValue('<a><b>Sakila</b></a>', '/a/b/text()')produce the same result.If multiple matches are found, then the content of the first child text node of each matching element is returned (in the order matched) as a single, space-delimited string.
If no matching text node is found for the expression (including the implicit
/text()) — for whatever reason, as long asxpath_expris valid, andxml_fragconsists of elements which are properly nested and closed — an empty string is returned. No distinction is made between a match on an empty element and no match at all. This is by design.If you need to determine whether no matching element was found in
xml_fragor such an element was found but contained no child text nodes, you should test the result of an expression that uses the XPathcount()function. For example, both of these statements return an empty string, as shown here:mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue('<a><b/></a>', '/a/b');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><b/></a>', '/a/b') | +-------------------------------------+ | | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a><c/></a>', '/a/b');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><c/></a>', '/a/b') | +-------------------------------------+ | | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)However, you can determine whether there was actually a matching element using the following:
mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue('<a><b/></a>', 'count(/a/b)');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><b/></a>', 'count(/a/b)') | +-------------------------------------+ | 1 | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a><c/></a>', 'count(/a/b)');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><c/></a>', 'count(/a/b)') | +-------------------------------------+ | 0 | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)Important
ExtractValue()returns onlyCDATA, and does not return any tags that might be contained within a matching tag, nor any of their content (see the result returned asval1in the following example).mysql>
SELECT->ExtractValue('<a>ccc<b>ddd</b></a>', '/a') AS val1,->ExtractValue('<a>ccc<b>ddd</b></a>', '/a/b') AS val2,->ExtractValue('<a>ccc<b>ddd</b></a>', '//b') AS val3,->ExtractValue('<a>ccc<b>ddd</b></a>', '/b') AS val4,->ExtractValue('<a>ccc<b>ddd</b><b>eee</b></a>', '//b') AS val5;+------+------+------+------+---------+ | val1 | val2 | val3 | val4 | val5 | +------+------+------+------+---------+ | ccc | ddd | ddd | | ddd eee | +------+------+------+------+---------+Beginning with MySQL 5.1.8, this function uses the current SQL collation for making comparisons with
contains(), performing the same collation aggregation as other string functions (such asCONCAT()), in taking into account the collation coercibility of their arguments; see Section 9.1.7.5, “Special Cases Where Collation Determination Is Tricky”, for an explanation of the rules governing this behavior.(Previously, binary — that is, case-sensitive — comparison was always used.)
Beginning with MySQL 5.1.12,
NULLis returned ifxml_fragcontains elements which are not properly nested or closed, and a warning is generated, as shown in this example:mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b', '//a');+-----------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b', '//a') | +-----------------------------------+ | NULL | +-----------------------------------+ 1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec) mysql>SHOW WARNINGS;+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level | Code | Message | +---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Warning | 1523 | Incorrect XML value: 'parse error at line 1 pos 11: END-OF-INPUT unexpected ('>' wanted)' | +---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b/>', '//a');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b/>', '//a') | +-------------------------------------+ | c | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)Prior to MySQL 5.1.12, an empty string was returned in such cases. (Bug#18201)
UpdateXML(xml_target,xpath_expr,new_xml)This function replaces a single portion of a given fragment of XML markup
xml_targetwith a new XML fragmentnew_xml, and then returns the changed XML. The portion ofxml_targetthat is replaced matches an XPath expressionxpath_exprsupplied by the user. If no expression matchingxpath_expris found, or if multiple matches are found, the function returns the originalxml_targetXML fragment. All three arguments should be strings.mysql>
SELECT->UpdateXML('<a><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>', '/a', '<e>fff</e>') AS val1,->UpdateXML('<a><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>', '/b', '<e>fff</e>') AS val2,->UpdateXML('<a><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>', '//b', '<e>fff</e>') AS val3,->UpdateXML('<a><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>', '/a/d', '<e>fff</e>') AS val4,->UpdateXML('<a><d></d><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>', '/a/d', '<e>fff</e>') AS val5->\G*************************** 1. row *************************** val1: <e>fff</e> val2: <a><b>ccc</b><d></d></a> val3: <a><e>fff</e><d></d></a> val4: <a><b>ccc</b><e>fff</e></a> val5: <a><d></d><b>ccc</b><d></d></a>
Note
A discussion in depth of XPath syntax and usage are beyond the scope of this Manual. Please see the XML Path Language (XPath) 1.0 specification for definitive information. A useful resource for those new to XPath or who are wishing a refresher in the basics is the Zvon.org XPath Tutorial, which is available in several languages.
Descriptions and examples of some basic XPath expressions follow:
/tagMatches
<if and only iftag/><is the root element.tag/>Example:
/ahas a match in<a><b/></a>because it matches the outermost (root) tag. It does not match the inneraelement in<b><a/></b>because in this instance it is the child of another element./tag1/tag2Matches
<if and only if it is a child oftag2/><, andtag1/><is the root element.tag1/>Example:
/a/bmatches thebelement in the XML fragment<a><b/></a>because it is a child of the root elementa. It does not have a match in<b><a/></b>because in this case,bis the root element (and hence the child of no other element). Nor does the XPath expression have a match in<a><c><b/></c></a>; here,bis a descendant ofa, but not actually a child ofa.This construct is extendable to three or more elements. For example, the XPath expression
/a/b/cmatches thecelement in the fragment<a><b><c/></b></a>.//tagMatches any instance of
<.tag>Example:
//amatches theaelement in any of the following:<a><b><c/></b></a>;<c><a><b/></a></b>;<c><b><a/></b></c>.//can be combined with/. For example,//a/bmatches thebelement in either of the fragments<a><b/></a>or<a><b><c/></b></a>Note
//is the equivalent oftag/descendant-or-self::*/. A common error is to confuse this withtag/descendant-or-self::, although the latter expression can actually lead to very different results, as can be seen here:tagmysql>
SET @xml = '<a><b><c>w</c><b>x</b><d>y</d>z</b></a>';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT @xml;+-----------------------------------------+ | @xml | +-----------------------------------------+ | <a><b><c>w</c><b>x</b><d>y</d>z</b></a> | +-----------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[1]');+------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[1]') | +------------------------------+ | x z | +------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[2]');+------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '//b[2]') | +------------------------------+ | | +------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::*/b[1]');+---------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::*/b[1]') | +---------------------------------------------------+ | x z | +---------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.06 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::*/b[2]');+---------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::*/b[2]') | +---------------------------------------------------+ | | +---------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::b[1]');+-------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::b[1]') | +-------------------------------------------------+ | z | +-------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::b[2]');+-------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '/descendant-or-self::b[2]') | +-------------------------------------------------+ | x | +-------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)The
*operator acts as a “wildcard” that matches any element. For example, the expression/*/bmatches thebelement in either of the XML fragments<a><b/></a>or<c><b/></c>. However, the expression does not produce a match in the fragment<b><a/></b>becausebmust be a child of some other element. The wildcard may be used in any position: The expression/*/b/*will match any child of abelement that is itself not the root element.You can match any of several locators using the
|(UNION) operator. For example, the expression//b|//cmatches allbandcelements in the XML target.It is also possible to match an element based on the value of one or more of its attributes. This done using the syntax
. For example, the expressiontag[@attribute="value"]//b[@id="idB"]matches the secondbelement in the fragment<a><b id="idA"/><c/><b id="idB"/></a>. To match against any element having, use the XPath expressionattribute="value"//*[.attribute="value"]To filter multiple attribute values, simply use multiple attribute-comparison clauses in succession. For example, the expression
//b[@c="x"][@d="y"]matches the element<b c="x" d="y"/>occurring anywhere in a given XML fragment.To find elements for which the same attribute matches any of several values, you can use multiple locators joined by the
|operator. For example, to match allbelements whosecattributes have either of the values 23 or 17, use the expression//b[@c="23"]|//b[@c="17"]. You can also use the logicaloroperator for this purpose://b[@c="23" or @c="17"].Note
The difference between
orand|is thatorjoins conditions, while|joins result sets.
XPath Limitations. The XPath syntax supported by these functions is currently subject to the following limitations:
Nodeset-to-nodeset comparison (such as
'/a/b[@c=@d]') is not supported.Prior to MySQL 5.1.14, equality and inequality (
=and!=) were the only supported comparison operators. Beginning with MySQL 5.1.14, all of the standard XPath comparison operators are supported. (Bug#22823)Relative locator expressions are resolved in the context of the root node. For example, consider the following query and result:
mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue(->'<a><b c="1">X</b><b c="2">Y</b></a>',->'a/b'->) AS result;+--------+ | result | +--------+ | X Y | +--------+ 1 row in set (0.03 sec)In this case, the locator
a/bresolves to/a/b.Relative locators are also supported within predicates. In the following example,
d[../@c="1"]is resolved as/a/b[@c="1"]/d:mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue(->'<a>-><b c="1"><d>X</d></b>-><b c="2"><d>X</d></b>-></a>',->'a/b/d[../@c="1"]')->AS result;+--------+ | result | +--------+ | X | +--------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)Locators prefixed with expressions that evaluate as scalar values — including variable references, literals, numbers,and scalar function calls — are not supported. Beginning with MySQL 5.1.32, they are disallowed, and their use results in an error. (Bug#42495)
The
::operator is not supported in combination with node types such as the following:axis::comment()axis::text()axis::processing-instructions()axis::node()
However, name tests (such as
andaxis::name) are supported, as shown in these examples:axis::*mysql>
SELECT ExtractValue('<a><b>x</b><c>y</c></a>','/a/child::b');+-------------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><b>x</b><c>y</c></a>','/a/child::b') | +-------------------------------------------------------+ | x | +-------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.02 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a><b>x</b><c>y</c></a>','/a/child::*');+-------------------------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a><b>x</b><c>y</c></a>','/a/child::*') | +-------------------------------------------------------+ | x y | +-------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)“Up-and-down” navigation is not supported in cases where the path would lead “above” the root element. That is, you cannot use expressions which match on descendants of ancestors of a given element, where one or more of the ancestors of the current element is also an ancestor of the root element (see Bug#16321).
The following XPath functions are not supported, or have known issues as indicated:
Prior to MySQL 5.1.24, the
boolean()function did not produce correct results for some string and nodeset values, including theNULLstring (see Bug#26051).id()lang()Prior to MySQL 5.1.8, the
last()function was not supported (see Bug#16318).local-name()name()namespace-uri()normalize-space()starts-with()string()substring-after()substring-before()translate()
The following axes are not supported:
following-siblingfollowingpreceding-siblingpreceding
Beginning with MySQL 5.1.10, XPath expressions passed as arguments
to ExtractValue() and
UpdateXML() may contain the colon
character (“:”) in element
selectors, which enables their use with markup employing XML
namespaces notation. For example:
mysql>SET @xml = '<a>111<b:c>222<d>333</d><e:f>444</e:f></b:c></a>';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(@xml, '//e:f');+-----------------------------+ | ExtractValue(@xml, '//e:f') | +-----------------------------+ | 444 | +-----------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT UpdateXML(@xml, '//b:c', '<g:h>555</g:h>');+--------------------------------------------+ | UpdateXML(@xml, '//b:c', '<g:h>555</g:h>') | +--------------------------------------------+ | <a>111<g:h>555</g:h></a> | +--------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
This is similar in some respects to what is allowed by
Apache Xalan and
some other parsers, and is much simpler than requiring namespace
declarations or the use of the namespace-uri()
and local-name() functions.
Error handling.
For both ExtractValue() and
UpdateXML(), the XPath locator
used must be valid and the XML to be searched must consist of
elements which are properly nested and closed. If the locator is
invalid, an error is generated:
mysql> SELECT ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b/>', '/&a');
ERROR 1105 (HY000): XPATH syntax error: '&a'
If xml_frag does not consist of
elements which are properly nested and closed, then
NULL is returned, and a warning is generated,
as shown in this example:
mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b', '//a');+-----------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b', '//a') | +-----------------------------------+ | NULL | +-----------------------------------+ 1 row in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec) mysql>SHOW WARNINGS;+---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Level | Code | Message | +---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Warning | 1523 | Incorrect XML value: 'parse error at line 1 pos 11: END-OF-INPUT unexpected ('>' wanted)' | +---------+------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b/>', '//a');+-------------------------------------+ | ExtractValue('<a>c</a><b/>', '//a') | +-------------------------------------+ | c | +-------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Prior to MySQL 5.1.12, an empty string was returned in such cases. (Bug#18201)
Important
The replacement XML used as the third argument to
UpdateXML() is
not checked to determine whether it
consists solely of elements which are properly nested and
closed.
XPath Injection. code injection occurs when malicious code is introduced into the system to gain unauthorized access to privileges and data. It is based on exploiting assumptions made by developers about the type and content of data input from users. XPath is no exception in this regard.
A common scenario in which this can happen is the case of application which handles authorization by matching the combination of a login name and password with those found in an XML file, using an XPath expression like this one:
//user[login/text()='neapolitan' and password/text()='1c3cr34m']/attribute::id
This is the XPath equivalent of an SQL statement like this one:
SELECT id FROM users WHERE login='neapolitan' AND password='1c3cr34m';
A PHP application employing XPath might handle the login process like this:
<?php
$file = "users.xml";
$login = $POST["login"];
$password = $POST["password"];
$xpath = "//user[login/text()=$login and password/text()=$password]/attribute::id";
if( file_exists($file) )
{
$xml = simplexml_load_file($file);
if($result = $xml->xpath($xpath))
echo "You are now logged in as user $result[0].";
else
echo "Invalid login name or password.";
}
else
exit("Failed to open $file.");
?>
No checks are performed on the input. This means that a malevolent
user can “short-circuit” the test by entering
' or 1=1 for both the login name and password,
resulting in $xpath being evaluated as shown
here:
//user[login/text()='' or 1=1 and password/text()='' or 1=1]/attribute::id
Since the expression inside the square brackets always evaluates
as true, it is effectively the same as this
one, which matches the id attribute of every
user element in the XML document:
//user/attribute::id
One way in which this particular attack can be circumvented is
simply by quoting the variable names to be interpolated in the
definition of $xpath, forcing the values passed
from a Web form to be converted to strings:
$xpath = "//user[login/text()='$login' and password/text()='$password']/attribute::id";
This is the same strategy that is often recommended for preventing SQL injection attacks. In general, the practices you should follow for preventing XPath injection attacks are the same as for preventing SQL injection:
Never accepted untested data from users in your application.
Check all user-submited data for type; reject or convert data that is of the wrong type
Test numerical data for out of range values; truncate, round, or reject values that are out of range. Test strings for illegal characters and either strip them out or reject input containing them.
Do not output explicit error messages that might provide an unauthorized user with clues that could be used to compromise the system; log these to a file or database table instead.
Just as SQL injection attacks can be used to obtain information about database schemas, so can XPath injection be used to traverse XML files to uncover their structure, as discussed in Amit Klein's paper Blind XPath Injection (PDF file, 46KB).
It is also important to check the output being sent back to the
client. Consider what can happen when we use the MySQL
ExtractValue() function:
mysql>SELECT ExtractValue(->LOAD_FILE('users.xml'),->'//user[login/text()="" or 1=1 and password/text()="" or 1=1]/attribute::id'->) AS id;+-------------------------------+ | id | +-------------------------------+ | 00327 13579 02403 42354 28570 | +-------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec)
Because ExtractValue() returns
multiple matches as a single space-delimited string, this
injection attack provides every valid ID contained within
users.xml to the user as a single row of
output. As an extra safeguard, you should also test output before
returning it to the user. Here is a simple example:
mysql>SELECT @id = ExtractValue(->LOAD_FILE('users.xml'),->'//user[login/text()="" or 1=1 and password/text()="" or 1=1]/attribute::id'->);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT IF(->INSTR(@id, ' ') = 0,->@id,->'Unable to retrieve user ID')->AS singleID;+----------------------------+ | singleID | +----------------------------+ | Unable to retrieve user ID | +----------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
In general, the guidelines for returning data to users securely are the same as for accepting user input. These can be summed up as:
Always test outgoing data for type and allowable values.
Never allow unauthorized users to view error messages that might provide information about the application that could be used to exploit it.
