Databricks SQL – CTEs

Common Table Expressions (CTEs)

Here is an example of a CTE. We are going to query the view we just created, but we are going to filter based on the total_price being above 20000. We are calling that sales_below_20000 and then immediately querying the DISTINCT customer_name from that CTE.

USE demo;
WITH sales_below_20000 AS
    (SELECT *
     FROM high_sales
     WHERE total_price < 20000)
SELECT DISTINCT customer_name FROM sales_below_20000;

Common table expression (CTE) (Databricks SQL)

Defines a temporary result set that you can reference possibly multiple times within the scope of a SQL statement. A CTE is used mainly in a SELECT statement.

WITH common_table_expression [, ...]

common_table_expression
  view_identifier [ ( column_identifier [, ...] ) ] [ AS ] ( query )

Examples

-- CTE with multiple column aliases
> WITH t(x, y) AS (SELECT 1, 2)
  SELECT * FROM t WHERE x = 1 AND y = 2;
   1   2

-- CTE in CTE definition
> WITH t AS (
    WITH t2 AS (SELECT 1)
    SELECT * FROM t2)
  SELECT * FROM t;
   1

-- CTE in subquery
> SELECT max(c) FROM (
    WITH t(c) AS (SELECT 1)
    SELECT * FROM t);
      1

-- CTE in subquery expression
> SELECT (WITH t AS (SELECT 1)
          SELECT * FROM t);
                1

-- CTE in CREATE VIEW statement
> CREATE VIEW v AS
    WITH t(a, b, c, d) AS (SELECT 1, 2, 3, 4)
    SELECT * FROM t;
> SELECT * FROM v;
   1   2   3   4

-- CTE names are scoped
> WITH t  AS (SELECT 1),
       t2 AS (
        WITH t AS (SELECT 2)
        SELECT * FROM t)
SELECT * FROM t2;
   2
WITH column_date AS (
  SELECT date_format(TIMESTAMPADD(HOUR, +7, current_timestamp()),'yyyyMMdd') AS T0
    ,    date_format(TIMESTAMPADD(HOUR, +7-24, current_timestamp()),'yyyyMMdd') AS T1
    ,    date_format(TIMESTAMPADD(HOUR, +7-48, current_timestamp()),'yyyyMMdd') AS T2
    ,    date_format(TIMESTAMPADD(HOUR, +7-72, current_timestamp()),'yyyyMMdd') AS T3
)
SELECT *
FROM   column_date;

---------------------------------------------
|   T0     |    T1    |   T2     |   T3     |
---------------------------------------------
| 20230310 | 20230309 | 20230308 | 20230307 |