Starburst Documentation
Starburst Galaxy
  •  Get started
  •  Working with data
  •  Starburst AI
  •  Data engineering
  •  Developer tools
  •  Cluster administration
  •  Security and compliance
  •  Troubleshooting
  • Galaxy status
  •  Reference

    • starburst galaxy > working with data > query data > Run SQL statements

    Run SQL statements #

    You can use the query editor to access all clusters, and use their configured catalogs to run SQL statements against.

    Go to the query editor by clicking Query > Query editor in the navigation menu.

    Run a SQL statement #

    To run a SQL statement in the query editor, complete the following steps:

    1. Specify the correct cluster in the location drop-down menus of the editor pane.
    2. Determine which run option is appropriate. The default option is ▶ Run.
    3. Select one or more complete SQL statements in the canvas of the current, then click the ▶ Run button.

    Alternatively, the following keyboard and canvas menu run methods are also available:

    • Press Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on Mac)
    • Right-click inside the canvas, and select Run query from the context menu.

    These alternative methods use the last-selected run option for the ▶ Run button.

    Query selection options #

    If you have multiple SQL statement in a tab, there are two ways to specify which one to run:

    • Click to select: Click to place the cursor anywhere in a complete SQL SQL statement, then use one of the Run methods.

      The click-to-select option is strict about requiring a terminating semicolon for SQL statements.

    • Highlight to select: Highlight a complete SQL statement or valid portion of a SQL statement, then use one of the Run methods. You can also highlight to select more than one complete SQL statement and run them all in sequence.

      When you use the cluster explorer options menu to place a SQL statement on the current tab, the SQL statement is highlighted. Highlight-to-select is more forgiving of semicolon placement.

    In both cases, the SQL statements are run in top down order, with the results of each SQL statement showing in sequence in the results pane. A navigation sub-pane opens in the results pane to show the status of each selected SQL statement. Click to select a row in this sub-pane to show the corresponding results from each SQL statement.

    If you click Cancel while a multiple SQL statement set is running, the cancellation applies to the currently running SQL statement. The execution of all following SQL statements in the set is stopped, with status showing Skipped.

    Run options #

    The Run button offers the following options:

    • ▶ Run
    • ▶ Run all
    • ▶ Run and download
    • ▶ Run selected
    • ▶ Run all selected
    • ▶ Run and download selected

    The Run button retains the last selection in each tab until you change it. Each tab also maintains a separate history of the state of the Run button. Use the drop-down arrow in the current Run button to select among the following Run options:

    • ▶ Run: Applies to the SQL statement in the current tab that contains the cursor. The execution pauses if the result set exceeds 100MB, and a dialog appears to warn you that a large result set may slow or stop your browser. From this dialog you have the option to cancel the query or download the result set as a CSV file.

    • ▶ Run all: Applies when the current tab has more than one valid SQL statement, each terminated by a semicolon. In this case, this option runs all SQL statements in order, top to bottom. The execution pauses if the result set exceeds 100MB, and a dialog appears to warn you that a large result set may slow or stop your browser. From this dialog you have the option to cancel the query or download the result set as a CSV file.

      When more than one statement is run, a navigation sub-pane opens in the results pane. Click to select a row in this sub-pane to show the results from previously run statements in the set. If you click Cancel while a multiple statement set is running, the cancellation applies to the currently running statement, and all subsequent statements are skipped.

    • ▶ Run and download: Retrieves a SQL statement’s entire result set and streams it in CSV format to a file in the current user’s default downloads directory. Use this option when you expect a large result set. The amount of data that can be downloaded with this option is browser-dependent. Use a different client to download very large result sets. The name of the results file is browser dependent. Chrome prompts for a filename. Firefox and Safari write to a file named results.csv and appends a digit or a timestamp if the target filename exists. As the download proceeds, a few rows of sample results appear in the results pane.

    • ▶ Run selected, ▶ Run all selected, and ▶ Run and download selected: Completes the same processes as above for the selected SQL statement or statements.

    Get SQL statement status #

    Some statuses are only visible when the cluster is running. Other SQL statement statuses are only visible in the query details page. The query editor statuses include:

    • Cancelling: The status that displays after a user clicks the Cancel button. Only visible in the query editor.
    • Failed: Indicates that the query execution has failed.
    • Finished: The query is finished executing and all output was consumed.
    • Queued: The query is waiting for other queries to execute.
    • Skipped: The query was run as part of a set of queries, but an earlier query in the set was cancelled.
    • Running: The query is executing and has at least one running task.
    • Starting server: The query processing is waiting for the cluster to start from a suspended state.

    Learn more #