Table 11.15. Other Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt using AES |
AES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt using AES |
BENCHMARK() | Repeatedly execute an expression |
BIT_COUNT() | Return the number of bits that are set |
& | Bitwise AND |
~ | Invert bits |
| | Bitwise OR |
^ | Bitwise XOR |
CHARSET()(v4.1.0) | Return the character set of the argument |
COERCIBILITY()(v4.1.1) | Return the collation coercibility value of the string argument |
COLLATION()(v4.1.0) | Return the collation of the string argument |
COMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Return result as a binary string |
CONNECTION_ID() | Return the connection ID (thread ID) for the connection |
CURRENT_USER(), CURRENT_USER | The authenticated user name and host name |
DATABASE() | Return the default (current) database name |
DECODE() | Decodes a string encrypted using ENCODE() |
DEFAULT() | Return the default value for a table column |
DES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt a string |
DES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
ENCODE() | Encode a string |
ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
FOUND_ROWS() | For a SELECT with a LIMIT clause, the number of rows that would be returned were there no LIMIT clause |
GET_LOCK() | Get a named lock |
INET_ATON() | Return the numeric value of an IP address |
INET_NTOA() | Return the IP address from a numeric value |
IS_FREE_LOCK() | Checks whether the named lock is free |
IS_USED_LOCK()(v4.1.0) | Checks whether the named lock is in use. Return connection identifier if true. |
LAST_INSERT_ID() | Value of the AUTOINCREMENT column for the last INSERT |
<< | Left shift |
MASTER_POS_WAIT() | Block until the slave has read and applied all updates up to the specified position |
MD5() | Calculate MD5 checksum |
NAME_CONST()(v5.0.12) | Causes the column to have the given name |
OLD_PASSWORD()(v4.1) | Return the value of the old (pre-4.1) implementation of PASSWORD |
PASSWORD() | Calculate and return a password string |
RAND() | Return a random floating-point value |
RELEASE_LOCK() | Releases the named lock |
>> | Right shift |
ROW_COUNT()(v5.0.1) | The number of rows updated |
SCHEMA()(v5.0.2) | A synonym for DATABASE() |
SESSION_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
SHA1(), SHA() | Calculate an SHA-1 160-bit checksum |
SLEEP()(v5.0.12) | Sleep for a number of seconds |
SYSTEM_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
UNCOMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Uncompress a string compressed |
UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH()(v4.1.1) | Return the length of a string before compression |
USER() | The user name and host name provided by the client |
UUID_SHORT()(v5.1.20) | Return an integer-valued universal identifier |
UUID()(v4.1.2) | Return a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) |
VALUES()(v4.1.1) | Defines the values to be used during an INSERT |
VERSION() | Returns a string that indicates the MySQL server version |
Table 11.16. Bitwise Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
BIT_COUNT() | Return the number of bits that are set |
& | Bitwise AND |
~ | Invert bits |
| | Bitwise OR |
^ | Bitwise XOR |
<< | Left shift |
>> | Right shift |
MySQL uses BIGINT (64-bit)
arithmetic for bit operations, so these operators have a maximum
range of 64 bits.
Bitwise OR:
mysql>
SELECT 29 | 15;-> 31The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer.
Bitwise AND:
mysql>
SELECT 29 & 15;-> 13The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer.
Bitwise XOR:
mysql>
SELECT 1 ^ 1;-> 0 mysql>SELECT 1 ^ 0;-> 1 mysql>SELECT 11 ^ 3;-> 8The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer.
Shifts a longlong (
BIGINT) number to the left.mysql>
SELECT 1 << 2;-> 4The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer. The value is truncated to 64 bits. In particular, if the shift count is greater or equal to the width of an unsigned 64-bit number, the result is zero.
Shifts a longlong (
BIGINT) number to the right.mysql>
SELECT 4 >> 2;-> 1The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer. The value is truncated to 64 bits. In particular, if the shift count is greater or equal to the width of an unsigned 64-bit number, the result is zero.
Invert all bits.
mysql>
SELECT 5 & ~1;-> 4The result is an unsigned 64-bit integer.
Returns the number of bits that are set in the argument
N.mysql>
SELECT BIT_COUNT(29), BIT_COUNT(b'101010');-> 4, 3
Table 11.17. Encryption Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt using AES |
AES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt using AES |
COMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Return result as a binary string |
DECODE() | Decodes a string encrypted using ENCODE() |
DES_DECRYPT() | Decrypt a string |
DES_ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
ENCODE() | Encode a string |
ENCRYPT() | Encrypt a string |
MD5() | Calculate MD5 checksum |
OLD_PASSWORD()(v4.1) | Return the value of the old (pre-4.1) implementation of PASSWORD |
PASSWORD() | Calculate and return a password string |
SHA1(), SHA() | Calculate an SHA-1 160-bit checksum |
UNCOMPRESS()(v4.1.1) | Uncompress a string compressed |
UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH()(v4.1.1) | Return the length of a string before compression |
Note
The encryption and compression functions return binary
strings. For many of these functions, the result might contain
arbitrary byte values. If you want to store these results, use
a column with a VARBINARY or
BLOB binary string data type.
This will avoid potential problems with trailing space removal
or character set conversion that would change data values,
such as may occur if you use a nonbinary string data type
(CHAR,
VARCHAR,
TEXT).
Note
Exploits for the MD5 and SHA-1 algorithms have become known. You may wish to consider using one of the other encryption functions described in this section instead.
AES_DECRYPT(crypt_str,key_str)This function allows decryption of data using the official AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm. For more information, see the description of
AES_ENCRYPT().AES_ENCRYPT()andAES_DECRYPT()allow encryption and decryption of data using the official AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm, previously known as “Rijndael.” Encoding with a 128-bit key length is used, but you can extend it up to 256 bits by modifying the source. We chose 128 bits because it is much faster and it is secure enough for most purposes.AES_ENCRYPT()encrypts a string and returns a binary string.AES_DECRYPT()decrypts the encrypted string and returns the original string. The input arguments may be any length. If either argument isNULL, the result of this function is alsoNULL.Because AES is a block-level algorithm, padding is used to encode uneven length strings and so the result string length may be calculated using this formula:
16 × (trunc(
string_length/ 16) + 1)If
AES_DECRYPT()detects invalid data or incorrect padding, it returnsNULL. However, it is possible forAES_DECRYPT()to return a non-NULLvalue (possibly garbage) if the input data or the key is invalid.You can use the AES functions to store data in an encrypted form by modifying your queries:
INSERT INTO t VALUES (1,AES_ENCRYPT('text','password'));AES_ENCRYPT()andAES_DECRYPT()can be considered the most cryptographically secure encryption functions currently available in MySQL.Compresses a string and returns the result as a binary string. This function requires MySQL to have been compiled with a compression library such as
zlib. Otherwise, the return value is alwaysNULL. The compressed string can be uncompressed withUNCOMPRESS().mysql>
SELECT LENGTH(COMPRESS(REPEAT('a',1000)));-> 21 mysql>SELECT LENGTH(COMPRESS(''));-> 0 mysql>SELECT LENGTH(COMPRESS('a'));-> 13 mysql>SELECT LENGTH(COMPRESS(REPEAT('a',16)));-> 15The compressed string contents are stored the following way:
Empty strings are stored as empty strings.
Nonempty strings are stored as a four-byte length of the uncompressed string (low byte first), followed by the compressed string. If the string ends with space, an extra “
.” character is added to avoid problems with endspace trimming should the result be stored in aCHARorVARCHARcolumn. (However, use of nonbinary string data types such asCHARorVARCHARto store compressed strings is not recommended anyway because character set conversion may occur. Use aVARBINARYorBLOBbinary string column instead.)
Decrypts the encrypted string
crypt_strusingpass_stras the password.crypt_strshould be a string returned fromENCODE().Encrypt
strusingpass_stras the password. To decrypt the result, useDECODE().The result is a binary string of the same length as
str.The strength of the encryption is based on how good the random generator is. It should suffice for short strings.
DES_DECRYPT(crypt_str[,key_str])Decrypts a string encrypted with
DES_ENCRYPT(). If an error occurs, this function returnsNULL.This function works only if MySQL has been configured with SSL support. See Section 5.5.7, “Using SSL for Secure Connections”.
If no
key_strargument is given,DES_DECRYPT()examines the first byte of the encrypted string to determine the DES key number that was used to encrypt the original string, and then reads the key from the DES key file to decrypt the message. For this to work, the user must have theSUPERprivilege. The key file can be specified with the--des-key-fileserver option.If you pass this function a
key_strargument, that string is used as the key for decrypting the message.If the
crypt_strargument does not appear to be an encrypted string, MySQL returns the givencrypt_str.DES_ENCRYPT(str[,{key_num|key_str}])Encrypts the string with the given key using the Triple-DES algorithm.
This function works only if MySQL has been configured with SSL support. See Section 5.5.7, “Using SSL for Secure Connections”.
The encryption key to use is chosen based on the second argument to
DES_ENCRYPT(), if one was given. With no argument, the first key from the DES key file is used. With akey_numargument, the given key number (0–9) from the DES key file is used. With akey_strargument, the given key string is used to encryptstr.The key file can be specified with the
--des-key-fileserver option.The return string is a binary string where the first character is
CHAR(128 |. If an error occurs,key_num)DES_ENCRYPT()returnsNULL.The 128 is added to make it easier to recognize an encrypted key. If you use a string key,
key_numis 127.The string length for the result is given by this formula:
new_len=orig_len+ (8 - (orig_len% 8)) + 1Each line in the DES key file has the following format:
key_numdes_key_strEach
key_numvalue must be a number in the range from0to9. Lines in the file may be in any order.des_key_stris the string that is used to encrypt the message. There should be at least one space between the number and the key. The first key is the default key that is used if you do not specify any key argument toDES_ENCRYPT().You can tell MySQL to read new key values from the key file with the
FLUSH DES_KEY_FILEstatement. This requires theRELOADprivilege.One benefit of having a set of default keys is that it gives applications a way to check for the existence of encrypted column values, without giving the end user the right to decrypt those values.
mysql>
SELECT customer_address FROM customer_table>WHERE crypted_credit_card = DES_ENCRYPT('credit_card_number');Encrypts
strusing the Unixcrypt()system call and returns a binary string. Thesaltargument should be a string with at least two characters. If nosaltargument is given, a random value is used.mysql>
SELECT ENCRYPT('hello');-> 'VxuFAJXVARROc'ENCRYPT()ignores all but the first eight characters ofstr, at least on some systems. This behavior is determined by the implementation of the underlyingcrypt()system call.The use of
ENCRYPT()with multi-byte character sets other thanutf8is not recommended because the system call expects a string terminated by a zero byte.If
crypt()is not available on your system (as is the case with Windows),ENCRYPT()always returnsNULL.Calculates an MD5 128-bit checksum for the string. The value is returned as a binary string of 32 hex digits, or
NULLif the argument wasNULL. The return value can, for example, be used as a hash key.mysql>
SELECT MD5('testing');-> 'ae2b1fca515949e5d54fb22b8ed95575'This is the “RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm.”
If you want to convert the value to uppercase, see the description of binary string conversion given in the entry for the
BINARYoperator in Section 11.9, “Cast Functions and Operators”.See the note regarding the MD5 algorithm at the beginning this section.
OLD_PASSWORD()was added to MySQL when the implementation ofPASSWORD()was changed to improve security.OLD_PASSWORD()returns the value of the old (pre-4.1) implementation ofPASSWORD()as a binary string, and is intended to permit you to reset passwords for any pre-4.1 clients that need to connect to your version 5.1 MySQL server without locking them out. See Section 5.5.6.3, “Password Hashing in MySQL”.Calculates and returns a password string from the plaintext password
strand returns a binary string, orNULLif the argument wasNULL. This is the function that is used for encrypting MySQL passwords for storage in thePasswordcolumn of theusergrant table.mysql>
SELECT PASSWORD('badpwd');-> '*AAB3E285149C0135D51A520E1940DD3263DC008C'PASSWORD()encryption is one-way (not reversible).PASSWORD()does not perform password encryption in the same way that Unix passwords are encrypted. SeeENCRYPT().Note
The
PASSWORD()function is used by the authentication system in MySQL Server; you should not use it in your own applications. For that purpose, considerMD5()orSHA1()instead. Also see RFC 2195, section 2 (Challenge-Response Authentication Mechanism (CRAM)), for more information about handling passwords and authentication securely in your applications.Calculates an SHA-1 160-bit checksum for the string, as described in RFC 3174 (Secure Hash Algorithm). The value is returned as a binary string of 40 hex digits, or
NULLif the argument wasNULL. One of the possible uses for this function is as a hash key. You can also use it as a cryptographic function for storing passwords.SHA()is synonymous withSHA1().mysql>
SELECT SHA1('abc');-> 'a9993e364706816aba3e25717850c26c9cd0d89d'SHA1()can be considered a cryptographically more secure equivalent ofMD5(). However, see the note regarding the MD5 and SHA-1 algorithms at the beginning this section.UNCOMPRESS(string_to_uncompress)Uncompresses a string compressed by the
COMPRESS()function. If the argument is not a compressed value, the result isNULL. This function requires MySQL to have been compiled with a compression library such aszlib. Otherwise, the return value is alwaysNULL.mysql>
SELECT UNCOMPRESS(COMPRESS('any string'));-> 'any string' mysql>SELECT UNCOMPRESS('any string');-> NULLUNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH(compressed_string)Returns the length that the compressed string had before being compressed.
mysql>
SELECT UNCOMPRESSED_LENGTH(COMPRESS(REPEAT('a',30)));-> 30
Table 11.18. Information Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
BENCHMARK() | Repeatedly execute an expression |
CHARSET()(v4.1.0) | Return the character set of the argument |
COERCIBILITY()(v4.1.1) | Return the collation coercibility value of the string argument |
COLLATION()(v4.1.0) | Return the collation of the string argument |
CONNECTION_ID() | Return the connection ID (thread ID) for the connection |
CURRENT_USER(), CURRENT_USER | The authenticated user name and host name |
DATABASE() | Return the default (current) database name |
FOUND_ROWS() | For a SELECT with a LIMIT clause, the number of rows that would be returned were there no LIMIT clause |
LAST_INSERT_ID() | Value of the AUTOINCREMENT column for the last INSERT |
ROW_COUNT()(v5.0.1) | The number of rows updated |
SCHEMA()(v5.0.2) | A synonym for DATABASE() |
SESSION_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
SYSTEM_USER() | Synonym for USER() |
USER() | The user name and host name provided by the client |
VERSION() | Returns a string that indicates the MySQL server version |
The
BENCHMARK()function executes the expressionexprrepeatedlycounttimes. It may be used to time how quickly MySQL processes the expression. The result value is always0. The intended use is from within the mysql client, which reports query execution times:mysql>
SELECT BENCHMARK(1000000,ENCODE('hello','goodbye'));+----------------------------------------------+ | BENCHMARK(1000000,ENCODE('hello','goodbye')) | +----------------------------------------------+ | 0 | +----------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (4.74 sec)The time reported is elapsed time on the client end, not CPU time on the server end. It is advisable to execute
BENCHMARK()several times, and to interpret the result with regard to how heavily loaded the server machine is.BENCHMARK()is intended for measuring the runtime performance of scalar expressions, which has some significant implications for the way that you use it and interpret the results:Only scalar expressions can be used. Although the expression can be a subquery, it must return a single column and at most a single row. For example,
BENCHMARK(10, (SELECT * FROM t))will fail if the tablethas more than one column or more than one row.Executing a
SELECTstatementexprNtimes differs from executingSELECT BENCHMARK(in terms of the amount of overhead involved. The two have very different execution profiles and you should not expect them to take the same amount of time. The former involves the parser, optimizer, table locking, and runtime evaluationN,expr)Ntimes each. The latter involves only runtime evaluationNtimes, and all the other components just once. Memory structures already allocated are reused, and runtime optimizations such as local caching of results already evaluated for aggregate functions can alter the results. Use ofBENCHMARK()thus measures performance of the runtime component by giving more weight to that component and removing the “noise” introduced by the network, parser, optimizer, and so forth.
Returns the character set of the string argument.
mysql>
SELECT CHARSET('abc');-> 'latin1' mysql>SELECT CHARSET(CONVERT('abc' USING utf8));-> 'utf8' mysql>SELECT CHARSET(USER());-> 'utf8'Returns the collation coercibility value of the string argument.
mysql>
SELECT COERCIBILITY('abc' COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci);-> 0 mysql>SELECT COERCIBILITY(USER());-> 3 mysql>SELECT COERCIBILITY('abc');-> 4The return values have the meanings shown in the following table. Lower values have higher precedence.
