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Documentation Index

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Values Table Function

The Values table function allows you to create temporary storage which fills columns with values. It is useful for quick testing or generating sample data.
Values is a case-insensitive function. I.e. VALUES or values are both valid.

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Syntax

The basic syntax of the VALUES table function is: 
VALUES([structure,] values...)
It is commonly used as: 
VALUES(
    ['column1_name Type1, column2_name Type2, ...'],
    (value1_row1, value2_row1, ...),
    (value1_row2, value2_row2, ...),
    ...
)

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Arguments

  • column1_name Type1, ... (optional). String specifying the column names and types. If this argument is omitted columns will be named as c1, c2, etc.
  • (value1_row1, value2_row1). Tuples containing values of any type.
Comma separated tuples can be replaced by single values as well. In this case each value is taken to be a new row. See the examples section for details.

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Returned value

  • Returns a temporary table containing the provided values.

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Examples

Query
SELECT *
FROM VALUES(
    'person String, place String',
    ('Noah', 'Paris'),
    ('Emma', 'Tokyo'),
    ('Liam', 'Sydney'),
    ('Olivia', 'Berlin'),
    ('Ilya', 'London'),
    ('Sophia', 'London'),
    ('Jackson', 'Madrid'),
    ('Alexey', 'Amsterdam'),
    ('Mason', 'Venice'),
    ('Isabella', 'Prague')
)
Response
    ┌─person───┬─place─────┐
 1. │ Noah     │ Paris     │
 2. │ Emma     │ Tokyo     │
 3. │ Liam     │ Sydney    │
 4. │ Olivia   │ Berlin    │
 5. │ Ilya     │ London    │
 6. │ Sophia   │ London    │
 7. │ Jackson  │ Madrid    │
 8. │ Alexey   │ Amsterdam │
 9. │ Mason    │ Venice    │
10. │ Isabella │ Prague    │
    └──────────┴───────────┘
VALUES can also be used with single values rather than tuples. For example:
Query
SELECT *
FROM VALUES(
    'person String',
    'Noah',
    'Emma',
    'Liam',
    'Olivia',
    'Ilya',
    'Sophia',
    'Jackson',
    'Alexey',
    'Mason',
    'Isabella'
)
Response
    ┌─person───┐
 1. │ Noah     │
 2. │ Emma     │
 3. │ Liam     │
 4. │ Olivia   │
 5. │ Ilya     │
 6. │ Sophia   │
 7. │ Jackson  │
 8. │ Alexey   │
 9. │ Mason    │
10. │ Isabella │
    └──────────┘
Or without providing a row specification ('column1_name Type1, column2_name Type2, ...' in the syntax), in which case the columns are automatically named. For example:
Query
-- tuples as values
SELECT *
FROM VALUES(
    ('Noah', 'Paris'),
    ('Emma', 'Tokyo'),
    ('Liam', 'Sydney'),
    ('Olivia', 'Berlin'),
    ('Ilya', 'London'),
    ('Sophia', 'London'),
    ('Jackson', 'Madrid'),
    ('Alexey', 'Amsterdam'),
    ('Mason', 'Venice'),
    ('Isabella', 'Prague')
)
Response
    ┌─c1───────┬─c2────────┐
 1. │ Noah     │ Paris     │
 2. │ Emma     │ Tokyo     │
 3. │ Liam     │ Sydney    │
 4. │ Olivia   │ Berlin    │
 5. │ Ilya     │ London    │
 6. │ Sophia   │ London    │
 7. │ Jackson  │ Madrid    │
 8. │ Alexey   │ Amsterdam │
 9. │ Mason    │ Venice    │
10. │ Isabella │ Prague    │
    └──────────┴───────────┘

-- single values
SELECT *
FROM VALUES(
    'Noah',
    'Emma',
    'Liam',
    'Olivia',
    'Ilya',
    'Sophia',
    'Jackson',
    'Alexey',
    'Mason',
    'Isabella'
)
Response
    ┌─c1───────┐
 1. │ Noah     │
 2. │ Emma     │
 3. │ Liam     │
 4. │ Olivia   │
 5. │ Ilya     │
 6. │ Sophia   │
 7. │ Jackson  │
 8. │ Alexey   │
 9. │ Mason    │
10. │ Isabella │
    └──────────┘

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SQL Standard VALUES Clause

From version 26.3, ClickHouse also supports the SQL standard VALUES clause as a table expression in FROM, as used in PostgreSQL, MySQL, DuckDB, and SQL Server. This syntax is rewritten internally to use the values table function described above.
Query
SELECT * FROM (VALUES (1, 'a'), (2, 'b'), (3, 'c')) AS t(id, val);
Response
┌─id─┬─val─┐
│  1 │ a   │
│  2 │ b   │
│  3 │ c   │
└────┴─────┘
It can be used in CTEs:
Query
WITH cte AS (SELECT * FROM (VALUES (1, 'one'), (2, 'two')) AS t(id, name))
SELECT * FROM cte;
And in JOINs:
Query
SELECT t1.id, t1.val, t2.val2
FROM (VALUES (1, 'a'), (2, 'b')) AS t1(id, val)
JOIN (VALUES (1, 'x'), (2, 'y')) AS t2(id, val2) ON t1.id = t2.id;
Column aliases after AS t(col1, col2, ...) follow the standard SQL syntax for naming columns of derived tables. If omitted, columns are named c1, c2, etc.

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See also