numbers

Returns a table with a single number column that contains a sequence of integers.

numbers Table Function

• numbers() – Returns an infinite table with a single number column (UInt64) that contains integers in ascending order, starting from 0. Use LIMIT (and optionally OFFSET) to restrict the number of rows.

• numbers(N) – Returns a table with a single number column (UInt64) that contains integers from 0 to N - 1.

• numbers(N, M) – Returns a table with a single number column (UInt64) that contains M integers from N to N + M - 1.

• numbers(N, M, S) – Returns a table with a single number column (UInt64) that contains values in [N, N + M) with step S (about M / S rows, rounded up). S must be >= 1.

This is similar to the system.numbers system table. It can be used for testing and generating successive values.

The following queries are equivalent:

SELECT * FROM numbers(10);
SELECT * FROM numbers(0, 10);
SELECT * FROM numbers() LIMIT 10;
SELECT * FROM system.numbers LIMIT 10;
SELECT * FROM system.numbers WHERE number BETWEEN 0 AND 9;
SELECT * FROM system.numbers WHERE number IN (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9);

The following queries are also equivalent:

SELECT * FROM numbers(10, 10);
SELECT * FROM numbers() LIMIT 10 OFFSET 10;
SELECT * FROM system.numbers LIMIT 10 OFFSET 10;

The following queries are also equivalent:

SELECT number * 2 FROM numbers(10);
SELECT (number - 10) * 2 FROM numbers(10, 10);
SELECT * FROM numbers(0, 20, 2);

Examples

The first 10 numbers.

SELECT * FROM numbers(10);

 ┌─number─┐
 │      0 │
 │      1 │
 │      2 │
 │      3 │
 │      4 │
 │      5 │
 │      6 │
 │      7 │
 │      8 │
 │      9 │
 └────────┘

Generate a sequence of dates from 2010-01-01 to 2010-12-31.

SELECT toDate('2010-01-01') + number AS d FROM numbers(365);

Find the first UInt64 >= 10^15 whose sipHash64(number) has 20 trailing zero bits.

SELECT number
FROM numbers()
WHERE number >= 1e15
  AND bitAnd(sipHash64(number), 0xFFFFF) = 0
LIMIT 1;

 ┌───────────number─┐
 │ 1000000000056095 │ -- 1.00 quadrillion
 └──────────────────┘

Notes

• For performance reasons, if you know how many rows you need, prefer bounded forms (numbers(N), numbers(N, M[, S])) over unbounded numbers() / system.numbers.
• For parallel generation, use numbers_mt(...) or the system.numbers_mt table. Note that results may be returned in any order.