Coercibility Meaning Example 0Explicit collation Value with COLLATEclause1No collation Concatenation of strings with different collations 2Implicit collation Column value, stored routine parameter or local variable 3System constant USER()return value4Coercible Literal string 5Ignorable NULLor an expression derived fromNULLReturns the collation of the string argument.
mysql>
SELECT COLLATION('abc');-> 'latin1_swedish_ci' mysql>SELECT COLLATION(_utf8'abc');-> 'utf8_general_ci'Returns the connection ID (thread ID) for the connection. Every connection has an ID that is unique among the set of currently connected clients.
mysql>
SELECT CONNECTION_ID();-> 23786Returns the user name and host name combination for the MySQL account that the server used to authenticate the current client. This account determines your access privileges. The return value is a string in the
utf8character set.The value of
CURRENT_USER()can differ from the value ofUSER().mysql>
SELECT USER();-> 'davida@localhost' mysql>SELECT * FROM mysql.user;ERROR 1044: Access denied for user ''@'localhost' to database 'mysql' mysql>SELECT CURRENT_USER();-> '@localhost'The example illustrates that although the client specified a user name of
davida(as indicated by the value of theUSER()function), the server authenticated the client using an anonymous user account (as seen by the empty user name part of theCURRENT_USER()value). One way this might occur is that there is no account listed in the grant tables fordavida.Within a stored program or view,
CURRENT_USER()returns the account for the user who defined the object (as given by itsDEFINERvalue). For stored procedures and functions and views defined with theSQL SECURITY INVOKERcharacteristic,CURRENT_USER()returns the object's invoker.Returns the default (current) database name as a string in the
utf8character set. If there is no default database,DATABASE()returnsNULL. Within a stored routine, the default database is the database that the routine is associated with, which is not necessarily the same as the database that is the default in the calling context.mysql>
SELECT DATABASE();-> 'test'If there is no default database,
DATABASE()returnsNULL.A
SELECTstatement may include aLIMITclause to restrict the number of rows the server returns to the client. In some cases, it is desirable to know how many rows the statement would have returned without theLIMIT, but without running the statement again. To obtain this row count, include aSQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSoption in theSELECTstatement, and then invokeFOUND_ROWS()afterward:mysql>
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS * FROM->tbl_nameWHERE id > 100 LIMIT 10;mysql>SELECT FOUND_ROWS();The second
SELECTreturns a number indicating how many rows the firstSELECTwould have returned had it been written without theLIMITclause.In the absence of the
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSoption in the most recent successfulSELECTstatement,FOUND_ROWS()returns the number of rows in the result set returned by that statement. If the statement includes aLIMITclause,FOUND_ROWS()returns the number of rows up to the limit. For example,FOUND_ROWS()returns 10 or 60, respectively, if the statement includesLIMIT 10orLIMIT 50, 10.The row count available through
FOUND_ROWS()is transient and not intended to be available past the statement following theSELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSstatement. If you need to refer to the value later, save it:mysql>
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS * FROM ... ;mysql>SET @rows = FOUND_ROWS();If you are using
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS, MySQL must calculate how many rows are in the full result set. However, this is faster than running the query again withoutLIMIT, because the result set need not be sent to the client.SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSandFOUND_ROWS()can be useful in situations when you want to restrict the number of rows that a query returns, but also determine the number of rows in the full result set without running the query again. An example is a Web script that presents a paged display containing links to the pages that show other sections of a search result. UsingFOUND_ROWS()allows you to determine how many other pages are needed for the rest of the result.The use of
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSandFOUND_ROWS()is more complex forUNIONstatements than for simpleSELECTstatements, becauseLIMITmay occur at multiple places in aUNION. It may be applied to individualSELECTstatements in theUNION, or global to theUNIONresult as a whole.The intent of
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSforUNIONis that it should return the row count that would be returned without a globalLIMIT. The conditions for use ofSQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSwithUNIONare:The
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSkeyword must appear in the firstSELECTof theUNION.The value of
FOUND_ROWS()is exact only ifUNION ALLis used. IfUNIONwithoutALLis used, duplicate removal occurs and the value ofFOUND_ROWS()is only approximate.If no
LIMITis present in theUNION,SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWSis ignored and returns the number of rows in the temporary table that is created to process theUNION.
Beyond the cases described here, the behavior of
FOUND_ROWS()is undefined (for example, its value following aSELECTstatement that fails with an error).Important
FOUND_ROWS()is not replicated reliably using statement-based replication. Starting with MySQL 5.1.23, this function is automatically replicated using row-based replication.LAST_INSERT_ID(),LAST_INSERT_ID(expr)For MySQL 5.1.12 and later,
LAST_INSERT_ID()(no arguments) returns the first automatically generated value successfully inserted for anAUTO_INCREMENTcolumn as a result of the most recently executedINSERTstatement. The value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()remains unchanged if no rows are successfully inserted.For example, after inserting a row that generates an
AUTO_INCREMENTvalue, you can get the value like this:mysql>
SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();-> 195In MySQL 5.1.11 and earlier,
LAST_INSERT_ID()(no arguments) returns the first automatically generated value if any rows were successfully inserted or updated. This means that the returned value could be a value that was not successfully inserted into the table. If no rows were successfully inserted,LAST_INSERT_ID()returns 0.The value of
LAST_INSERT_ID()will be consistent across all versions if all rows in theINSERTorUPDATEstatement were successful.if a table contains an
AUTO_INCREMENTcolumn andINSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATEupdates (rather than inserts) a row, the value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()is not meaningful prior to MySQL 5.1.12. For a workaround, see Section 12.2.5.3, “INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATESyntax”.The currently executing statement does not affect the value of
LAST_INSERT_ID(). Suppose that you generate anAUTO_INCREMENTvalue with one statement, and then refer toLAST_INSERT_ID()in a multiple-rowINSERTstatement that inserts rows into a table with its ownAUTO_INCREMENTcolumn. The value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()will remain stable in the second statement; its value for the second and later rows is not affected by the earlier row insertions. (However, if you mix references toLAST_INSERT_ID()andLAST_INSERT_ID(, the effect is undefined.)expr)If the previous statement returned an error, the value of
LAST_INSERT_ID()is undefined. For transactional tables, if the statement is rolled back due to an error, the value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()is left undefined. For manualROLLBACK, the value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()is not restored to that before the transaction; it remains as it was at the point of theROLLBACK.Within the body of a stored routine (procedure or function) or a trigger, the value of
LAST_INSERT_ID()changes the same way as for statements executed outside the body of these kinds of objects. The effect of a stored routine or trigger upon the value ofLAST_INSERT_ID()that is seen by following statements depends on the kind of routine:If a stored procedure executes statements that change the value of
LAST_INSERT_ID(), the changed value will be seen by statements that follow the procedure call.For stored functions and triggers that change the value, the value is restored when the function or trigger ends, so following statements will not see a changed value.
The ID that was generated is maintained in the server on a per-connection basis. This means that the value returned by the function to a given client is the first
AUTO_INCREMENTvalue generated for most recent statement affecting anAUTO_INCREMENTcolumn by that client. This value cannot be affected by other clients, even if they generateAUTO_INCREMENTvalues of their own. This behavior ensures that each client can retrieve its own ID without concern for the activity of other clients, and without the need for locks or transactions.The value of
LAST_INSERT_ID()is not changed if you set theAUTO_INCREMENTcolumn of a row to a non-“magic” value (that is, a value that is notNULLand not0).Important
If you insert multiple rows using a single
INSERTstatement,LAST_INSERT_ID()returns the value generated for the first inserted row only. The reason for this is to make it possible to reproduce easily the sameINSERTstatement against some other server.For example:
mysql>
USE test;Database changed mysql>CREATE TABLE t (->id INT AUTO_INCREMENT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,->name VARCHAR(10) NOT NULL->);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES (NULL, 'Bob');Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT * FROM t;+----+------+ | id | name | +----+------+ | 1 | Bob | +----+------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();+------------------+ | LAST_INSERT_ID() | +------------------+ | 1 | +------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES->(NULL, 'Mary'), (NULL, 'Jane'), (NULL, 'Lisa');Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec) Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql> SELECT * FROM t; +----+------+ | id | name | +----+------+ | 1 | Bob | | 2 | Mary | | 3 | Jane | | 4 | Lisa | +----+------+ 4 rows in set (0.01 sec) mysql>SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();+------------------+ | LAST_INSERT_ID() | +------------------+ | 2 | +------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)Although the second
INSERTstatement inserted three new rows intot, the ID generated for the first of these rows was2, and it is this value that is returned byLAST_INSERT_ID()for the followingSELECTstatement.If you use
INSERT IGNOREand the row is ignored, theAUTO_INCREMENTcounter is not incremented andLAST_INSERT_ID()returns0, which reflects that no row was inserted.If
expris given as an argument toLAST_INSERT_ID(), the value of the argument is returned by the function and is remembered as the next value to be returned byLAST_INSERT_ID(). This can be used to simulate sequences:Create a table to hold the sequence counter and initialize it:
mysql>
CREATE TABLE sequence (id INT NOT NULL);mysql>INSERT INTO sequence VALUES (0);Use the table to generate sequence numbers like this:
mysql>
UPDATE sequence SET id=LAST_INSERT_ID(id+1);mysql>SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID();The
UPDATEstatement increments the sequence counter and causes the next call toLAST_INSERT_ID()to return the updated value. TheSELECTstatement retrieves that value. Themysql_insert_id()C API function can also be used to get the value. See Section 20.10.3.37, “mysql_insert_id()”.
You can generate sequences without calling
LAST_INSERT_ID(), but the utility of using the function this way is that the ID value is maintained in the server as the last automatically generated value. It is multi-user safe because multiple clients can issue theUPDATEstatement and get their own sequence value with theSELECTstatement (ormysql_insert_id()), without affecting or being affected by other clients that generate their own sequence values.Note that
mysql_insert_id()is only updated afterINSERTandUPDATEstatements, so you cannot use the C API function to retrieve the value forLAST_INSERT_ID(after executing other SQL statements likeexpr)SELECTorSET.ROW_COUNT()returns the number of rows updated, inserted, or deleted by the preceding statement. This is the same as the row count that the mysql client displays and the value from themysql_affected_rows()C API function.mysql>
INSERT INTO t VALUES(1),(2),(3);Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec) Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>SELECT ROW_COUNT();+-------------+ | ROW_COUNT() | +-------------+ | 3 | +-------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) mysql>DELETE FROM t WHERE i IN(1,2);Query OK, 2 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT ROW_COUNT();+-------------+ | ROW_COUNT() | +-------------+ | 2 | +-------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)Important
ROW_COUNT()is not replicated reliably using statement-based replication. Beginning with MySQL 5.1.23, this function is automatically replicated using row-based replication. (Bug#30244)This function is a synonym for
DATABASE().SESSION_USER()is a synonym forUSER().SYSTEM_USER()is a synonym forUSER().Returns the current MySQL user name and host name as a string in the
utf8character set.mysql>
SELECT USER();-> 'davida@localhost'The value indicates the user name you specified when connecting to the server, and the client host from which you connected. The value can be different from that of
CURRENT_USER().You can extract only the user name part like this:
mysql>
SELECT SUBSTRING_INDEX(USER(),'@',1);-> 'davida'Returns a string that indicates the MySQL server version. The string uses the
utf8character set.mysql>
SELECT VERSION();-> '5.1.40-standard'Note that if your version string ends with
-logthis means that logging is enabled.
Table 11.19. Miscellaneous Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
DEFAULT() | Return the default value for a table column |
GET_LOCK() | Get a named lock |
INET_ATON() | Return the numeric value of an IP address |
INET_NTOA() | Return the IP address from a numeric value |
IS_FREE_LOCK() | Checks whether the named lock is free |
IS_USED_LOCK()(v4.1.0) | Checks whether the named lock is in use. Return connection identifier if true. |
MASTER_POS_WAIT() | Block until the slave has read and applied all updates up to the specified position |
NAME_CONST()(v5.0.12) | Causes the column to have the given name |
RAND() | Return a random floating-point value |
RELEASE_LOCK() | Releases the named lock |
SLEEP()(v5.0.12) | Sleep for a number of seconds |
UUID_SHORT()(v5.1.20) | Return an integer-valued universal identifier |
UUID()(v4.1.2) | Return a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) |
VALUES()(v4.1.1) | Defines the values to be used during an INSERT |
Returns the default value for a table column. An error results if the column has no default value.
mysql>
UPDATE t SET i = DEFAULT(i)+1 WHERE id < 100;Formats the number
Xto a format like'#,###,###.##', rounded toDdecimal places, and returns the result as a string. For details, see Section 11.4, “String Functions”.Tries to obtain a lock with a name given by the string
str, using a timeout oftimeoutseconds. Returns1if the lock was obtained successfully,0if the attempt timed out (for example, because another client has previously locked the name), orNULLif an error occurred (such as running out of memory or the thread was killed with mysqladmin kill). If you have a lock obtained withGET_LOCK(), it is released when you executeRELEASE_LOCK(), execute a newGET_LOCK(), or your connection terminates (either normally or abnormally). Locks obtained withGET_LOCK()do not interact with transactions. That is, committing a transaction does not release any such locks obtained during the transaction.This function can be used to implement application locks or to simulate record locks. Names are locked on a server-wide basis. If a name has been locked by one client,
GET_LOCK()blocks any request by another client for a lock with the same name. This allows clients that agree on a given lock name to use the name to perform cooperative advisory locking. But be aware that it also allows a client that is not among the set of cooperating clients to lock a name, either inadvertently or deliberately, and thus prevent any of the cooperating clients from locking that name. One way to reduce the likelihood of this is to use lock names that are database-specific or application-specific. For example, use lock names of the formdb_name.strorapp_name.str.mysql>
SELECT GET_LOCK('lock1',10);-> 1 mysql>SELECT IS_FREE_LOCK('lock2');-> 1 mysql>SELECT GET_LOCK('lock2',10);-> 1 mysql>SELECT RELEASE_LOCK('lock2');-> 1 mysql>SELECT RELEASE_LOCK('lock1');-> NULLThe second
RELEASE_LOCK()call returnsNULLbecause the lock'lock1'was automatically released by the secondGET_LOCK()call.If multiple clients are waiting for a lock, the order in which they will acquire it is undefined and depends on factors such as the thread library in use. In particular, applications should not assume that clients will acquire the lock in the same order that they issued the lock requests.
Note
If a client attempts to acquire a lock that is already held by another client, it blocks according to the
timeoutargument. If the blocked client terminates, its thread does not die until the lock request times out. This is a known bug (fixed in MySQL 5.4).Given the dotted-quad representation of a network address as a string, returns an integer that represents the numeric value of the address. Addresses may be 4- or 8-byte addresses.
mysql>
SELECT INET_ATON('209.207.224.40');-> 3520061480The generated number is always in network byte order. For the example just shown, the number is calculated as 209×2563 + 207×2562 + 224×256 + 40.
INET_ATON()also understands short-form IP addresses:mysql>
SELECT INET_ATON('127.0.0.1'), INET_ATON('127.1');-> 2130706433, 2130706433Note
When storing values generated by
INET_ATON(), it is recommended that you use anINT UNSIGNEDcolumn. If you use a (signed)INTcolumn, values corresponding to IP addresses for which the first octet is greater than 127 cannot be stored correctly. See Section 10.2, “Numeric Types”.Given a numeric network address in network byte order (4 or 8 byte), returns the dotted-quad representation of the address as a string.
mysql>
SELECT INET_NTOA(3520061480);-> '209.207.224.40'Checks whether the lock named
stris free to use (that is, not locked). Returns1if the lock is free (no one is using the lock),0if the lock is in use, andNULLif an error occurs (such as an incorrect argument).Checks whether the lock named
stris in use (that is, locked). If so, it returns the connection identifier of the client that holds the lock. Otherwise, it returnsNULL.MASTER_POS_WAIT(log_name,log_pos[,timeout])This function is useful for control of master/slave synchronization. It blocks until the slave has read and applied all updates up to the specified position in the master log. The return value is the number of log events the slave had to wait for to advance to the specified position. The function returns
NULLif the slave SQL thread is not started, the slave's master information is not initialized, the arguments are incorrect, or an error occurs. It returns-1if the timeout has been exceeded. If the slave SQL thread stops whileMASTER_POS_WAIT()is waiting, the function returnsNULL. If the slave is past the specified position, the function returns immediately.If a
timeoutvalue is specified,MASTER_POS_WAIT()stops waiting whentimeoutseconds have elapsed.timeoutmust be greater than 0; a zero or negativetimeoutmeans no timeout.Returns the given value. When used to produce a result set column,
NAME_CONST()causes the column to have the given name. The arguments should be constants.mysql>
SELECT NAME_CONST('myname', 14);+--------+ | myname | +--------+ | 14 | +--------+This function was added in MySQL 5.0.12. It is for internal use only. The server uses it when writing statements from stored programs that contain references to local program variables, as described in Section 18.6, “Binary Logging of Stored Programs”, You might see this function in the output from mysqlbinlog.
Releases the lock named by the string
strthat was obtained withGET_LOCK(). Returns1if the lock was released,0if the lock was not established by this thread (in which case the lock is not released), andNULLif the named lock did not exist. The lock does not exist if it was never obtained by a call toGET_LOCK()or if it has previously been released.The
DOstatement is convenient to use withRELEASE_LOCK(). See Section 12.2.3, “DOSyntax”.Sleeps (pauses) for the number of seconds given by the
durationargument, then returns 0. IfSLEEP()is interrupted, it returns 1. The duration may have a fractional part given in microseconds.Returns a Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) generated according to “DCE 1.1: Remote Procedure Call” (Appendix A) CAE (Common Applications Environment) Specifications published by The Open Group in October 1997 (Document Number C706, http://www.opengroup.org/public/pubs/catalog/c706.htm).
