Documentation

SQL data types

InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated uses the Apache Arrow DataFusion implementation of SQL. Data types define the type of values that can be stored in table columns. In InfluxDB’s SQL implementation, a measurement is structured as a table, and tags, fields and timestamps are exposed as columns.

DataFusion uses the Arrow type system for query execution. Data types stored in InfluxDB’s storage engine are mapped to SQL data types at query time.

When performing casting operations, cast to the name of the data type, not the actual data type. Names and identifiers in SQL are case-insensitive by default. For example:

SELECT
  '99'::BIGINT,
  '2019-09-18T00:00:00Z'::timestamp

String types

Name Data type Description
STRING UTF8 Character string, variable-length
CHAR UTF8 Character string, fixed-length
VARCHAR UTF8 Character string, variable-length
TEXT UTF8 Variable unlimited length
Example string literals
'abcdefghijk'
'time'
'h2o_temperature'

Numeric types

The following numeric types are supported:

Name Data type Description
BIGINT INT64 64-bit signed integer
BIGINT UNSIGNED UINT64 64-bit unsigned integer
DOUBLE FLOAT64 64-bit floating-point number

Integers

InfluxDB SQL supports the 64-bit signed integers:

Minimum signed integer: -9223372036854775808 Maximum signed integer: 9223372036854775807

Example integer literals
234
-446
5

Unsigned integers

InfluxDB SQL supports the 64-bit unsigned integers:

Minimum unsigned integer: 0 Maximum unsigned integer: 18446744073709551615

Example unsigned integer literals

Unsigned integer literals are comprised of an integer cast to the BIGINT UNSIGNED type:

234::BIGINT UNSIGNED
458374893::BIGINT UNSIGNED
5::BIGINT UNSIGNED

Floats

InfluxDB SQL supports the 64-bit double floating point values. Floats can be a decimal point, decimal integer, or decimal fraction.

Example float literals
23.8
-446.89
5.00
0.033

Date and time data types

InfluxDB SQL supports the following DATE/TIME data types:

Name Data type Description
TIMESTAMP TIMESTAMP TimeUnit::Nanosecond, None
INTERVAL INTERVAL Interval(IntervalUnit::YearMonth) or Interval(IntervalUnit::DayTime)

Timestamp

A time type is a single point in time using nanosecond precision.

The following date and time formats are supported:

YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000Z
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00.000-00:00
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00.000-00:00
YYYY-MM-DDT00:00:00Z
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00.000
YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00
Example timestamp literals
'2023-01-02T03:04:06.000Z'
'2023-01-02T03:04:06.000-00:00'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06.000-00:00'
'2023-01-02T03:04:06Z'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06.000'
'2023-01-02 03:04:06'

Interval

The INTERVAL data type can be used with the following precision:

  • nanosecond
  • microsecond
  • millisecond
  • second
  • minute
  • hour
  • day
  • week
  • month
  • year
  • century
Example interval literals
INTERVAL '10 minutes'
INTERVAL '1 year'
INTERVAL '2 days 1 hour 31 minutes'

Boolean types

Booleans store TRUE or FALSE values.

Name Data type Description
BOOLEAN BOOLEAN True or false values
Example boolean literals
true
TRUE
false
FALSE

Unsupported SQL types

The following SQL types are not currently supported:

  • UUID
  • BLOB
  • CLOB
  • BINARY
  • VARBINARY
  • REGCLASS
  • NVARCHAR
  • CUSTOM
  • ARRAY
  • ENUM
  • SET
  • DATETIME
  • BYTEA

Data types compatible with parameters

For information about data types that can be substituted by parameters, see how to use parameterized queries with SQL.


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The future of Flux

Flux is going into maintenance mode. You can continue using it as you currently are without any changes to your code.

Flux is going into maintenance mode and will not be supported in InfluxDB 3.0. This was a decision based on the broad demand for SQL and the continued growth and adoption of InfluxQL. We are continuing to support Flux for users in 1.x and 2.x so you can continue using it with no changes to your code. If you are interested in transitioning to InfluxDB 3.0 and want to future-proof your code, we suggest using InfluxQL.

For information about the future of Flux, see the following: