CockroachDB: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 4. CockroachDB SQL

The language of CockroachDB is SQL. While there are some command-line utilities, all interactions between an application and the database are mediated by SQL language commands.

SQL is a rich language with a long history—we touched upon some of that history in Chapter 1. A full definition of all SQL language features would require a book in its own right and would be almost instantly out of date because the SQL language evolves with each release.

Therefore, this chapter aims to provide you with a broad overview of the SQL language used in CockroachDB without attempting to be a complete reference. We’ll take a task-oriented approach to SQL, covering the most common SQL language tasks with particular reference to unique features of the CockroachDB SQL implementation.

As we described in Chapter 1, SQL is a declarative language. SQL statements represent logical requests for queries and data manipulation operations without specifying how the database should implement those requests.

A complete reference for the CockroachDB SQL language can be found in the CockroachDB documentation set. A broader review of the SQL language can be found in the O’Reilly book SQL in a Nutshell.

Some of the examples in this chapter use the MovR sample data set in this chapter to illustrate various SQL language features. We showed how to install sample data in Chapter 2.

SQL Language Compatibility

CockroachDB is broadly compatible with the PostgreSQL implementation of the SQL:2016 ...