Temporal filters
Temporal filters allow you to filter data based on time intervals, which are used to retrieve data within a specific time range.
Temporal filters will enable you to filter data based on a particular time, such as the current time, a specific date, or a range of dates. By using temporal filters, you can ensure that your queries only return data relevant to the period you are interested in, making your data analysis more accurate and efficient. The records that become out of the time range defined by the temporal filter will be deleted from the storage and the storage space will be reclaimed.
Syntax
A temporal filter is a filter condition with a NOW()
function call. It can only be used in the WHERE
and HAVING
clauses in the query.
A valid temporal filter comprises the following components:
- A comparison operator, among
<
,>
,<=
,>=
,=
andBETWEEN
. - A time expression of the columns in the base relation as one comparing side.
- A non-decreasing time expression with exactly one
NOW()
function call as the other comparing side.
There could be multiple temporal filters and other expressions in the WHERE
clause conjoined with the AND
operator.
A temporal filter condition cannot be disjoined with another temporal filter using the OR
operator. But it is allowed to be disjoined with another normal filter. See the examples below:
Also, in the WHERE
clause, each expression conjoined by the AND
operator should have only one temporal filter disjoined with the OR
operator.
Usage 1: Delete and clean expired data
When the time expression with NOW()
is the lower bound condition of the base relation, such as t > NOW() - INTERVAL '1 hour'
, it can filter records with event times that are too old. In RisingWave, the source will pull data from upstream only after some materialized views (MVs) are created and their definitions include this source. The source itself does not store any records. Therefore, with the temporal filter, we can easily limit the total storage space.
The following query returns all rows from the sales_source
sources where the sale_date
column plus one week is greater than the current date and time. In other words, it will return all sales records within the past week.
The temporal filter in this query is sale_date > NOW() - INTERVAL '1 week'
. It filters the rows based on the sale_date
column and checks if it is within one week of the current time or NOW()
.
The following query returns all rows from the user_sessions
table where the sum of the last_active
timestamp and double the session_timeout
duration is greater than the current timestamp, indicating active user sessions. This query could be used to clean up old user sessions from the database by deleting any rows that no longer satisfy the condition.
The temporal filter in this query is in the WHERE
clause. It checks whether the timestamp of the last activity plus twice the session timeout is greater than the current time or NOW()
. This indicates that the session is still active.
Usage 2: Delay table changes
When the time expression with NOW()
is the upper bound condition of the base relation such as ts + interval '1 hour' < now()
, it can “delay” the table’s changes of the input relation. It could be useful when used with the Temporal Join.
Here is a typical example of the temporal join used to widen a fact table.
However, due to delays caused by the network or other phases, it is not guaranteed that when the record of the fact
arrives, the corresponding record in the dimension
table has arrived. Therefore, a temporal filter can be set on the fact
source to introduce a delay and wait for the dimension table’s changes.
NOTE
Currently, RisingWave’s optimizer cannot ensure the temporal filter’s predicate pushdown. Please add the temporal filter in the FROM
clause as a sub-query, like the SQL example, instead of writing the temporal filter in the query’s top WHERE
clause.
INFO
The PROCTIME
in the example can be replaced with the event time in the records.
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