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FROM Clause

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    The FROM clause specifies the documents to be used as the input for a query.

    Purpose

    The FROM clause is used within a SELECT query or subquery. It specifies the documents to be used as the input for a query.

    Prerequisites

    For you to select data from keyspace or expression, you must have the query_select privilege on that keyspace. For more details about user roles, see Authorization.

    Syntax

    from-clause ::= FROM from-term
    from clause

    FROM Term

    from-keyspace | from-subquery | from-generic | join-clause | nest-clause | unnest-clause

    The FROM term may be any of the following:

    The JOIN clause, NEST clause, and UNNEST clause each contain a recursive FROM term. This enables you to chain JOIN clauses, NEST clauses, and UNNEST clauses together with each other, or with another type of FROM term.

    Limitations

    • When the FROM term is an expression, USE KEYS or USE INDEX clauses are not allowed.

    • When using a lookup JOIN clause, an index JOIN clause, a NEST clause, or an UNNEST clause, the left-hand side of the join may be a keyspace identifier, an expression, or a subquery; but the right-hand side may only be a keyspace identifier.

    • In Couchbase Server 6.5 and later, when using an ANSI JOIN clause, the right-hand side of the join may also be a keyspace identifier, an expression, or a subquery, similar to the left-hand side.

    FROM Keyspace

    The FROM keyspace specifies a keyspace to query from: either a specific keyspace or a constant expression.

    Syntax

    from-keyspace ::= keyspace-ref [ [ AS ] alias ] [ use-clause ]
    from keyspace

    Keyspace Reference

    keyspace-ref ::= keyspace-path | keyspace-partial
    keyspace-path | keyspace-partial

    Keyspace reference of the data source. The identifiers that make up the keyspace reference are not available as variables in scope of a subquery.

    If there is a hyphen (-) inside any part of the keyspace reference, you must wrap that part of the keyspace reference in backticks (` `). Refer to the examples below.

    Keyspace Path

    keyspace-path ::= [ namespace ':' ] bucket [ '.' scope '.' collection ]
    ( namespace ':' )? bucket ( '.' scope '.' collection )?

    If the keyspace is a named collection, or the default collection in the default scope within a bucket, the keyspace reference may be a keyspace path. In this case, the query context should not be set.

    namespace

    (Optional) An identifier that refers to the namespace of the keyspace. Currently, only the default namespace is available. If the namespace name is omitted, the default namespace in the current session is used.

    bucket

    (Required) An identifier that refers to the bucket name of the keyspace.

    scope

    (Optional) An identifier that refers to the scope name of the keyspace. If omitted, the bucket’s default scope is used.

    collection

    (Optional) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace. If omitted, the default collection in the bucket’s default scope is used.

    For example, default:`travel-sample` indicates the default collection in the default scope in the travel-sample bucket in the default namespace.

    Similarly, default:`travel-sample`.inventory.airline indicates the airline collection in the inventory scope in the travel-sample bucket in the default namespace.

    Keyspace Partial

    keyspace-partial ::= collection
    collection

    Alternatively, if the keyspace is a named collection, the keyspace reference may be just the collection name with no path. In this case, you must set the query context to indicate the required namespace, bucket, and scope.

    collection

    (Required) An identifier that refers to the collection name of the keyspace.

    For example, airline indicates the airline collection, assuming the query context is set.

    AS Alias

    Assigns another name to the FROM keyspace. For details, see AS Clause.

    Assigning an alias is optional for the FROM keyspace. If you assign an alias to the FROM keyspace, the AS keyword may be omitted.

    USE Clause

    Enables you to specify that the query should use particular keys, or a particular index. For details, see USE clause.

    Examples

    The simplest type of FROM keyspace clause specifies a single keyspace.

    Example 1. Use a single keyspace

    Select four unique landmarks from the `landmark` keyspace.

    SELECT DISTINCT name
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.landmark
    LIMIT 4;
    Results
    [
      {
        "name": "Royal Engineers Museum"
      },
      {
        "name": "Hollywood Bowl"
      },
      {
        "name": "Thai Won Mien"
      },
      {
        "name": "Spice Court"
      }
    ]

    FROM Subquery

    Specifies a N1QL SELECT expression of input objects.

    Syntax

    from-subquery ::= subquery-expr [ AS ] alias
    select expr

    Subquery Expression

    subquery-expr ::= '(' select ')'
    subquery expr

    Use parentheses to specify a subquery.

    For more details and examples, see SELECT Clause and Subqueries.

    AS Alias

    Assigns another name to the subquery. For details, see AS Clause.

    Assigning an alias is required for subqueries in the FROM term. However, when you assign an alias to the subquery, the AS keyword may be omitted.

