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# Overview

## Syntax Definition

In IoTDB, `SELECT` statement is used to retrieve data from one or more selected time series. Here is the syntax definition of `SELECT` statement:

```sql
[TRACING] SELECT
    [LAST] [TOP k] resultColumn [, resultColumn] ...
    FROM prefixPath [, prefixPath] ...
    WHERE whereCondition
    [GROUP BY ([startTime, endTime), interval, slidingStep)]
    [GROUP BY LEVEL = levelNum [, levelNum] ...]
    [FILL ({PREVIOUS, beforeRange | LINEAR, beforeRange, afterRange | constant})]
    [LIMIT rowLimit] [OFFSET rowOffset]
    [SLIMIT seriesLimit] [SOFFSET seriesOffset]
    [WITHOUT NULL {ANY | ALL} [resultColumn [, resultColumn] ...]]
    [ORDER BY TIME {ASC | DESC}]
    [{ALIGN BY DEVICE | DISABLE ALIGN}]
```

The most commonly used clauses of `SELECT` statements are these:

- Each `resultColumn` indicates a column that you want to retrieve, which may be a suffix of time series paths, an aggregate function and so on. There must be at least one `resultColumn`.  For more details for `resultColumn`, please refer to [Select Expression](./Select-Expression.md) .
- `fromClause` contains the prefix of one or more time-series paths to query.
- `whereCondition` (Optional) specify the filter criterion named ` queryfilter`. `queryfilter` is a logical expression that returns the data points which calculation result is TRUE. If you do not specify `whereCondition`, return all data points in the time series. For more details, please refer to [Query Filter](./Query-Filter.md).
- The query results are sorted in ascending order by timestamp. You can specify the results to be sorted in descending order by timestamp through `ORDER BY TIME DESC` clause.
- When there is a large amount of query result data, you can use `LIMIT/SLIMIT` and `OFFSET/SOFFSET` to paginate the result set, see [Query Result Pagination](./Pagination.md) for details.
- The query result set is aligned according to the timestamp by default, that is, the time series is used as the column, and the timestamp of each row of data is the same. For other result set alignments, see [Query Result Alignment](./Result-Format.md).

## Basic Examples

### Select a Column of Data Based on a Time Interval

The SQL statement is:

```sql
select temperature from root.ln.wf01.wt01 where time < 2017-11-01T00:08:00.000
```
which means:

The selected device is ln group wf01 plant wt01 device; the selected timeseries is the temperature sensor (temperature). The SQL statement requires that all temperature sensor values before the time point of "2017-11-01T00:08:00.000" be selected.

The execution result of this SQL statement is as follows:

```
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|                         Time|root.ln.wf01.wt01.temperature|
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|2017-11-01T00:00:00.000+08:00|                        25.96|
|2017-11-01T00:01:00.000+08:00|                        24.36|
|2017-11-01T00:02:00.000+08:00|                        20.09|
|2017-11-01T00:03:00.000+08:00|                        20.18|
|2017-11-01T00:04:00.000+08:00|                        21.13|
|2017-11-01T00:05:00.000+08:00|                        22.72|
|2017-11-01T00:06:00.000+08:00|                        20.71|
|2017-11-01T00:07:00.000+08:00|                        21.45|
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
Total line number = 8
It costs 0.026s
```

### Select Multiple Columns of Data Based on a Time Interval

The SQL statement is:

```sql
select status, temperature from root.ln.wf01.wt01 where time > 2017-11-01T00:05:00.000 and time < 2017-11-01T00:12:00.000;
```
which means:

The selected device is ln group wf01 plant wt01 device; the selected timeseries is "status" and "temperature". The SQL statement requires that the status and temperature sensor values between the time point of "2017-11-01T00:05:00.000" and "2017-11-01T00:12:00.000" be selected.

The execution result of this SQL statement is as follows:

```
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
|                         Time|root.ln.wf01.wt01.status|root.ln.wf01.wt01.temperature|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
|2017-11-01T00:06:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        20.71|
|2017-11-01T00:07:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        21.45|
|2017-11-01T00:08:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        22.58|
|2017-11-01T00:09:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        20.98|
|2017-11-01T00:10:00.000+08:00|                    true|                        25.52|
|2017-11-01T00:11:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        22.91|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
Total line number = 6
It costs 0.018s
```

### Select Multiple Columns of Data for the Same Device According to Multiple Time Intervals

IoTDB supports specifying multiple time interval conditions in a query. Users can combine time interval conditions at will according to their needs. For example, the SQL statement is:

```sql
select status,temperature from root.ln.wf01.wt01 where (time > 2017-11-01T00:05:00.000 and time < 2017-11-01T00:12:00.000) or (time >= 2017-11-01T16:35:00.000 and time <= 2017-11-01T16:37:00.000);
```
which means:

The selected device is ln group wf01 plant wt01 device; the selected timeseries is "status" and "temperature"; the statement specifies two different time intervals, namely "2017-11-01T00:05:00.000 to 2017-11-01T00:12:00.000" and "2017-11-01T16:35:00.000 to 2017-11-01T16:37:00.000". The SQL statement requires that the values of selected timeseries satisfying any time interval be selected.