A UUID is designed as a number that is globally unique in space and time. Two calls to
UUID()are expected to generate two different values, even if these calls are performed on two separate computers that are not connected to each other.A UUID is a 128-bit number represented by a
utf8string of five hexadecimal numbers inaaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeeeformat:The first three numbers are generated from a timestamp.
The fourth number preserves temporal uniqueness in case the timestamp value loses monotonicity (for example, due to daylight saving time).
The fifth number is an IEEE 802 node number that provides spatial uniqueness. A random number is substituted if the latter is not available (for example, because the host computer has no Ethernet card, or we do not know how to find the hardware address of an interface on your operating system). In this case, spatial uniqueness cannot be guaranteed. Nevertheless, a collision should have very low probability.
Currently, the MAC address of an interface is taken into account only on FreeBSD and Linux. On other operating systems, MySQL uses a randomly generated 48-bit number.
mysql>
SELECT UUID();-> '6ccd780c-baba-1026-9564-0040f4311e29'Warning
The
UUID()function returns a string using the character set defined by thecharacter_set_serverparameter. If you are using UUID values in your tables and these columns are indexed the character set of your column or table should match the character set used when theUUID()was called. If you do not use the same character set for the column and the UUID value, then the indexes on those columns will not be used, which may lead to a reduction in performance and locked tables during operations as the table is searched sequentially for the value.You can convert between different character sets when using UUID-based strings using the
CONVERT()function.Note
UUID()does not work with statement-based replication.Returns a “short” universal identifier as a 64-bit unsigned integer (rather than a string-form 128-bit identifier as returned by the
UUID()function).The value of
UUID_SHORT()is guaranteed to be unique if the following conditions hold:The
server_idof the current host is unique among your set of master and slave serversserver_idis between 0 and 255You don't set back your system time for your server between mysqld restarts
You do not invoke
UUID_SHORT()on average more than 16 million times per second between mysqld restarts
The
UUID_SHORT()return value is constructed this way:(server_id & 255) << 56 + (server_startup_time_in_seconds << 24) + incremented_variable++;
mysql>
SELECT UUID_SHORT();-> 92395783831158784Note that
UUID_SHORT()does not work with statement-based replication.This function was added in MySQL 5.1.20.
In an
INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATEstatement, you can use theVALUES(function in thecol_name)UPDATEclause to refer to column values from theINSERTportion of the statement. In other words,VALUES(in thecol_name)UPDATEclause refers to the value ofcol_namethat would be inserted, had no duplicate-key conflict occurred. This function is especially useful in multiple-row inserts. TheVALUES()function is meaningful only inINSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATEstatements and returnsNULLotherwise. Section 12.2.5.3, “INSERT ... ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATESyntax”.mysql>
INSERT INTO table (a,b,c) VALUES (1,2,3),(4,5,6)->ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE c=VALUES(a)+VALUES(b);
Table 11.20. Aggregate (GROUP BY)
Functions
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
AVG() | Return the average value of the argument |
BIT_AND() | Return bitwise and |
BIT_OR() | Return bitwise or |
BIT_XOR()(v4.1.1) | Return bitwise xor |
COUNT(DISTINCT) | Return the count of a number of different values |
COUNT() | Return a count of the number of rows returned |
GROUP_CONCAT()(v4.1) | Return a concatenated string |
MAX() | Return the maximum value |
MIN() | Return the minimum value |
STD() | Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_POP()(v5.0.3) | Return the population standard deviation |
STDDEV_SAMP()(v5.0.3) | Return the sample standard deviation |
STDDEV() | Return the population standard deviation |
SUM() | Return the sum |
VAR_POP()(v5.0.3) | Return the population standard variance |
VAR_SAMP()(v5.0.3) | Return the sample variance |
VARIANCE()(v4.1) | Return the population standard variance |
This section describes group (aggregate) functions that operate
on sets of values. Unless otherwise stated, group functions
ignore NULL values.
If you use a group function in a statement containing no
GROUP BY clause, it is equivalent to grouping
on all rows. For more information, see
Section 11.12.3, “GROUP BY and HAVING with Hidden
Columns”.
For numeric arguments, the variance and standard deviation
functions return a DOUBLE value.
The SUM() and
AVG() functions return a
DECIMAL value for exact-value
arguments (integer or DECIMAL),
and a DOUBLE value for
approximate-value arguments
(FLOAT or
DOUBLE).
The SUM() and
AVG() aggregate functions do not
work with temporal values. (They convert the values to numbers,
losing everything after the first nonnumeric character.) To work
around this problem, you can convert to numeric units, perform
the aggregate operation, and convert back to a temporal value.
Examples:
SELECT SEC_TO_TIME(SUM(TIME_TO_SEC(time_col))) FROMtbl_name; SELECT FROM_DAYS(SUM(TO_DAYS(date_col))) FROMtbl_name;
Functions such as SUM() or
AVG() that expect a numeric
argument cast the argument to a number if necessary. For
SET or
ENUM values, the cast operation
causes the underlying numeric value to be used.
Returns the average value of
. TheexprDISTINCToption can be used to return the average of the distinct values ofexpr.AVG()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, AVG(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;Returns the bitwise
ANDof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
18446744073709551615if there were no matching rows. (This is the value of an unsignedBIGINTvalue with all bits set to 1.)Returns the bitwise
ORof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
0if there were no matching rows.Returns the bitwise
XORof all bits inexpr. The calculation is performed with 64-bit (BIGINT) precision.This function returns
0if there were no matching rows.Returns a count of the number of non-
NULLvalues ofexprin the rows retrieved by aSELECTstatement. The result is aBIGINTvalue.COUNT()returns0if there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student.student_name,COUNT(*)->FROM student,course->WHERE student.student_id=course.student_id->GROUP BY student_name;COUNT(*)is somewhat different in that it returns a count of the number of rows retrieved, whether or not they containNULLvalues.COUNT(*)is optimized to return very quickly if theSELECTretrieves from one table, no other columns are retrieved, and there is noWHEREclause. For example:mysql>
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM student;This optimization applies only to
MyISAMtables only, because an exact row count is stored for this storage engine and can be accessed very quickly. For transactional storage engines such asInnoDB, storing an exact row count is more problematic because multiple transactions may be occurring, each of which may affect the count.COUNT(DISTINCTexpr,[expr...])Returns a count of the number of different non-
NULLvalues.COUNT(DISTINCT)returns0if there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT results) FROM student;In MySQL, you can obtain the number of distinct expression combinations that do not contain
NULLby giving a list of expressions. In standard SQL, you would have to do a concatenation of all expressions insideCOUNT(DISTINCT ...).This function returns a string result with the concatenated non-
NULLvalues from a group. It returnsNULLif there are no non-NULLvalues. The full syntax is as follows:GROUP_CONCAT([DISTINCT]
expr[,expr...] [ORDER BY {unsigned_integer|col_name|expr} [ASC | DESC] [,col_name...]] [SEPARATORstr_val])mysql>
SELECT student_name,->GROUP_CONCAT(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;Or:
mysql>
SELECT student_name,->GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT test_score->ORDER BY test_score DESC SEPARATOR ' ')->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;In MySQL, you can get the concatenated values of expression combinations. You can eliminate duplicate values by using
DISTINCT. If you want to sort values in the result, you should useORDER BYclause. To sort in reverse order, add theDESC(descending) keyword to the name of the column you are sorting by in theORDER BYclause. The default is ascending order; this may be specified explicitly using theASCkeyword.SEPARATORis followed by the string value that should be inserted between values of result. The default is a comma (“,”). You can eliminate the separator altogether by specifyingSEPARATOR ''.The result is truncated to the maximum length that is given by the
group_concat_max_lensystem variable, which has a default value of 1024. The value can be set higher, although the effective maximum length of the return value is constrained by the value ofmax_allowed_packet. The syntax to change the value ofgroup_concat_max_lenat runtime is as follows, wherevalis an unsigned integer:SET [GLOBAL | SESSION] group_concat_max_len =
val;See also
CONCAT()andCONCAT_WS(): Section 11.4, “String Functions”.Returns the maximum value of
expr.MAX()may take a string argument; in such cases, it returns the maximum string value. See Section 7.4.4, “How MySQL Uses Indexes”. TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used to find the maximum of the distinct values ofexpr, however, this produces the same result as omittingDISTINCT.MAX()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, MIN(test_score), MAX(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;For
MAX(), MySQL currently comparesENUMandSETcolumns by their string value rather than by the string's relative position in the set. This differs from howORDER BYcompares them. This is expected to be rectified in a future MySQL release.Returns the minimum value of
expr.MIN()may take a string argument; in such cases, it returns the minimum string value. See Section 7.4.4, “How MySQL Uses Indexes”. TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used to find the minimum of the distinct values ofexpr, however, this produces the same result as omittingDISTINCT.MIN()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.mysql>
SELECT student_name, MIN(test_score), MAX(test_score)->FROM student->GROUP BY student_name;For
MIN(), MySQL currently comparesENUMandSETcolumns by their string value rather than by the string's relative position in the set. This differs from howORDER BYcompares them. This is expected to be rectified in a future MySQL release.Returns the population standard deviation of
expr. This is an extension to standard SQL. The standard SQL functionSTDDEV_POP()can be used instead.This function returns
NULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the population standard deviation of
expr. This function is provided for compatibility with Oracle. The standard SQL functionSTDDEV_POP()can be used instead.This function returns
NULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the population standard deviation of
expr(the square root ofVAR_POP()). You can also useSTD()orSTDDEV(), which are equivalent but not standard SQL.STDDEV_POP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the sample standard deviation of
expr(the square root ofVAR_SAMP().STDDEV_SAMP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the sum of
expr. If the return set has no rows,SUM()returnsNULL. TheDISTINCTkeyword can be used in MySQL 5.1 to sum only the distinct values ofexpr.SUM()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the population standard variance of
expr. It considers rows as the whole population, not as a sample, so it has the number of rows as the denominator. You can also useVARIANCE(), which is equivalent but is not standard SQL.VAR_POP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the sample variance of
expr. That is, the denominator is the number of rows minus one.VAR_SAMP()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.Returns the population standard variance of
expr. This is an extension to standard SQL. The standard SQL functionVAR_POP()can be used instead.VARIANCE()returnsNULLif there were no matching rows.
The GROUP BY clause allows a WITH
ROLLUP modifier that causes extra rows to be added to
the summary output. These rows represent higher-level (or
super-aggregate) summary operations. ROLLUP
thus allows you to answer questions at multiple levels of
analysis with a single query. It can be used, for example, to
provide support for OLAP (Online Analytical Processing)
operations.
Suppose that a table named sales has
year, country,
product, and profit
columns for recording sales profitability:
CREATE TABLE sales
(
year INT NOT NULL,
country VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
product VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL,
profit INT
);
The table's contents can be summarized per year with a simple
GROUP BY like this:
mysql> SELECT year, SUM(profit) FROM sales GROUP BY year;
+------+-------------+
| year | SUM(profit) |
+------+-------------+
| 2000 | 4525 |
| 2001 | 3010 |
+------+-------------+
This output shows the total profit for each year, but if you also want to determine the total profit summed over all years, you must add up the individual values yourself or run an additional query.
Or you can use ROLLUP, which provides both
levels of analysis with a single query. Adding a WITH
ROLLUP modifier to the GROUP BY
clause causes the query to produce another row that shows the
grand total over all year values:
mysql> SELECT year, SUM(profit) FROM sales GROUP BY year WITH ROLLUP;
+------+-------------+
| year | SUM(profit) |
+------+-------------+
| 2000 | 4525 |
| 2001 | 3010 |
| NULL | 7535 |
+------+-------------+
The grand total super-aggregate line is identified by the value
NULL in the year column.
ROLLUP has a more complex effect when there
are multiple GROUP BY columns. In this case,
each time there is a “break” (change in value) in
any but the last grouping column, the query produces an extra
super-aggregate summary row.
For example, without ROLLUP, a summary on the
sales table based on year,
country, and product might
look like this:
mysql>SELECT year, country, product, SUM(profit)->FROM sales->GROUP BY year, country, product;+------+---------+------------+-------------+ | year | country | product | SUM(profit) | +------+---------+------------+-------------+ | 2000 | Finland | Computer | 1500 | | 2000 | Finland | Phone | 100 | | 2000 | India | Calculator | 150 | | 2000 | India | Computer | 1200 | | 2000 | USA | Calculator | 75 | | 2000 | USA | Computer | 1500 | | 2001 | Finland | Phone | 10 | | 2001 | USA | Calculator | 50 | | 2001 | USA | Computer | 2700 | | 2001 | USA | TV | 250 | +------+---------+------------+-------------+
The output indicates summary values only at the
year/country/product level of analysis. When
ROLLUP is added, the query produces several
extra rows:
mysql>SELECT year, country, product, SUM(profit)->FROM sales->GROUP BY year, country, product WITH ROLLUP;+------+---------+------------+-------------+ | year | country | product | SUM(profit) | +------+---------+------------+-------------+ | 2000 | Finland | Computer | 1500 | | 2000 | Finland | Phone | 100 | | 2000 | Finland | NULL | 1600 | | 2000 | India | Calculator | 150 | | 2000 | India | Computer | 1200 | | 2000 | India | NULL | 1350 | | 2000 | USA | Calculator | 75 | | 2000 | USA | Computer | 1500 | | 2000 | USA | NULL | 1575 | | 2000 | NULL | NULL | 4525 | | 2001 | Finland | Phone | 10 | | 2001 | Finland | NULL | 10 | | 2001 | USA | Calculator | 50 | | 2001 | USA | Computer | 2700 | | 2001 | USA | TV | 250 | | 2001 | USA | NULL | 3000 | | 2001 | NULL | NULL | 3010 | | NULL | NULL | NULL | 7535 | +------+---------+------------+-------------+
For this query, adding ROLLUP causes the
output to include summary information at four levels of
analysis, not just one. Here is how to interpret the
ROLLUP output:
Following each set of product rows for a given year and country, an extra summary row is produced showing the total for all products. These rows have the
productcolumn set toNULL.Following each set of rows for a given year, an extra summary row is produced showing the total for all countries and products. These rows have the
countryandproductscolumns set toNULL.Finally, following all other rows, an extra summary row is produced showing the grand total for all years, countries, and products. This row has the
year,country, andproductscolumns set toNULL.
Other Considerations When using
ROLLUP
The following items list some behaviors specific to the MySQL
implementation of ROLLUP:
When you use ROLLUP, you cannot also use an
ORDER BY clause to sort the results. In other
words, ROLLUP and ORDER BY
are mutually exclusive. However, you still have some control
over sort order. GROUP BY in MySQL sorts
results, and you can use explicit ASC and
DESC keywords with columns named in the
GROUP BY list to specify sort order for
individual columns. (The higher-level summary rows added by
ROLLUP still appear after the rows from which
they are calculated, regardless of the sort order.)
LIMIT can be used to restrict the number of
rows returned to the client. LIMIT is applied
after ROLLUP, so the limit applies against
the extra rows added by ROLLUP. For example:
mysql>SELECT year, country, product, SUM(profit)->FROM sales->GROUP BY year, country, product WITH ROLLUP->LIMIT 5;+------+---------+------------+-------------+ | year | country | product | SUM(profit) | +------+---------+------------+-------------+ | 2000 | Finland | Computer | 1500 | | 2000 | Finland | Phone | 100 | | 2000 | Finland | NULL | 1600 | | 2000 | India | Calculator | 150 | | 2000 | India | Computer | 1200 | +------+---------+------------+-------------+
Using LIMIT with ROLLUP
may produce results that are more difficult to interpret,
because you have less context for understanding the
super-aggregate rows.
The NULL indicators in each super-aggregate
row are produced when the row is sent to the client. The server
looks at the columns named in the GROUP BY
clause following the leftmost one that has changed value. For
any column in the result set with a name that is a lexical match
to any of those names, its value is set to
NULL. (If you specify grouping columns by
column number, the server identifies which columns to set to
NULL by number.)
Because the NULL values in the
super-aggregate rows are placed into the result set at such a
late stage in query processing, you cannot test them as
NULL values within the query itself. For
example, you cannot add HAVING product IS
NULL to the query to eliminate from the output all but
the super-aggregate rows.
On the other hand, the NULL values do appear
as NULL on the client side and can be tested
as such using any MySQL client programming interface.
MySQL extends the use of GROUP BY so that you
can use nonaggregated columns or calculations in the
SELECT list that do not appear in
the GROUP BY clause. You can use this feature
to get better performance by avoiding unnecessary column sorting
and grouping. For example, you do not need to group on
customer.name in the following query:
SELECT order.custid, customer.name, MAX(payments) FROM order,customer WHERE order.custid = customer.custid GROUP BY order.custid;
In standard SQL, you would have to add
customer.name to the GROUP
BY clause. In MySQL, the name is redundant.
When using this feature, all rows in each group should have the
same values for the columns that are ommitted from the
GROUP BY part. The server is free to return
any value from the group, so the results are indeterminate
unless all values are the same.