    Examples

    Example 2. A SELECT clause inside a FROM clause.

    List all Gillingham landmark names from a subset of all landmark eating places.

    SELECT name, city
    FROM (SELECT id, name, address, city
          FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.landmark
          WHERE activity = "eat") AS l
    WHERE city = "Gillingham";
    Results
    [
      {
        "city": "Gillingham",
        "name": "Hollywood Bowl"
      },
      {
        "city": "Gillingham",
        "name": "Thai Won Mien"
      },
      {
        "city": "Gillingham",
        "name": "Spice Court"
      },
      {
        "city": "Gillingham",
        "name": "Beijing Inn"
      },
      {
        "city": "Gillingham",
        "name": "Ossie's Fish and Chips"
      }
    ]
    Example 3. Subquery Example

    For each country, find the number of airports at different altitudes and their corresponding cities.

    In this case, the inner query finds the first level of grouping of different altitudes by country and corresponding number of cities. Then the outer query builds on the inner query results to count the number of different altitude groups for each country and the total number of cities.

    SELECT t1.country, num_alts, total_cities
    FROM (SELECT country, geo.alt AS alt,
                 count(city) AS num_cities
          FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport
          GROUP BY country, geo.alt) t1
    GROUP BY t1.country
    LETTING num_alts = count(t1.alt), total_cities = sum(t1.num_cities);
    Results
    [
      {
        "country": "United States",
        "num_alts": 946,
        "total_cities": 1560
      },
      {
        "country": "United Kingdom",
        "num_alts": 128,
        "total_cities": 187
      },
      {
        "country": "France",
        "num_alts": 196,
        "total_cities": 221
      }
    ]

    This is equivalent to blending the results of the following two queries by country, but the subquery in the from-term above simplified it.

    SELECT country,count(city) AS num_cities
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport
    GROUP BY country;
    SELECT country, count(distinct geo.alt) AS num_alts
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport
    GROUP BY country;

    FROM Generic Expression

    Couchbase Server version 4.6.2 added support for generic expressions in the FROM term; and this adds huge flexibility by the enabling of various N1QL functions, operators, path expressions, language constructs on constant expressions, variables, and subqueries to create just about any FROM clause imaginable.

    Syntax

    from-generic ::= expr [ AS alias ]
    generic expr
    expr

    A N1QL expression generating JSON documents or objects.

    AS Alias

    Assigns another name to the generic expression. For details, see AS Clause.

    Assigning an alias is optional for generic expressions in the FROM term. However, when you assign an alias to the expression, the AS keyword is required.

    Examples

    Example 4. Independent Constant Expression

    The expression may include JSON scalar values, static JSON literals, objects, or N1QL functions.

    SELECT * FROM [1, 2, "name", { "type" : "airport", "id" : "SFO"}] AS ks1;
    SELECT CURL("https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json",
               {"data":"address=Half+Moon+Bay" , "request":"GET"} );

    Note that functions such as CURL() can independently produce input data objects for the query. Similarly, other N1QL functions can also be used in the expressions.

    Example 5. Variable N1QL Expression

    The expression may refer to any variables in scope for the query.

    SELECT count(*)
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport t
    LET x = t.geo
    WHERE (SELECT RAW y.alt FROM x y)[0] > 6000;

    The FROM x clause is an expression that refers to the outer query. This is applicable to only subqueries because the outermost level query cannot use any variables in its own FROM clause. This makes the subquery correlated with outer queries, as explained in the Subqueries section.

    AS Clause

    To use a shorter or clearer name anywhere in the query, like SQL, N1QL allows you to assign an alias to any FROM term in the FROM clause.

    Syntax

    The AS keyword is required when assigning an alias to a generic expression.

    The AS keyword is optional when assigning an alias to the FROM keyspace, a subquery, the JOIN clause, the NEST clause, or the UNNEST clause.

    Arguments

    alias

    String to assign an alias.

    Since the original name may lead to referencing wrong data and wrong results, you must use the alias name throughout the query instead of the original keyspace name.

    In the FROM clause, the renaming appears only in the projection and not the fields themselves.

    When no alias is used, the keyspace or last field name of an expression is given as the implicit alias.

    When an alias conflicts with a keyspace or field name in the same scope, the identifier always refers to the alias. This allows for consistent behavior in scenarios where an identifier only conflicts in some documents. For more information on aliases, see Identifiers.

    Examples

    The following FROM clauses are equivalent, with and without the AS keyword.

    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport AS t
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.airport t
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.hotel AS h
    INNER JOIN `travel-sample`.inventory.landmark AS l
    ON (h.city = l.city)
    FROM `travel-sample`.inventory.hotel h
    INNER JOIN `travel-sample`.inventory.landmark l
    ON (h.city = l.city)