The execution result of this SQL statement is as follows:
```
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
|                         Time|root.ln.wf01.wt01.status|root.ln.wf01.wt01.temperature|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
|2017-11-01T00:06:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        20.71|
|2017-11-01T00:07:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        21.45|
|2017-11-01T00:08:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        22.58|
|2017-11-01T00:09:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        20.98|
|2017-11-01T00:10:00.000+08:00|                    true|                        25.52|
|2017-11-01T00:11:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        22.91|
|2017-11-01T16:35:00.000+08:00|                    true|                        23.44|
|2017-11-01T16:36:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        21.98|
|2017-11-01T16:37:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        21.93|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+
Total line number = 9
It costs 0.018s
```


### Choose Multiple Columns of Data for Different Devices According to Multiple Time Intervals

The system supports the selection of data in any column in a query, i.e., the selected columns can come from different devices. For example, the SQL statement is:

```sql
select wf01.wt01.status,wf02.wt02.hardware from root.ln where (time > 2017-11-01T00:05:00.000 and time < 2017-11-01T00:12:00.000) or (time >= 2017-11-01T16:35:00.000 and time <= 2017-11-01T16:37:00.000);
```
which means:

The selected timeseries are "the power supply status of ln group wf01 plant wt01 device" and "the hardware version of ln group wf02 plant wt02 device"; the statement specifies two different time intervals, namely "2017-11-01T00:05:00.000 to 2017-11-01T00:12:00.000" and "2017-11-01T16:35:00.000 to 2017-11-01T16:37:00.000". The SQL statement requires that the values of selected timeseries satisfying any time interval be selected.

The execution result of this SQL statement is as follows:

```
+-----------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------+
|                         Time|root.ln.wf01.wt01.status|root.ln.wf02.wt02.hardware|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------+
|2017-11-01T00:06:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T00:07:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T00:08:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T00:09:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T00:10:00.000+08:00|                    true|                        v2|
|2017-11-01T00:11:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T16:35:00.000+08:00|                    true|                        v2|
|2017-11-01T16:36:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
|2017-11-01T16:37:00.000+08:00|                   false|                        v1|
+-----------------------------+------------------------+--------------------------+
Total line number = 9
It costs 0.014s
```

### Order By Time Query
IoTDB supports the 'order by time' statement since 0.11, it's used to display results in descending order by time.
For example, the SQL statement is:

```sql
select * from root.ln.** where time > 1 order by time desc limit 10;
```
The execution result of this SQL statement is as follows:

```
+-----------------------------+--------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+------------------------+
|                         Time|root.ln.wf02.wt02.hardware|root.ln.wf02.wt02.status|root.ln.wf01.wt01.temperature|root.ln.wf01.wt01.status|
+-----------------------------+--------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+------------------------+
|2017-11-07T23:59:00.000+08:00|                        v1|                   false|                        21.07|                   false|
|2017-11-07T23:58:00.000+08:00|                        v1|                   false|                        22.93|                   false|
|2017-11-07T23:57:00.000+08:00|                        v2|                    true|                        24.39|                    true|
|2017-11-07T23:56:00.000+08:00|                        v2|                    true|                        24.44|                    true|
|2017-11-07T23:55:00.000+08:00|                        v2|                    true|                         25.9|                    true|
|2017-11-07T23:54:00.000+08:00|                        v1|                   false|                        22.52|                   false|
|2017-11-07T23:53:00.000+08:00|                        v2|                    true|                        24.58|                    true|
|2017-11-07T23:52:00.000+08:00|                        v1|                   false|                        20.18|                   false|
|2017-11-07T23:51:00.000+08:00|                        v1|                   false|                        22.24|                   false|
|2017-11-07T23:50:00.000+08:00|                        v2|                    true|                         23.7|                    true|
+-----------------------------+--------------------------+------------------------+-----------------------------+------------------------+
Total line number = 10
It costs 0.016s
```

## Usage in Different Clients

Data query statements can be used in SQL command-line terminals, JDBC, JAVA / C++ / Python / Go and other native APIs, and RESTful APIs.

- Execute the query statement in the SQL command line terminal: start the SQL command line terminal, and directly enter the query statement to execute, see [SQL command line terminal](../QuickStart/Command-Line-Interface.md).

- Execute query statements in JDBC, see [JDBC](../API/Programming-JDBC.md) for details.

- Execute query statements in native APIs such as JAVA / C++ / Python / Go. For details, please refer to the relevant documentation in the Application Programming Interface chapter. The interface prototype is as follows:

   ````java
   SessionDataSet executeQueryStatement(String sql)
   ````

- Used in RESTful API, see [HTTP API](../API/RestService.md) for details.