A similar MySQL extension applies to the
HAVING clause. The SQL standard does not
allow the HAVING clause to name any column
that is not found in the GROUP BY clause if
it is not enclosed in an aggregate function. MySQL allows the
use of such columns to simplify calculations. This extension
assumes that the nongrouped columns will have the same
group-wise values. Otherwise, the result is indeterminate.
If the ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY SQL
mode is enabled, the MySQL extension to GROUP
BY does not apply. That is, columns not named in the
GROUP BY clause cannot be used in the
SELECT list or
HAVING clause if not used in an aggregate
function.
The select list extension also applies to ORDER
BY. That is, you can use nonaggregated columns or
calculations in the ORDER BY clause that do
not appear in the GROUP BY clause. This
extension does not apply if the
ONLY_FULL_GROUP_BY SQL mode is
enabled.
In some cases, you can use MIN()
and MAX() to obtain a specific
column value even if it isn't unique. The following gives the
value of column from the row containing the
smallest value in the sort column:
SUBSTR(MIN(CONCAT(RPAD(sort,6,' '),column)),7)
See Section 3.6.4, “The Rows Holding the Group-wise Maximum of a Certain Column”.
Note that if you are trying to follow standard SQL, you can't
use expressions in GROUP BY clauses. You can
work around this limitation by using an alias for the
expression:
SELECT id,FLOOR(value/100) AS val
FROM tbl_name
GROUP BY id, val;
MySQL does allow expressions in GROUP BY
clauses. For example:
SELECT id,FLOOR(value/100)
FROM tbl_name
GROUP BY id, FLOOR(value/100);
MySQL supports spatial extensions to allow the generation, storage,
and analysis of geographic features. These features are available
for MyISAM, InnoDB,
NDB, and ARCHIVE
tables.
For spatial columns, MyISAM supports both
SPATIAL and non-SPATIAL
indexes. Other storage engines support
non-SPATIAL indexes, as described in
Section 12.1.13, “CREATE INDEX Syntax”.
This chapter covers the following topics:
The basis of these spatial extensions in the OpenGIS geometry model
Data formats for representing spatial data
How to use spatial data in MySQL
Use of indexing for spatial data
MySQL differences from the OpenGIS specification
Additional resources
The Open Geospatial Consortium publishes the OpenGIS® Simple Features Specifications For SQL, a document that proposes several conceptual ways for extending an SQL RDBMS to support spatial data. This specification is available from the OGC Web site at http://www.opengis.org/docs/99-049.pdf.
If you have questions or concerns about the use of the spatial extensions to MySQL, you can discuss them in the GIS forum: http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?23.
MySQL implements spatial extensions following the specification of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). This is an international consortium of more than 250 companies, agencies, and universities participating in the development of publicly available conceptual solutions that can be useful with all kinds of applications that manage spatial data. The OGC maintains a Web site at http://www.opengis.org/.
In 1997, the Open Geospatial Consortium published the OpenGIS® Simple Features Specifications For SQL, a document that proposes several conceptual ways for extending an SQL RDBMS to support spatial data. This specification is available from the OGC Web site at http://www.opengis.org/docs/99-049.pdf. It contains additional information relevant to this chapter.
MySQL implements a subset of the SQL with Geometry Types environment proposed by OGC. This term refers to an SQL environment that has been extended with a set of geometry types. A geometry-valued SQL column is implemented as a column that has a geometry type. The specification describe a set of SQL geometry types, as well as functions on those types to create and analyze geometry values.
A geographic feature is anything in the world that has a location. A feature can be:
An entity. For example, a mountain, a pond, a city.
A space. For example, town district, the tropics.
A definable location. For example, a crossroad, as a particular place where two streets intersect.
Some documents use the term geospatial feature to refer to geographic features.
Geometry is another word that denotes a geographic feature. Originally the word geometry meant measurement of the earth. Another meaning comes from cartography, referring to the geometric features that cartographers use to map the world.
This chapter uses all of these terms synonymously: geographic feature, geospatial feature, feature, or geometry. Here, the term most commonly used is geometry, defined as a point or an aggregate of points representing anything in the world that has a location.
- 11.13.2.1. The Geometry Class Hierarchy
- 11.13.2.2. Class
Geometry - 11.13.2.3. Class
Point - 11.13.2.4. Class
Curve - 11.13.2.5. Class
LineString - 11.13.2.6. Class
Surface - 11.13.2.7. Class
Polygon - 11.13.2.8. Class
GeometryCollection - 11.13.2.9. Class
MultiPoint - 11.13.2.10. Class
MultiCurve - 11.13.2.11. Class
MultiLineString - 11.13.2.12. Class
MultiSurface - 11.13.2.13. Class
MultiPolygon
The set of geometry types proposed by OGC's SQL with Geometry Types environment is based on the OpenGIS Geometry Model. In this model, each geometric object has the following general properties:
It is associated with a Spatial Reference System, which describes the coordinate space in which the object is defined.
It belongs to some geometry class.
The geometry classes define a hierarchy as follows:
Geometry(noninstantiable)Point(instantiable)Curve(noninstantiable)LineString(instantiable)LineLinearRing
Surface(noninstantiable)Polygon(instantiable)
GeometryCollection(instantiable)MultiPoint(instantiable)MultiCurve(noninstantiable)MultiLineString(instantiable)
MultiSurface(noninstantiable)MultiPolygon(instantiable)
It is not possible to create objects in noninstantiable classes. It is possible to create objects in instantiable classes. All classes have properties, and instantiable classes may also have assertions (rules that define valid class instances).
Geometry is the base class. It is an abstract
class. The instantiable subclasses of
Geometry are restricted to zero-, one-, and
two-dimensional geometric objects that exist in two-dimensional
coordinate space. All instantiable geometry classes are defined
so that valid instances of a geometry class are topologically
closed (that is, all defined geometries include their boundary).
The base Geometry class has subclasses for
Point, Curve,
Surface, and
GeometryCollection:
Pointrepresents zero-dimensional objects.Curverepresents one-dimensional objects, and has subclassLineString, with sub-subclassesLineandLinearRing.Surfaceis designed for two-dimensional objects and has subclassPolygon.GeometryCollectionhas specialized zero-, one-, and two-dimensional collection classes namedMultiPoint,MultiLineString, andMultiPolygonfor modeling geometries corresponding to collections ofPoints,LineStrings, andPolygons, respectively.MultiCurveandMultiSurfaceare introduced as abstract superclasses that generalize the collection interfaces to handleCurvesandSurfaces.
Geometry, Curve,
Surface, MultiCurve, and
MultiSurface are defined as noninstantiable
classes. They define a common set of methods for their
subclasses and are included for extensibility.
Point, LineString,
Polygon,
GeometryCollection,
MultiPoint,
MultiLineString, and
MultiPolygon are instantiable classes.
Geometry is the root class of the hierarchy.
It is a noninstantiable class but has a number of properties
that are common to all geometry values created from any of the
Geometry subclasses. These properties are
described in the following list. Particular subclasses have
their own specific properties, described later.
Geometry Properties
A geometry value has the following properties:
Its type. Each geometry belongs to one of the instantiable classes in the hierarchy.
Its SRID, or Spatial Reference Identifier. This value identifies the geometry's associated Spatial Reference System that describes the coordinate space in which the geometry object is defined.
In MySQL, the SRID value is just an integer associated with the geometry value. All calculations are done assuming Euclidean (planar) geometry.
Its coordinates in its Spatial Reference System, represented as double-precision (eight-byte) numbers. All nonempty geometries include at least one pair of (X,Y) coordinates. Empty geometries contain no coordinates.
Coordinates are related to the SRID. For example, in different coordinate systems, the distance between two objects may differ even when objects have the same coordinates, because the distance on the planar coordinate system and the distance on the geocentric system (coordinates on the Earth's surface) are different things.
Its interior, boundary, and exterior.
Every geometry occupies some position in space. The exterior of a geometry is all space not occupied by the geometry. The interior is the space occupied by the geometry. The boundary is the interface between the geometry's interior and exterior.
Its MBR (Minimum Bounding Rectangle), or Envelope. This is the bounding geometry, formed by the minimum and maximum (X,Y) coordinates:
((MINX MINY, MAXX MINY, MAXX MAXY, MINX MAXY, MINX MINY))
Whether the value is simple or nonsimple. Geometry values of types (
LineString,MultiPoint,MultiLineString) are either simple or nonsimple. Each type determines its own assertions for being simple or nonsimple.Whether the value is closed or not closed. Geometry values of types (
LineString,MultiString) are either closed or not closed. Each type determines its own assertions for being closed or not closed.Whether the value is empty or nonempty A geometry is empty if it does not have any points. Exterior, interior, and boundary of an empty geometry are not defined (that is, they are represented by a
NULLvalue). An empty geometry is defined to be always simple and has an area of 0.Its dimension. A geometry can have a dimension of –1, 0, 1, or 2:
–1 for an empty geometry.
0 for a geometry with no length and no area.
1 for a geometry with nonzero length and zero area.
2 for a geometry with nonzero area.
Pointobjects have a dimension of zero.LineStringobjects have a dimension of 1.Polygonobjects have a dimension of 2. The dimensions ofMultiPoint,MultiLineString, andMultiPolygonobjects are the same as the dimensions of the elements they consist of.
A Point is a geometry that represents a
single location in coordinate space.
Point
Examples
Imagine a large-scale map of the world with many cities. A
Pointobject could represent each city.On a city map, a
Pointobject could represent a bus stop.
Point
Properties
X-coordinate value.
Y-coordinate value.
Pointis defined as a zero-dimensional geometry.The boundary of a
Pointis the empty set.
A Curve is a one-dimensional geometry,
usually represented by a sequence of points. Particular
subclasses of Curve define the type of
interpolation between points. Curve is a
noninstantiable class.
Curve
Properties
A
Curvehas the coordinates of its points.A
Curveis defined as a one-dimensional geometry.A
Curveis simple if it does not pass through the same point twice.A
Curveis closed if its start point is equal to its endpoint.The boundary of a closed
Curveis empty.The boundary of a nonclosed
Curveconsists of its two endpoints.A
Curvethat is simple and closed is aLinearRing.
A LineString is a Curve
with linear interpolation between points.
LineString
Examples
On a world map,
LineStringobjects could represent rivers.In a city map,
LineStringobjects could represent streets.
LineString
Properties
A
LineStringhas coordinates of segments, defined by each consecutive pair of points.A
LineStringis aLineif it consists of exactly two points.A
LineStringis aLinearRingif it is both closed and simple.
A Surface is a two-dimensional geometry. It
is a noninstantiable class. Its only instantiable subclass is
Polygon.
Surface
Properties
A
Surfaceis defined as a two-dimensional geometry.The OpenGIS specification defines a simple
Surfaceas a geometry that consists of a single “patch” that is associated with a single exterior boundary and zero or more interior boundaries.The boundary of a simple
Surfaceis the set of closed curves corresponding to its exterior and interior boundaries.
A Polygon is a planar
Surface representing a multisided geometry.
It is defined by a single exterior boundary and zero or more
interior boundaries, where each interior boundary defines a hole
in the Polygon.
Polygon
Examples
On a region map,
Polygonobjects could represent forests, districts, and so on.
Polygon
Assertions
The boundary of a
Polygonconsists of a set ofLinearRingobjects (that is,LineStringobjects that are both simple and closed) that make up its exterior and interior boundaries.A
Polygonhas no rings that cross. The rings in the boundary of aPolygonmay intersect at aPoint, but only as a tangent.A
Polygonhas no lines, spikes, or punctures.A
Polygonhas an interior that is a connected point set.A
Polygonmay have holes. The exterior of aPolygonwith holes is not connected. Each hole defines a connected component of the exterior.
The preceding assertions make a Polygon a
simple geometry.
A GeometryCollection is a geometry that is a
collection of one or more geometries of any class.
All the elements in a GeometryCollection must
be in the same Spatial Reference System (that is, in the same
coordinate system). There are no other constraints on the
elements of a GeometryCollection, although
the subclasses of GeometryCollection
described in the following sections may restrict membership.
Restrictions may be based on:
Element type (for example, a
MultiPointmay contain onlyPointelements)Dimension
Constraints on the degree of spatial overlap between elements
A MultiPoint is a geometry collection
composed of Point elements. The points are
not connected or ordered in any way.
MultiPoint
Examples
On a world map, a
MultiPointcould represent a chain of small islands.On a city map, a
MultiPointcould represent the outlets for a ticket office.
MultiPoint
Properties
A
MultiPointis a zero-dimensional geometry.A
MultiPointis simple if no two of itsPointvalues are equal (have identical coordinate values).The boundary of a
MultiPointis the empty set.
A MultiCurve is a geometry collection
composed of Curve elements.
MultiCurve is a noninstantiable class.
MultiCurve
Properties
A
MultiCurveis a one-dimensional geometry.A
MultiCurveis simple if and only if all of its elements are simple; the only intersections between any two elements occur at points that are on the boundaries of both elements.A
MultiCurveboundary is obtained by applying the “mod 2 union rule” (also known as the “odd-even rule”): A point is in the boundary of aMultiCurveif it is in the boundaries of an odd number ofMultiCurveelements.A
MultiCurveis closed if all of its elements are closed.The boundary of a closed
MultiCurveis always empty.
A MultiLineString is a
MultiCurve geometry collection composed of
LineString elements.
MultiLineString
Examples
On a region map, a
MultiLineStringcould represent a river system or a highway system.
A MultiSurface is a geometry collection
composed of surface elements. MultiSurface is
a noninstantiable class. Its only instantiable subclass is
MultiPolygon.
MultiSurface
Assertions
Two
MultiSurfacesurfaces have no interiors that intersect.Two
MultiSurfaceelements have boundaries that intersect at most at a finite number of points.
A MultiPolygon is a
MultiSurface object composed of
Polygon elements.
MultiPolygon
Examples
On a region map, a
MultiPolygoncould represent a system of lakes.
MultiPolygon
Assertions
A
MultiPolygonhas no twoPolygonelements with interiors that intersect.A
MultiPolygonhas no twoPolygonelements that cross (crossing is also forbidden by the previous assertion), or that touch at an infinite number of points.A
MultiPolygonmay not have cut lines, spikes, or punctures. AMultiPolygonis a regular, closed point set.A
MultiPolygonthat has more than onePolygonhas an interior that is not connected. The number of connected components of the interior of aMultiPolygonis equal to the number ofPolygonvalues in theMultiPolygon.
MultiPolygon
Properties
A
MultiPolygonis a two-dimensional geometry.A
MultiPolygonboundary is a set of closed curves (LineStringvalues) corresponding to the boundaries of itsPolygonelements.Each
Curvein the boundary of theMultiPolygonis in the boundary of exactly onePolygonelement.Every
Curvein the boundary of anPolygonelement is in the boundary of theMultiPolygon.
This section describes the standard spatial data formats that are used to represent geometry objects in queries. They are:
Well-Known Text (WKT) format
Well-Known Binary (WKB) format
Internally, MySQL stores geometry values in a format that is not identical to either WKT or WKB format.
The Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of Geometry is designed to exchange geometry data in ASCII form.
Examples of WKT representations of geometry objects:
A
Point:POINT(15 20)
Note that point coordinates are specified with no separating comma.
A
LineStringwith four points:LINESTRING(0 0, 10 10, 20 25, 50 60)
Note that point coordinate pairs are separated by commas.
A
Polygonwith one exterior ring and one interior ring:POLYGON((0 0,10 0,10 10,0 10,0 0),(5 5,7 5,7 7,5 7, 5 5))
A
MultiPointwith threePointvalues:MULTIPOINT(0 0, 20 20, 60 60)
A
MultiLineStringwith twoLineStringvalues:MULTILINESTRING((10 10, 20 20), (15 15, 30 15))
A
MultiPolygonwith twoPolygonvalues:MULTIPOLYGON(((0 0,10 0,10 10,0 10,0 0)),((5 5,7 5,7 7,5 7, 5 5)))
A
GeometryCollectionconsisting of twoPointvalues and oneLineString:GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(10 10), POINT(30 30), LINESTRING(15 15, 20 20))
A Backus-Naur grammar that specifies the formal production rules for writing WKT values can be found in the OpenGIS specification document referenced near the beginning of this chapter.
The Well-Known Binary (WKB) representation for geometric values is defined by the OpenGIS specification. It is also defined in the ISO SQL/MM Part 3: Spatial standard.
WKB is used to exchange geometry data as binary streams
represented by BLOB values
containing geometric WKB information.
WKB uses one-byte unsigned integers, four-byte unsigned integers, and eight-byte double-precision numbers (IEEE 754 format). A byte is eight bits.
For example, a WKB value that corresponds to POINT(1
1) consists of this sequence of 21 bytes (each
represented here by two hex digits):
0101000000000000000000F03F000000000000F03F
The sequence may be broken down into these components:
Byte order : 01 WKB type : 01000000 X : 000000000000F03F Y : 000000000000F03F
Component representation is as follows:
The byte order may be either 1 or 0 to indicate little-endian or big-endian storage. The little-endian and big-endian byte orders are also known as Network Data Representation (NDR) and External Data Representation (XDR), respectively.
