docs/query-data/lateral-view.md

---
{
    "title": "Column to Row (Lateral View)",
    "language": "en",
    "description": "Used in conjunction with generator functions such as EXPLODE, will generate a virtual table containing one or more rows."
}
---

# Column to Row (Lateral View)

Used in conjunction with generator functions such as `EXPLODE`, will generate a virtual table containing one or more rows. `LATERAL VIEW` applies rows to each raw input row.

## Grammar

```sql
LATERAL VIEW  generator_function ( expression [, ...] ) table_identifier AS column_identifier [, ...]
```

## Parameters

- generator_function

   Generator functions (EXPLODE, EXPLODE_SPLIT, etc.).

- table_identifier

   Alias for `generator_function`.

- column_identifier

   List column alias `generator_function`, which can be used to reference the output columns. The number of column identifiers must match the number of columns returned by the generator function.

## Example

```sql
CREATE TABLE `person` (
  `id` int(11) NULL,
  `name` text NULL,
  `age` int(11) NULL,
  `class` int(11) NULL,
  `address` text NULL
) ENGINE=OLAP
UNIQUE KEY(`id`)
COMMENT 'OLAP'
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(`id`) BUCKETS 1
PROPERTIES (
"replication_allocation" = "tag.location.default: 1",
"in_memory" = "false",
"storage_format" = "V2",
"disable_auto_compaction" = "false"
);

INSERT INTO person VALUES
    (100, 'John', 30, 1, 'Street 1'),
    (200, 'Mary', NULL, 1, 'Street 2'),
    (300, 'Mike', 80, 3, 'Street 3'),
    (400, 'Dan', 50, 4, 'Street 4');

mysql> SELECT * FROM person
    ->     LATERAL VIEW EXPLODE(ARRAY(30, 60)) tableName AS c_age;
+------+------+------+-------+----------+-------+
| id   | name | age  | class | address  | c_age |
+------+------+------+-------+----------+-------+
|  100 | John |   30 |     1 | Street 1 |    30 |
|  100 | John |   30 |     1 | Street 1 |    60 |
|  200 | Mary | NULL |     1 | Street 2 |    30 |
|  200 | Mary | NULL |     1 | Street 2 |    60 |
|  300 | Mike |   80 |     3 | Street 3 |    30 |
|  300 | Mike |   80 |     3 | Street 3 |    60 |
|  400 | Dan  |   50 |     4 | Street 4 |    30 |
|  400 | Dan  |   50 |     4 | Street 4 |    60 |
+------+------+------+-------+----------+-------+
8 rows in set (0.12 sec)

```