The WKB type is a code that indicates the geometry type. Values from 1 through 7 indicate
Point,LineString,Polygon,MultiPoint,MultiLineString,MultiPolygon, andGeometryCollection.A
Pointvalue has X and Y coordinates, each represented as a double-precision value.
WKB values for more complex geometry values are represented by more complex data structures, as detailed in the OpenGIS specification.
This section describes the data types you can use for representing spatial data in MySQL, and the functions available for creating and retrieving spatial values.
MySQL has data types that correspond to OpenGIS classes. Some of these types hold single geometry values:
GEOMETRYPOINTLINESTRINGPOLYGON
GEOMETRY can store geometry values of any
type. The other single-value types (POINT,
LINESTRING, and POLYGON)
restrict their values to a particular geometry type.
The other data types hold collections of values:
MULTIPOINTMULTILINESTRINGMULTIPOLYGONGEOMETRYCOLLECTION
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION can store a collection of
objects of any type. The other collection types
(MULTIPOINT,
MULTILINESTRING,
MULTIPOLYGON, and
GEOMETRYCOLLECTION) restrict collection
members to those having a particular geometry type.
This section describes how to create spatial values using Well-Known Text and Well-Known Binary functions that are defined in the OpenGIS standard, and using MySQL-specific functions.
MySQL provides a number of functions that take as arguments a Well-Known Text representation and, optionally, a spatial reference system identifier (SRID). They return the corresponding geometry.
GeomFromText() accepts a WKT of
any geometry type as its first argument. An implementation
also provides type-specific construction functions for
construction of geometry values of each geometry type.
GeomCollFromText(,wkt[,srid])GeometryCollectionFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
GEOMETRYCOLLECTIONvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.GeomFromText(,wkt[,srid])GeometryFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a geometry value of any type using its WKT representation and SRID.
LineFromText(,wkt[,srid])LineStringFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
LINESTRINGvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.MLineFromText(,wkt[,srid])MultiLineStringFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
MULTILINESTRINGvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.MPointFromText(,wkt[,srid])MultiPointFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
MULTIPOINTvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.MPolyFromText(,wkt[,srid])MultiPolygonFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
MULTIPOLYGONvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.Constructs a
POINTvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.PolyFromText(,wkt[,srid])PolygonFromText(wkt[,srid])Constructs a
POLYGONvalue using its WKT representation and SRID.
The OpenGIS specification also defines the following optional
functions, which MySQL does not implement. These functions
construct Polygon or
MultiPolygon values based on the WKT
representation of a collection of rings or closed
LineString values. These values may
intersect.
Constructs a
MultiPolygonvalue from aMultiLineStringvalue in WKT format containing an arbitrary collection of closedLineStringvalues.Constructs a
Polygonvalue from aMultiLineStringvalue in WKT format containing an arbitrary collection of closedLineStringvalues.
MySQL provides a number of functions that take as arguments a
BLOB containing a Well-Known
Binary representation and, optionally, a spatial reference
system identifier (SRID). They return the corresponding
geometry.
As of MySQL 5.1.35, these functions also accept geometry objects for compatibility with the changes made in MySQL 5.1.35 to the return value of the functions in Section 11.13.4.2.3, “Creating Geometry Values Using MySQL-Specific Functions”. Thus, those functions may continue to be used to provide the first argument to the functions in this section.
GeomCollFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])GeometryCollectionFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
GEOMETRYCOLLECTIONvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.GeomFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])GeometryFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a geometry value of any type using its WKB representation and SRID.
LineFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])LineStringFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
LINESTRINGvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.MLineFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])MultiLineStringFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
MULTILINESTRINGvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.MPointFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])MultiPointFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
MULTIPOINTvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.MPolyFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])MultiPolygonFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
MULTIPOLYGONvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.Constructs a
POINTvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.PolyFromWKB(,wkb[,srid])PolygonFromWKB(wkb[,srid])Constructs a
POLYGONvalue using its WKB representation and SRID.
The OpenGIS specification also describes optional functions
for constructing Polygon or
MultiPolygon values based on the WKB
representation of a collection of rings or closed
LineString values. These values may
intersect. MySQL does not implement these functions:
Constructs a
MultiPolygonvalue from aMultiLineStringvalue in WKB format containing an arbitrary collection of closedLineStringvalues.Constructs a
Polygonvalue from aMultiLineStringvalue in WKB format containing an arbitrary collection of closedLineStringvalues.
MySQL provides a set of useful nonstandard functions for creating geometry values. The functions described in this section are MySQL extensions to the OpenGIS specification.
As of MySQL 5.1.35, these functions produce geometry objects
from either WKB values or geometry objects as arguments. If
any argument is not a proper WKB or geometry representation of
the proper object type, the return value is
NULL.
Before MySQL 5.1.35, these functions produce
BLOB values containing WKB
representations of geometry values with no SRID from WKB
arguments. The WKB value returned from these functions can be
converted to geometry arguments by using them as the first
argument to functions in the
GeomFromWKB() function family.
For example, as of MySQL 5.1.35, you can insert the geometry
return value from Point()
directly into a Point column:
INSERT INTO t1 (pt_col) VALUES(Point(1,2));
Prior to MySQL 5.1.35, convert the WKB return value to a
Point before inserting it:
INSERT INTO t1 (pt_col) VALUES(GeomFromWKB(Point(1,2)));
Constructs a
GeometryCollection.Constructs a
LineStringvalue from a number ofPointor WKBPointarguments. If the number of arguments is less than two, the return value isNULL.Constructs a
MultiLineStringvalue usingLineStringor WKBLineStringarguments.Constructs a
MultiPointvalue usingPointor WKBPointarguments.Constructs a
MultiPolygonvalue from a set ofPolygonor WKBPolygonarguments.Constructs a
Pointusing its coordinates.Constructs a
Polygonvalue from a number ofLineStringor WKBLineStringarguments. If any argument does not represent aLinearRing(that is, not a closed and simpleLineString), the return value isNULL.
MySQL provides a standard way of creating spatial columns for
geometry types, for example, with CREATE
TABLE or ALTER TABLE.
Currently, spatial columns are supported for
MyISAM, InnoDB,
NDB, and ARCHIVE
tables. See also the annotations about spatial indexes under
Section 11.13.6.1, “Creating Spatial Indexes”.
Use the
CREATE TABLEstatement to create a table with a spatial column:CREATE TABLE geom (g GEOMETRY);
Use the
ALTER TABLEstatement to add or drop a spatial column to or from an existing table:ALTER TABLE geom ADD pt POINT; ALTER TABLE geom DROP pt;
After you have created spatial columns, you can populate them with spatial data.
Values should be stored in internal geometry format, but you can convert them to that format from either Well-Known Text (WKT) or Well-Known Binary (WKB) format. The following examples demonstrate how to insert geometry values into a table by converting WKT values into internal geometry format:
The following examples insert more complex geometries into the table:
SET @g = 'LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,2 2)'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (GeomFromText(@g)); SET @g = 'POLYGON((0 0,10 0,10 10,0 10,0 0),(5 5,7 5,7 7,5 7, 5 5))'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (GeomFromText(@g)); SET @g = 'GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(1 1),LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,2 2,3 3,4 4))'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (GeomFromText(@g));
The preceding examples all use
GeomFromText() to create geometry
values. You can also use type-specific functions:
SET @g = 'POINT(1 1)'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (PointFromText(@g)); SET @g = 'LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,2 2)'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (LineStringFromText(@g)); SET @g = 'POLYGON((0 0,10 0,10 10,0 10,0 0),(5 5,7 5,7 7,5 7, 5 5))'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (PolygonFromText(@g)); SET @g = 'GEOMETRYCOLLECTION(POINT(1 1),LINESTRING(0 0,1 1,2 2,3 3,4 4))'; INSERT INTO geom VALUES (GeomCollFromText(@g));
Note that if a client application program wants to use WKB representations of geometry values, it is responsible for sending correctly formed WKB in queries to the server. However, there are several ways of satisfying this requirement. For example:
Inserting a
POINT(1 1)value with hex literal syntax:mysql>
INSERT INTO geom VALUES->(GeomFromWKB(0x0101000000000000000000F03F000000000000F03F));An ODBC application can send a WKB representation, binding it to a placeholder using an argument of
BLOBtype:INSERT INTO geom VALUES (GeomFromWKB(?))
Other programming interfaces may support a similar placeholder mechanism.
In a C program, you can escape a binary value using
mysql_real_escape_string()and include the result in a query string that is sent to the server. See Section 20.10.3.53, “mysql_real_escape_string()”.
Geometry values stored in a table can be fetched in internal format. You can also convert them into WKT or WKB format.
Fetching spatial data in internal format:
Fetching geometry values using internal format can be useful in table-to-table transfers:
CREATE TABLE geom2 (g GEOMETRY) SELECT g FROM geom;
Fetching spatial data in WKT format:
The
AsText()function converts a geometry from internal format into a WKT string.SELECT AsText(g) FROM geom;
Fetching spatial data in WKB format:
The
AsBinary()function converts a geometry from internal format into aBLOBcontaining the WKB value.SELECT AsBinary(g) FROM geom;
- 11.13.5.1. Geometry Format Conversion Functions
- 11.13.5.2.
GeometryFunctions - 11.13.5.3. Functions That Create New Geometries from Existing Ones
- 11.13.5.4. Functions for Testing Spatial Relations Between Geometric Objects
- 11.13.5.5. Relations on Geometry Minimal Bounding Rectangles (MBRs)
- 11.13.5.6. Functions That Test Spatial Relationships Between Geometries
After populating spatial columns with values, you are ready to query and analyze them. MySQL provides a set of functions to perform various operations on spatial data. These functions can be grouped into four major categories according to the type of operation they perform:
Functions that convert geometries between various formats
Functions that provide access to qualitative or quantitative properties of a geometry
Functions that describe relations between two geometries
Functions that create new geometries from existing ones
Spatial analysis functions can be used in many contexts, such as:
Any interactive SQL program, such as mysql.
Application programs written in any language that supports a MySQL client API
MySQL supports the following functions for converting geometry values between internal format and either WKT or WKB format:
Converts a value in internal geometry format to its WKB representation and returns the binary result.
SELECT AsBinary(g) FROM geom;
Converts a value in internal geometry format to its WKT representation and returns the string result.
mysql>
SET @g = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT AsText(GeomFromText(@g));+--------------------------+ | AsText(GeomFromText(@g)) | +--------------------------+ | LINESTRING(1 1,2 2,3 3) | +--------------------------+Converts a string value from its WKT representation into internal geometry format and returns the result. A number of type-specific functions are also supported, such as
PointFromText()andLineFromText(). See Section 11.13.4.2.1, “Creating Geometry Values Using WKT Functions”.Converts a binary value from its WKB representation into internal geometry format and returns the result. A number of type-specific functions are also supported, such as
PointFromWKB()andLineFromWKB(). See Section 11.13.4.2.2, “Creating Geometry Values Using WKB Functions”.
Each function that belongs to this group takes a geometry value
as its argument and returns some quantitative or qualitative
property of the geometry. Some functions restrict their argument
type. Such functions return NULL if the
argument is of an incorrect geometry type. For example,
Area() returns
NULL if the object type is neither
Polygon nor MultiPolygon.
The functions listed in this section do not restrict their argument and accept a geometry value of any type.
Returns the inherent dimension of the geometry value
g. The result can be –1, 0, 1, or 2. The meaning of these values is given in Section 11.13.2.2, “ClassGeometry”.mysql>
SELECT Dimension(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)'));+------------------------------------------------+ | Dimension(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)')) | +------------------------------------------------+ | 1 | +------------------------------------------------+Returns the Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR) for the geometry value
g. The result is returned as aPolygonvalue.The polygon is defined by the corner points of the bounding box:
POLYGON((MINX MINY, MAXX MINY, MAXX MAXY, MINX MAXY, MINX MINY))
mysql>
SELECT AsText(Envelope(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)')));+-------------------------------------------------------+ | AsText(Envelope(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)'))) | +-------------------------------------------------------+ | POLYGON((1 1,2 1,2 2,1 2,1 1)) | +-------------------------------------------------------+Returns as a string the name of the geometry type of which the geometry instance
gis a member. The name corresponds to one of the instantiableGeometrysubclasses.mysql>
SELECT GeometryType(GeomFromText('POINT(1 1)'));+------------------------------------------+ | GeometryType(GeomFromText('POINT(1 1)')) | +------------------------------------------+ | POINT | +------------------------------------------+Returns an integer indicating the Spatial Reference System ID for the geometry value
g.In MySQL, the SRID value is just an integer associated with the geometry value. All calculations are done assuming Euclidean (planar) geometry.
mysql>
SELECT SRID(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)',101));+-----------------------------------------------+ | SRID(GeomFromText('LineString(1 1,2 2)',101)) | +-----------------------------------------------+ | 101 | +-----------------------------------------------+
The OpenGIS specification also defines the following functions, which MySQL does not implement:
Returns a geometry that is the closure of the combinatorial boundary of the geometry value
g.Returns 1 if the geometry value
gis the empty geometry, 0 if it is not empty, and –1 if the argument isNULL. If the geometry is empty, it represents the empty point set.Currently, this function is a placeholder and should not be used. If implemented, its behavior will be as described in the next paragraph.
Returns 1 if the geometry value
ghas no anomalous geometric points, such as self-intersection or self-tangency.IsSimple()returns 0 if the argument is not simple, and –1 if it isNULL.The description of each instantiable geometric class given earlier in the chapter includes the specific conditions that cause an instance of that class to be classified as not simple. (See Section 11.13.2.1, “The Geometry Class Hierarchy”.)
A Point consists of X and Y coordinates,
which may be obtained using the following functions:
Returns the X-coordinate value for the point
pas a double-precision number.mysql>
SET @pt = 'Point(56.7 53.34)';mysql>SELECT X(GeomFromText(@pt));+----------------------+ | X(GeomFromText(@pt)) | +----------------------+ | 56.7 | +----------------------+Returns the Y-coordinate value for the point
pas a double-precision number.mysql>
SET @pt = 'Point(56.7 53.34)';mysql>SELECT Y(GeomFromText(@pt));+----------------------+ | Y(GeomFromText(@pt)) | +----------------------+ | 53.34 | +----------------------+
A LineString consists of
Point values. You can extract particular
points of a LineString, count the number of
points that it contains, or obtain its length.
Returns the
Pointthat is the endpoint of theLineStringvaluels.mysql>
SET @ls = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT AsText(EndPoint(GeomFromText(@ls)));+-------------------------------------+ | AsText(EndPoint(GeomFromText(@ls))) | +-------------------------------------+ | POINT(3 3) | +-------------------------------------+Returns as a double-precision number the length of the
LineStringvaluelsin its associated spatial reference.mysql>
SET @ls = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT GLength(GeomFromText(@ls));+----------------------------+ | GLength(GeomFromText(@ls)) | +----------------------------+ | 2.8284271247462 | +----------------------------+GLength()is a nonstandard name. It corresponds to the OpenGISLength()function.Returns the number of
Pointobjects in theLineStringvaluels.mysql>
SET @ls = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT NumPoints(GeomFromText(@ls));+------------------------------+ | NumPoints(GeomFromText(@ls)) | +------------------------------+ | 3 | +------------------------------+Returns the
N-thPointin theLinestringvaluels. Points are numbered beginning with 1.mysql>
SET @ls = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT AsText(PointN(GeomFromText(@ls),2));+-------------------------------------+ | AsText(PointN(GeomFromText(@ls),2)) | +-------------------------------------+ | POINT(2 2) | +-------------------------------------+Returns the
Pointthat is the start point of theLineStringvaluels.mysql>
SET @ls = 'LineString(1 1,2 2,3 3)';mysql>SELECT AsText(StartPoint(GeomFromText(@ls)));+---------------------------------------+ | AsText(StartPoint(GeomFromText(@ls))) | +---------------------------------------+ | POINT(1 1) | +---------------------------------------+
The OpenGIS specification also defines the following function, which MySQL does not implement:
Returns 1 if the
LineStringvaluelsis closed (that is, itsStartPoint()andEndPoint()values are the same) and is simple (does not pass through the same point more than once). Returns 0 iflsis not a ring, and –1 if it isNULL.
These functions return properties of
MultiLineString values.
Returns as a double-precision number the length of the
MultiLineStringvaluemls. The length ofmlsis equal to the sum of the lengths of its elements.mysql>
SET @mls = 'MultiLineString((1 1,2 2,3 3),(4 4,5 5))';mysql>SELECT GLength(GeomFromText(@mls));+-----------------------------+ | GLength(GeomFromText(@mls)) | +-----------------------------+ | 4.2426406871193 | +-----------------------------+GLength()is a nonstandard name. It corresponds to the OpenGISLength()function.Returns 1 if the
MultiLineStringvaluemlsis closed (that is, theStartPoint()andEndPoint()values are the same for eachLineStringinmls). Returns 0 ifmlsis not closed, and –1 if it isNULL.mysql>
SET @mls = 'MultiLineString((1 1,2 2,3 3),(4 4,5 5))';mysql>SELECT IsClosed(GeomFromText(@mls));+------------------------------+ | IsClosed(GeomFromText(@mls)) | +------------------------------+ | 0 | +------------------------------+
These functions return properties of
Polygon values.
Returns as a double-precision number the area of the
Polygonvaluepoly, as measured in its spatial reference system.mysql>
SET @poly = 'Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 0,0 0),(1 1,1 2,2 1,1 1))';mysql>SELECT Area(GeomFromText(@poly));+---------------------------+ | Area(GeomFromText(@poly)) | +---------------------------+ | 4 | +---------------------------+Returns the exterior ring of the
Polygonvaluepolyas aLineString.mysql>
SET @poly =->'Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0),(1 1,1 2,2 2,2 1,1 1))';mysql>SELECT AsText(ExteriorRing(GeomFromText(@poly)));+-------------------------------------------+ | AsText(ExteriorRing(GeomFromText(@poly))) | +-------------------------------------------+ | LINESTRING(0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0) | +-------------------------------------------+Returns the
N-th interior ring for thePolygonvaluepolyas aLineString. Rings are numbered beginning with 1.mysql>
SET @poly =->'Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0),(1 1,1 2,2 2,2 1,1 1))';mysql>SELECT AsText(InteriorRingN(GeomFromText(@poly),1));+----------------------------------------------+ | AsText(InteriorRingN(GeomFromText(@poly),1)) | +----------------------------------------------+ | LINESTRING(1 1,1 2,2 2,2 1,1 1) | +----------------------------------------------+Returns the number of interior rings in the
Polygonvaluepoly.mysql>
SET @poly =->'Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0),(1 1,1 2,2 2,2 1,1 1))';mysql>SELECT NumInteriorRings(GeomFromText(@poly));+---------------------------------------+ | NumInteriorRings(GeomFromText(@poly)) | +---------------------------------------+ | 1 | +---------------------------------------+
These functions return properties of
MultiPolygon values.
Returns as a double-precision number the area of the
MultiPolygonvaluempoly, as measured in its spatial reference system.mysql>
SET @mpoly =->'MultiPolygon(((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0),(1 1,1 2,2 2,2 1,1 1)))';mysql>SELECT Area(GeomFromText(@mpoly));+----------------------------+ | Area(GeomFromText(@mpoly)) | +----------------------------+ | 8 | +----------------------------+
The OpenGIS specification also defines the following functions, which MySQL does not implement:
Returns the mathematical centroid for the
MultiPolygonvaluempolyas aPoint. The result is not guaranteed to be on theMultiPolygon.Returns a
Pointvalue that is guaranteed to be on theMultiPolygonvaluempoly.
These functions return properties of
GeometryCollation values.
Returns the
N-th geometry in theGeometryCollectionvaluegc. Geometries are numbered beginning with 1.mysql>
SET @gc = 'GeometryCollection(Point(1 1),LineString(2 2, 3 3))';mysql>SELECT AsText(GeometryN(GeomFromText(@gc),1));+----------------------------------------+ | AsText(GeometryN(GeomFromText(@gc),1)) | +----------------------------------------+ | POINT(1 1) | +----------------------------------------+Returns the number of geometries in the
GeometryCollectionvaluegc.mysql>
SET @gc = 'GeometryCollection(Point(1 1),LineString(2 2, 3 3))';mysql>SELECT NumGeometries(GeomFromText(@gc));+----------------------------------+ | NumGeometries(GeomFromText(@gc)) | +----------------------------------+ | 2 | +----------------------------------+
The following sections describe functions that take geometry values as arguments and return new geometry values.
Section 11.13.5.2, “Geometry Functions”, discusses
several functions that construct new geometries from existing
ones. See that section for descriptions of these functions:
OpenGIS proposes a number of other functions that can produce geometries. They are designed to implement spatial operators.
These functions are not implemented in MySQL. They may appear in future releases.
Returns a geometry that represents all points whose distance from the geometry value
gis less than or equal to a distance ofd.Returns a geometry that represents the convex hull of the geometry value
g.Returns a geometry that represents the point set difference of the geometry value
g1withg2.Returns a geometry that represents the point set intersection of the geometry values
g1withg2.Returns a geometry that represents the point set symmetric difference of the geometry value
g1withg2.Returns a geometry that represents the point set union of the geometry values
g1andg2.
The functions described in these sections take two geometries as input parameters and return a qualitative or quantitative relation between them.
MySQL provides several functions that test relations between
minimal bounding rectangles of two geometries
g1 and g2. The return
values 1 and 0 indicate true and false, respectively.
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangle of
g1contains the Minimum Bounding Rectangle ofg2. This tests the opposite relationship asMBRWithin().mysql>
SET @g1 = GeomFromText('Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0))');mysql>SET @g2 = GeomFromText('Point(1 1)');mysql>SELECT MBRContains(@g1,@g2), MBRContains(@g2,@g1);----------------------+----------------------+ | MBRContains(@g1,@g2) | MBRContains(@g2,@g1) | +----------------------+----------------------+ | 1 | 0 | +----------------------+----------------------+Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangles of the two geometries
g1andg2are disjoint (do not intersect).Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangles of the two geometries
g1andg2are the same.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangles of the two geometries
g1andg2intersect.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangles of the two geometries
g1andg2overlap. The term spatially overlaps is used if two geometries intersect and their intersection results in a geometry of the same dimension but not equal to either of the given geometries.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangles of the two geometries
g1andg2touch. Two geometries spatially touch if the interiors of the geometries do not intersect, but the boundary of one of the geometries intersects either the boundary or the interior of the other.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the Minimum Bounding Rectangle of
g1is within the Minimum Bounding Rectangle ofg2. This tests the opposite relationship asMBRContains().mysql>
SET @g1 = GeomFromText('Polygon((0 0,0 3,3 3,3 0,0 0))');mysql>SET @g2 = GeomFromText('Polygon((0 0,0 5,5 5,5 0,0 0))');mysql>SELECT MBRWithin(@g1,@g2), MBRWithin(@g2,@g1);+--------------------+--------------------+ | MBRWithin(@g1,@g2) | MBRWithin(@g2,@g1) | +--------------------+--------------------+ | 1 | 0 | +--------------------+--------------------+
The OpenGIS specification defines the following functions. They
test the relationship between two geometry values
g1 and g2.
The return values 1 and 0 indicate true and false, respectively.
Note
Currently, MySQL does not implement these functions according
to the specification. Those that are implemented return the
same result as the corresponding MBR-based functions. This
includes functions in the following list other than
Distance() and
Related().
These functions may be implemented in future releases with full support for spatial analysis, not just MBR-based support.
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1completely containsg2. This tests the opposite relationship asWithin().Returns 1 if
g1spatially crossesg2. ReturnsNULLifg1is aPolygonor aMultiPolygon, or ifg2is aPointor aMultiPoint. Otherwise, returns 0.The term spatially crosses denotes a spatial relation between two given geometries that has the following properties:
The two geometries intersect
Their intersection results in a geometry that has a dimension that is one less than the maximum dimension of the two given geometries
Their intersection is not equal to either of the two given geometries
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1is spatially disjoint from (does not intersect)g2.Returns as a double-precision number the shortest distance between any two points in the two geometries.
Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1is spatially equal tog2.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1spatially intersectsg2.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1spatially overlapsg2. The term spatially overlaps is used if two geometries intersect and their intersection results in a geometry of the same dimension but not equal to either of the given geometries.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether the spatial relationship specified by
pattern_matrixexists betweeng1andg2. Returns –1 if the arguments areNULL. The pattern matrix is a string. Its specification will be noted here if this function is implemented.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1spatially touchesg2. Two geometries spatially touch if the interiors of the geometries do not intersect, but the boundary of one of the geometries intersects either the boundary or the interior of the other.Returns 1 or 0 to indicate whether
g1is spatially withing2. This tests the opposite relationship asContains().
Search operations in nonspatial databases can be optimized using
SPATIAL indexes. This is true for spatial
databases as well. With the help of a great variety of
multi-dimensional indexing methods that have previously been
designed, it is possible to optimize spatial searches. The most
typical of these are:
Point queries that search for all objects that contain a given point
Region queries that search for all objects that overlap a given region
MySQL uses R-Trees with quadratic
splitting for SPATIAL indexes on
spatial columns. A SPATIAL index is built using
the MBR of a geometry. For most geometries, the MBR is a minimum
rectangle that surrounds the geometries. For a horizontal or a
vertical linestring, the MBR is a rectangle degenerated into the
linestring. For a point, the MBR is a rectangle degenerated into
the point.
It is also possible to create normal indexes on spatial columns.
In a non-SPATIAL index, you must declare a
prefix for any spatial column except for POINT
columns.
MyISAM supports both SPATIAL
and non-SPATIAL indexes. Other storage engines
support non-SPATIAL indexes, as described in
Section 12.1.13, “CREATE INDEX Syntax”.
MySQL can create spatial indexes using syntax similar to that
for creating regular indexes, but extended with the
SPATIAL keyword. Currently, columns in
spatial indexes must be declared NOT NULL.
The following examples demonstrate how to create spatial
indexes:
With
CREATE TABLE:CREATE TABLE geom (g GEOMETRY NOT NULL, SPATIAL INDEX(g));
With
ALTER TABLE:ALTER TABLE geom ADD SPATIAL INDEX(g);
With
CREATE INDEX:CREATE SPATIAL INDEX sp_index ON geom (g);
For MyISAM tables, SPATIAL
INDEX creates an R-tree index. For storage engines
that support nonspatial indexing of spatial columns, the engine
creates a B-tree index. A B-tree index on spatial values will be
useful for exact-value lookups, but not for range scans.
For more information on indexing spatial columns, see
Section 12.1.13, “CREATE INDEX Syntax”.
To drop spatial indexes, use ALTER
TABLE or DROP INDEX:
With
ALTER TABLE:ALTER TABLE geom DROP INDEX g;
With
DROP INDEX:DROP INDEX sp_index ON geom;
Example: Suppose that a table geom contains
more than 32,000 geometries, which are stored in the column
g of type GEOMETRY. The
table also has an AUTO_INCREMENT column
fid for storing object ID values.
mysql>DESCRIBE geom;+-------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | fid | int(11) | | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | g | geometry | | | | | +-------+----------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ 2 rows in set (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT COUNT(*) FROM geom;+----------+ | count(*) | +----------+ | 32376 | +----------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
To add a spatial index on the column g, use
this statement:
mysql> ALTER TABLE geom ADD SPATIAL INDEX(g);
Query OK, 32376 rows affected (4.05 sec)
Records: 32376 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
The optimizer investigates whether available spatial indexes can
be involved in the search for queries that use a function such
as MBRContains() or
MBRWithin() in the
WHERE clause. The following query finds all
objects that are in the given rectangle:
mysql>SET @poly =->'Polygon((30000 15000, 31000 15000, 31000 16000, 30000 16000, 30000 15000))';mysql>SELECT fid,AsText(g) FROM geom WHERE->MBRContains(GeomFromText(@poly),g);+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | fid | AsText(g) | +-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 21 | LINESTRING(30350.4 15828.8,30350.6 15845,30333.8 15845,30 ... | | 22 | LINESTRING(30350.6 15871.4,30350.6 15887.8,30334 15887.8, ... | | 23 | LINESTRING(30350.6 15914.2,30350.6 15930.4,30334 15930.4, ... | | 24 | LINESTRING(30290.2 15823,30290.2 15839.4,30273.4 15839.4, ... | | 25 | LINESTRING(30291.4 15866.2,30291.6 15882.4,30274.8 15882. ... | | 26 | LINESTRING(30291.6 15918.2,30291.6 15934.4,30275 15934.4, ... | | 249 | LINESTRING(30337.8 15938.6,30337.8 15946.8,30320.4 15946. ... | | 1 | LINESTRING(30250.4 15129.2,30248.8 15138.4,30238.2 15136. ... | | 2 | LINESTRING(30220.2 15122.8,30217.2 15137.8,30207.6 15136, ... | | 3 | LINESTRING(30179 15114.4,30176.6 15129.4,30167 15128,3016 ... | | 4 | LINESTRING(30155.2 15121.4,30140.4 15118.6,30142 15109,30 ... | | 5 | LINESTRING(30192.4 15085,30177.6 15082.2,30179.2 15072.4, ... | | 6 | LINESTRING(30244 15087,30229 15086.2,30229.4 15076.4,3024 ... | | 7 | LINESTRING(30200.6 15059.4,30185.6 15058.6,30186 15048.8, ... | | 10 | LINESTRING(30179.6 15017.8,30181 15002.8,30190.8 15003.6, ... | | 11 | LINESTRING(30154.2 15000.4,30168.6 15004.8,30166 15014.2, ... | | 13 | LINESTRING(30105 15065.8,30108.4 15050.8,30118 15053,3011 ... | | 154 | LINESTRING(30276.2 15143.8,30261.4 15141,30263 15131.4,30 ... | | 155 | LINESTRING(30269.8 15084,30269.4 15093.4,30258.6 15093,30 ... | | 157 | LINESTRING(30128.2 15011,30113.2 15010.2,30113.6 15000.4, ... | +-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ 20 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Use EXPLAIN to check the way this
query is executed:
mysql>SET @poly =->'Polygon((30000 15000, 31000 15000, 31000 16000, 30000 16000, 30000 15000))';mysql>EXPLAIN SELECT fid,AsText(g) FROM geom WHERE->MBRContains(GeomFromText(@poly),g)\G*************************** 1. row *************************** id: 1 select_type: SIMPLE table: geom type: range possible_keys: g key: g key_len: 32 ref: NULL rows: 50 Extra: Using where 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Check what would happen without a spatial index:
mysql>SET @poly =->'Polygon((30000 15000, 31000 15000, 31000 16000, 30000 16000, 30000 15000))';mysql>EXPLAIN SELECT fid,AsText(g) FROM g IGNORE INDEX (g) WHERE->MBRContains(GeomFromText(@poly),g)\G*************************** 1. row *************************** id: 1 select_type: SIMPLE table: geom type: ALL possible_keys: NULL key: NULL key_len: NULL ref: NULL rows: 32376 Extra: Using where 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Executing the SELECT statement
without the spatial index yields the same result but causes the
execution time to rise from 0.00 seconds to 0.46 seconds:
mysql>SET @poly =->'Polygon((30000 15000, 31000 15000, 31000 16000, 30000 16000, 30000 15000))';mysql>SELECT fid,AsText(g) FROM geom IGNORE INDEX (g) WHERE->MBRContains(GeomFromText(@poly),g);+-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | fid | AsText(g) | +-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | 1 | LINESTRING(30250.4 15129.2,30248.8 15138.4,30238.2 15136. ... | | 2 | LINESTRING(30220.2 15122.8,30217.2 15137.8,30207.6 15136, ... | | 3 | LINESTRING(30179 15114.4,30176.6 15129.4,30167 15128,3016 ... | | 4 | LINESTRING(30155.2 15121.4,30140.4 15118.6,30142 15109,30 ... | | 5 | LINESTRING(30192.4 15085,30177.6 15082.2,30179.2 15072.4, ... | | 6 | LINESTRING(30244 15087,30229 15086.2,30229.4 15076.4,3024 ... | | 7 | LINESTRING(30200.6 15059.4,30185.6 15058.6,30186 15048.8, ... | | 10 | LINESTRING(30179.6 15017.8,30181 15002.8,30190.8 15003.6, ... | | 11 | LINESTRING(30154.2 15000.4,30168.6 15004.8,30166 15014.2, ... | | 13 | LINESTRING(30105 15065.8,30108.4 15050.8,30118 15053,3011 ... | | 21 | LINESTRING(30350.4 15828.8,30350.6 15845,30333.8 15845,30 ... | | 22 | LINESTRING(30350.6 15871.4,30350.6 15887.8,30334 15887.8, ... | | 23 | LINESTRING(30350.6 15914.2,30350.6 15930.4,30334 15930.4, ... | | 24 | LINESTRING(30290.2 15823,30290.2 15839.4,30273.4 15839.4, ... | | 25 | LINESTRING(30291.4 15866.2,30291.6 15882.4,30274.8 15882. ... | | 26 | LINESTRING(30291.6 15918.2,30291.6 15934.4,30275 15934.4, ... | | 154 | LINESTRING(30276.2 15143.8,30261.4 15141,30263 15131.4,30 ... | | 155 | LINESTRING(30269.8 15084,30269.4 15093.4,30258.6 15093,30 ... | | 157 | LINESTRING(30128.2 15011,30113.2 15010.2,30113.6 15000.4, ... | | 249 | LINESTRING(30337.8 15938.6,30337.8 15946.8,30320.4 15946. ... | +-----+---------------------------------------------------------------+ 20 rows in set (0.46 sec)
In future releases, spatial indexes may also be used for optimizing other functions. See Section 11.13.5.4, “Functions for Testing Spatial Relations Between Geometric Objects”.
MySQL does not yet implement the following GIS features:
Additional Metadata Views
OpenGIS specifications propose several additional metadata views. For example, a system view named
GEOMETRY_COLUMNScontains a description of geometry columns, one row for each geometry column in the database.The OpenGIS function
Length()onLineStringandMultiLineStringcurrently should be called in MySQL asGLength()The problem is that there is an existing SQL function
Length()that calculates the length of string values, and sometimes it is not possible to distinguish whether the function is called in a textual or spatial context. We need either to solve this somehow, or decide on another function name.
MySQL 5.1 provides support for precision math: numeric value handling that results in extremely accurate results and a high degree control over invalid values. Precision math is based on these two features:
SQL modes that control how strict the server is about accepting or rejecting invalid data.
The MySQL library for fixed-point arithmetic.
These features have several implications for numeric operations:
Precise calculations: For exact-value numbers, calculations do not introduce floating-point errors. Instead, exact precision is used. For example, a number such as
.0001is treated as an exact value rather than as an approximation, and summing it 10,000 times produces a result of exactly1, not a value that merely “close” to 1.Well-defined rounding behavior: For exact-value numbers, the result of
ROUND()depends on its argument, not on environmental factors such as how the underlying C library works.Platform independence: Operations on exact numeric values are the same across different platforms such as Windows and Unix.
Control over handling of invalid values: Overflow and division by zero are detectable and can be treated as errors. For example, you can treat a value that is too large for a column as an error rather than having the value truncated to lie within the range of the column's data type. Similarly, you can treat division by zero as an error rather than as an operation that produces a result of
NULL. The choice of which approach to take is determined by the setting of thesql_modesystem variable.
An important result of these features is that MySQL 5.1 provides a high degree of compliance with standard SQL.
The following discussion covers several aspects of how precision
math works (including possible incompatibilities with older
applications). At the end, some examples are given that demonstrate
how MySQL 5.1 handles numeric operations precisely. For
information about using the
sql_mode system variable to control
the SQL mode, see Section 5.1.8, “Server SQL Modes”.
The scope of precision math for exact-value operations includes
the exact-value data types (DECIMAL
and integer types) and exact-value numeric literals.
Approximate-value data types and numeric literals still are
handled as floating-point numbers.
Exact-value numeric literals have an integer part or fractional
part, or both. They may be signed. Examples: 1,
.2, 3.4,
-5, -6.78,
+9.10.
Approximate-value numeric literals are represented in scientific
notation with a mantissa and exponent. Either or both parts may be
signed. Examples: 1.2E3,
1.2E-3, -1.2E3,
-1.2E-3.
Two numbers that look similar need not be both exact-value or both
approximate-value. For example, 2.34 is an
exact-value (fixed-point) number, whereas
2.34E0 is an approximate-value (floating-point)
number.
The DECIMAL data type is a
fixed-point type and calculations are exact. In MySQL, the
DECIMAL type has several synonyms:
NUMERIC,
DEC,
FIXED. The integer types also are
exact-value types.
The FLOAT and
DOUBLE data types are
floating-point types and calculations are approximate. In MySQL,
types that are synonymous with
FLOAT or
DOUBLE are
DOUBLE PRECISION and
REAL.
This section discusses the characteristics of the
DECIMAL data type (and its
synonyms) in MySQL 5.1, with particular regard to the
following topics:
Maximum number of digits
Storage format
Storage requirements
The nonstandard MySQL extension to the upper range of
DECIMALcolumns
Possible incompatibilities with applications that are written for older versions of MySQL are noted throughout this section.
The declaration syntax for a
DECIMAL column is
DECIMAL(.
The ranges of values for the arguments in MySQL 5.1
are as follows:
M,D)
Mis the maximum number of digits (the precision). It has a range of 1 to 65. (Older versions of MySQL allowed a range of 1 to 254.)Dis the number of digits to the right of the decimal point (the scale). It has a range of 0 to 30 and must be no larger thanM.
The maximum value of 65 for M means
that calculations on DECIMAL values
are accurate up to 65 digits. This limit of 65 digits of precision
also applies to exact-value numeric literals, so the maximum range
of such literals is different from before. (In older versions of
MySQL, decimal values could have up to 254 digits. However,
calculations were done using floating-point and thus were
approximate, not exact.)
Values for DECIMAL columns in MySQL
5.1 are stored using a binary format that packs nine
decimal digits into four bytes. The storage requirements for the
integer and fractional parts of each value are determined
separately. Each multiple of nine digits requires four bytes, and
any remaining digits left over require some fraction of four
bytes. The storage required for remaining digits is given by the
following table.
| Leftover Digits | Number of Bytes |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 4 |
| 9 | 4 |
For example, a DECIMAL(18,9) column has nine
digits on either side of the decimal point, so the integer part
and the fractional part each require four bytes. A
DECIMAL(20,6) column has fourteen integer
digits and six fractional digits. The integer digits require four
bytes for nine of the digits and three bytes for the remaining
five digits. The six fractional digits require three bytes.
Unlike some older versions of MySQL (prior to 5.0.3),
DECIMAL columns in MySQL
5.1 do not store a leading +
character or - character or leading
0 digits. If you insert
+0003.1 into a DECIMAL(5,1)
column, it is stored as 3.1. For negative
numbers, a literal - character is not stored.
Applications that rely on the older behavior must be modified to
account for this change.
DECIMAL columns in MySQL
5.1 do not allow values larger than the range implied
by the column definition. For example, a
DECIMAL(3,0) column supports a range of
-999 to 999. A
DECIMAL(
column allows at most M,D)M -
D digits to the left of the decimal
point. This is not compatible with applications relying on older
versions of MySQL that allowed storing an extra digit in lieu of a
+ sign.
The SQL standard requires that the precision of
NUMERIC(
be exactly M,D)M
digits. For
DECIMAL(,
the standard requires a precision of at least
M,D)M digits but allows more. In MySQL,
DECIMAL(
and
M,D)NUMERIC(
are the same, and both have a precision of exactly
M,D)M digits.
For more detailed information about porting applications that rely
on the old treatment of the DECIMAL
data type, see the MySQL 5.0 Reference
Manual.
With precision math, exact-value numbers are used as given
whenever possible. For example, numbers in comparisons are used
exactly as given without a change in value. In strict SQL mode,
for INSERT into a column with an
exact data type (DECIMAL or
integer), a number is inserted with its exact value if it is
within the column range. When retrieved, the value should be the
same as what was inserted. (Without strict mode, truncation for
INSERT is allowable.)
Handling of a numeric expression depends on what kind of values the expression contains:
If any approximate values are present, the expression is approximate and is evaluated using floating-point arithmetic.
If no approximate values are present, the expression contains only exact values. If any exact value contains a fractional part (a value following the decimal point), the expression is evaluated using
DECIMALexact arithmetic and has a precision of 65 digits. (The term “exact” is subject to the limits of what can be represented in binary. For example,1.0/3.0can be approximated in decimal notation as.333..., but not written as an exact number, so(1.0/3.0)*3.0does not evaluate to exactly1.0.)Otherwise, the expression contains only integer values. The expression is exact and is evaluated using integer arithmetic and has a precision the same as
BIGINT(64 bits).
If a numeric expression contains any strings, they are converted to double-precision floating-point values and the expression is approximate.
Inserts into numeric columns are affected by the SQL mode, which
is controlled by the sql_mode
system variable. (See Section 5.1.8, “Server SQL Modes”.) The
following discussion mentions strict mode (selected by the
STRICT_ALL_TABLES or
STRICT_TRANS_TABLES mode values)
and ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO.
To turn on all restrictions, you can simply use
TRADITIONAL mode, which includes
both strict mode values and
ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO:
mysql> SET sql_mode='TRADITIONAL';
If a number is inserted into an exact type column
(DECIMAL or integer), it is
inserted with its exact value if it is within the column range.
If the value has too many digits in the fractional part, rounding occurs and a warning is generated. Rounding is done as described in Section 11.14.4, “Rounding Behavior”.
If the value has too many digits in the integer part, it is too large and is handled as follows:
If strict mode is not enabled, the value is truncated to the nearest legal value and a warning is generated.
If strict mode is enabled, an overflow error occurs.
Underflow is not detected, so underflow handing is undefined.
By default, division by zero produces a result of
NULL and no warning. With the
ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO SQL
mode enabled, MySQL handles division by zero differently:
If strict mode is not enabled, a warning occurs.
If strict mode is enabled, inserts and updates involving division by zero are prohibited, and an error occurs.
In other words, inserts and updates involving expressions that
perform division by zero can be treated as errors, but this
requires
ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO in
addition to strict mode.
Suppose that we have this statement:
INSERT INTO t SET i = 1/0;
This is what happens for combinations of strict and
ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO
modes.
sql_mode
Value | Result |
'' (Default) | No warning, no error; i is set to
NULL. |
| strict | No warning, no error; i is set to
NULL. |
ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO | Warning, no error; i is set to
NULL. |
strict,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO | Error condition; no row is inserted. |
For inserts of strings into numeric columns, conversion from string to number is handled as follows if the string has nonnumeric contents:
A string that does not begin with a number cannot be used as a number and produces an error in strict mode, or a warning otherwise. This includes the empty string.
A string that begins with a number can be converted, but the trailing nonnumeric portion is truncated. If the truncated portion contains anything other than spaces, this produces an error in strict mode, or a warning otherwise.
This section discusses precision math rounding for the
ROUND() function and for inserts
into columns with exact-value types
(DECIMAL and integer).
The ROUND() function rounds
differently depending on whether its argument is exact or
approximate:
For exact-value numbers,
ROUND()uses the “round half up” rule: A value with a fractional part of .5 or greater is rounded up to the next integer if positive or down to the next integer if negative. (In other words, it is rounded away from zero.) A value with a fractional part less than .5 is rounded down to the next integer if positive or up to the next integer if negative.For approximate-value numbers, the result depends on the C library. On many systems, this means that
ROUND()uses the “round to nearest even” rule: A value with any fractional part is rounded to the nearest even integer.
The following example shows how rounding differs for exact and approximate values:
mysql> SELECT ROUND(2.5), ROUND(25E-1);
+------------+--------------+
| ROUND(2.5) | ROUND(25E-1) |
+------------+--------------+
| 3 | 2 |
+------------+--------------+
For inserts into a DECIMAL or
integer column, the target is an exact data type, so rounding uses
“round half up,” regardless of whether the value to
be inserted is exact or approximate:
mysql>CREATE TABLE t (d DECIMAL(10,0));Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES(2.5),(2.5E0);Query OK, 2 rows affected, 2 warnings (0.00 sec) Records: 2 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 2 mysql>SELECT d FROM t;+------+ | d | +------+ | 3 | | 3 | +------+
This section provides some examples that show precision math query results in MySQL 5.1.
Example 1. Numbers are used with their exact value as given when possible:
mysql> SELECT .1 + .2 = .3;
+--------------+
| .1 + .2 = .3 |
+--------------+
| 1 |
+--------------+
For floating-point values, results are inexact:
mysql> SELECT .1E0 + .2E0 = .3E0;
+--------------------+
| .1E0 + .2E0 = .3E0 |
+--------------------+
| 0 |
+--------------------+
Another way to see the difference in exact and approximate value
handling is to add a small number to a sum many times. Consider
the following stored procedure, which adds
.0001 to a variable 1,000 times.
CREATE PROCEDURE p ()
BEGIN
DECLARE i INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE d DECIMAL(10,4) DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE f FLOAT DEFAULT 0;
WHILE i < 10000 DO
SET d = d + .0001;
SET f = f + .0001E0;
SET i = i + 1;
END WHILE;
SELECT d, f;
END;
The sum for both d and f
logically should be 1, but that is true only for the decimal
calculation. The floating-point calculation introduces small
errors:
+--------+------------------+ | d | f | +--------+------------------+ | 1.0000 | 0.99999999999991 | +--------+------------------+
Example 2. Multiplication is
performed with the scale required by standard SQL. That is, for
two numbers X1 and
X2 that have scale
S1 and S2,
the scale of the result is :
S1
+ S2
mysql> SELECT .01 * .01;
+-----------+
| .01 * .01 |
+-----------+
| 0.0001 |
+-----------+
Example 3. Rounding behavior is well-defined:
Rounding behavior (for example, with the
ROUND() function) is independent of
the implementation of the underlying C library, which means that
results are consistent from platform to platform.
Rounding for exact-value columns
(DECIMAL and integer) and
exact-valued numbers uses the “round half up” rule.
Values with a fractional part of .5 or greater are rounded away
from zero to the nearest integer, as shown here:
mysql> SELECT ROUND(2.5), ROUND(-2.5);
+------------+-------------+
| ROUND(2.5) | ROUND(-2.5) |
+------------+-------------+
| 3 | -3 |
+------------+-------------+
However, rounding for floating-point values uses the C library, which on many systems uses the “round to nearest even” rule. Values with any fractional part on such systems are rounded to the nearest even integer:
mysql> SELECT ROUND(2.5E0), ROUND(-2.5E0);
+--------------+---------------+
| ROUND(2.5E0) | ROUND(-2.5E0) |
+--------------+---------------+
| 2 | -2 |
+--------------+---------------+
Example 4. In strict mode, inserting a value that is too large results in overflow and causes an error, rather than truncation to a legal value.
When MySQL is not running in strict mode, truncation to a legal value occurs:
mysql>SET sql_mode='';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t (i TINYINT);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t SET i = 128;Query OK, 1 row affected, 1 warning (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT i FROM t;+------+ | i | +------+ | 127 | +------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
However, an overflow condition occurs if strict mode is in effect:
mysql>SET sql_mode='STRICT_ALL_TABLES';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t (i TINYINT);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t SET i = 128;ERROR 1264 (22003): Out of range value adjusted for column 'i' at row 1 mysql>SELECT i FROM t;Empty set (0.00 sec)
Example 5: In strict mode and
with ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO
set, division by zero causes an error, and not a result of
NULL.
In nonstrict mode, division by zero has a result of
NULL:
mysql>SET sql_mode='';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t (i TINYINT);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t SET i = 1 / 0;Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT i FROM t;+------+ | i | +------+ | NULL | +------+ 1 row in set (0.03 sec)
However, division by zero is an error if the proper SQL modes are in effect:
mysql>SET sql_mode='STRICT_ALL_TABLES,ERROR_FOR_DIVISION_BY_ZERO';Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t (i TINYINT);Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>INSERT INTO t SET i = 1 / 0;ERROR 1365 (22012): Division by 0 mysql>SELECT i FROM t;Empty set (0.01 sec)
Example 6. Prior to MySQL 5.0.3 (before precision math was introduced), exact-value and approximate-value literals both are converted to double-precision floating-point values:
mysql>SELECT VERSION();+------------+ | VERSION() | +------------+ | 4.1.18-log | +------------+ 1 row in set (0.01 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t SELECT 2.5 AS a, 25E-1 AS b;Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec) Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>DESCRIBE t;+-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | a | double(3,1) | | | 0.0 | | | b | double | | | 0 | | +-------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 2 rows in set (0.04 sec)
As of MySQL 5.0.3, the approximate-value literal still is
converted to floating-point, but the exact-value literal is
handled as DECIMAL:
mysql>SELECT VERSION();+-----------------+ | VERSION() | +-----------------+ | 5.1.6-alpha-log | +-----------------+ 1 row in set (0.11 sec) mysql>CREATE TABLE t SELECT 2.5 AS a, 25E-1 AS b;Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec) Records: 1 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0 mysql>DESCRIBE t;+-------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | a | decimal(2,1) unsigned | NO | | 0.0 | | | b | double | NO | | 0 | | +-------+-----------------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
Example 7. If the argument to an aggregate function is an exact numeric type, the result is also an exact numeric type, with a scale at least that of the argument.
Consider these statements:
mysql>CREATE TABLE t (i INT, d DECIMAL, f FLOAT);mysql>INSERT INTO t VALUES(1,1,1);mysql>CREATE TABLE y SELECT AVG(i), AVG(d), AVG(f) FROM t;
Result before MySQL 5.0.3 (prior to the introduction of precision math in MySQL):
mysql> DESCRIBE y;
+--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| AVG(i) | double(17,4) | YES | | NULL | |
| AVG(d) | double(17,4) | YES | | NULL | |
| AVG(f) | double | YES | | NULL | |
+--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
The result is a double no matter the argument type.
Result as of MySQL 5.0.3:
mysql> DESCRIBE y;
+--------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| AVG(i) | decimal(14,4) | YES | | NULL | |
| AVG(d) | decimal(14,4) | YES | | NULL | |
| AVG(f) | double | YES | | NULL | |
+--------+---------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
The result is a double only for the floating-point argument. For exact type arguments, the result is also an exact type.
