How to create a 1M record table with a single query

How to create a 1M record table with a single query(antonz.org)

180 points by lipanski 5 years ago | 38 comments

cribwi 5 years ago |

If you're running PostgreSQL, you can use the built-in generate_series (1) function like:

  SELECT id, random()
  FROM generate_series(0, 1000000) g (id);

There seems to be an equivalent in SQLite: https://sqlite.org/series.html

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/functions-srf.html

dintech 5 years ago | |

Here's how to do something similar in Q (KDB)

    ([]x?x:1000000)

Which gives a table of a million rows like:

klibertp 5 years ago | | |

Nothing to do with the article, SQL, or a DB, but I can't help wanting to add even just a bit when I see array languaes mentioned. So, in J it's just:

    ?~1000000

or, if you don't need elements to be unique:

    ?$~1000000

Though it's just an array, not a persistent table - I don't know much about Jd :(

sradman 5 years ago | |

This can generally fall under the category of “Generate Test Data in SQL” with both generic techniques like Recursive CTEs, as in the OP, and SQL dialect or tool specific options. Search is your friend. The OP also provides a table lookup technique for readable names but doesn’t address other data types such as timestamps or other functions such as MD5(). Other data distribution techniques other than random may also be needed. This post scratches the surface of testing with generated data.

jeffbee 5 years ago | |

If you're running PostgreSQL you can also just

  xxd -ps -c 16 -l $bignum < /dev/urandom | (echo '\copy random_data from stdin'; cat) | psql

Depending on how you want your random keys formatted.

em500 5 years ago | | |

If you're importing from command line tools, you might as well use the specialized `shuf` tool:

  shuf -i 1-$bignum

or for random numbers with replacement

  shuf -i 1-$bignum -r -n $bignum

These give you a sample of random integers. `shuf` is part of GNU coreutils, so present in most Linux installs (but not on macOS).

schoetbi 5 years ago | |

you have to use it since PostgreSQL does not support limit within a with expression.

jolmg 5 years ago | | |

You can use a with-expression. It's true that you can't use `limit` to limit it, but you can use a `where` condition. This is equivalent to cribwi's example:

  WITH RECURSIVE
    t AS (
      SELECT 0 id
      UNION ALL
      SELECT id + 1
        FROM t
        WHERE id < 1000000
    )
    SELECT id, random() FROM t;

It returns 1000001 rows, but so does cribwi's.

deepstack 5 years ago | |

use a sequence or uuid

etaioinshrdlu 5 years ago |

If your DB doesn't support this technique, you might be able to use this rather disgusting technique, which builds an exponentially growing tower of rows by using nested queries with JOIN's. https://stackoverflow.com/a/61169467

dspillett 5 years ago | |

Some DBs support "literal tables" which makes this a little less nasty:

    SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS d(n)

for instance:

        SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000
          FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS units(n)
    CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS tens(n)
    CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS hundreds(n)
    CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS thousands(n)
         WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337

You can make it neater still by making the sub-table with a CTE:

    WITH Digits AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS d(n))
            SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000
              FROM Digits AS units
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS tens
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS hundreds
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS thousands
             WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337

    WITH Digits AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS d(n))
    , Thousands AS (SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000
              FROM Digits AS units
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS tens
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS hundreds
        CROSS JOIN Digits AS thousands
        )
    SELECT seq FROM thousands ORDER BY seq
     WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337

though at that point you probably have the recursive option so you'd need to test to see which is more efficient. As a further hack you can combine this and the recursive CTE to extend the number of rows you can return when recursion limits would otherwise be a problem.

You can also use simple window functions to make a sequence from a system table that you know will have a few thousand rows:

    SELECT n=ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY object_id) FROM sys.all_columns

Or if you just need a few thousand rows to hang randomly generated data from you don't even need the function.

All a bit hacky compared to some DBs that have sequence support, but useful for generating test data or numbers tables where that isn't supported.

openquery 5 years ago |

This looks convenient (and performant). But how does it scale as queries join across tables?

If you need to create test data with complex business logic, referential integrity and constraints we've been working on declarative data generator that is build exactly for this: https://github.com/openquery-io/synth.

zikani_03 5 years ago |

If you need another repeatable way to create random data that you can export as SQL (or CSV/Excel files). You may find a tool we built and use at work useful: https://github.com/creditdatamw/zefaker

Needs a little Groovy but very convenient for generating random (or non-random) data.

sigmonsays 5 years ago |

i generally end up writing a data generator using the language and apis in the application. I often want control over various aspects of the data and built the generator as such. Quite often I just generate queries and then run them which works quickly.

While this looks like a good way to generate simple data, practical applications are more involved.

alexf95 5 years ago |

Can someone give me a specific use case for this? As "check how a query behaves on a large table" is very vague to me.

E.g. I have a table structure but not alot of rows in it, so i go use this to get alot of rows in to check how fast queries get processed?

DasIch 5 years ago | |

You want to run a transaction in production and you're unsure about the impact because it might take a lock and block other transactions for some time. In that case you may want to spin up a separate database with fake data and test it there first.

You could create a new database and restore a production backup instead of using fake data but that might not be allowed or require some kind of approval due to rules protecting the privacy of customers or employees.

dspillett 5 years ago | |

Generating test data batches like this is a common use.

The other is for populating "numbers tables" which can be very useful in reporting contexts and/or dealing with certain gaps/islands type problems.

You can even use the techniques dynamically rather than a stored numbers table, if you need it in a DB that doesn't have one and you don't have schema permissions to create one, though this is generally less efficient.

psing 5 years ago | |

Creating realistic fake data is useful in lower environments and for load testing. Outside of SQL I like faker: https://github.com/joke2k/faker

unnouinceput 5 years ago | |

Exactly like that, yes.

muad_kyrlach 5 years ago |

Everyone, please rush out and do this in your production databases! :)

slt2021 5 years ago |

usually there is a system table with a ton of metadata that will for sure contain few thousand rows, so generating a million rows for SQL Server is simply:

select top 1000000 ROW_NUMBER() from sys.objects a, sys.objects b

or you can use INFORMATION_SCHEMA which is more portable across different RDBMS engines

vp8989 5 years ago | |

This is how I do it. You can cross join the derived table to itself if you need more rows.

Much more performant and naturally relational way of generating data than looping recursively.

kroolik 5 years ago | | |

Also one of the only ways to get sequences in joins in Redshift. Unfortunately, only Redshift master nodes support 'generate_series'. If your query contains join that are spread across multiple worker nodes, Redshift will report an error saying 'generate_series' no supported.

Gotta select row number on some big enough table!

urbandw311er 5 years ago |

> This is not a problem if your DBMS supports SQL recursion

A table of which DMBS’s support this would be useful

nalgeon 5 years ago | |

WITH RECURSIVE is supported in MariaDB 10.2+, MySQL 8.0+, PostgreSQL 8.4+ and SQLite 3.8+. Oracle 11.2+ and SQL Server 2005 support recursive queries, but without the RECURSIVE keyword.

dspillett 5 years ago | | |

Before recent versions, in the Postgres implementation CTEs were a wall to predicate push-down which can make them much less efficient than in other DBMSs. Worth noting if you need to support older versions for any reason.

Twisell 5 years ago | |

Not sure if it's up-to date though : https://modern-sql.com/caniuse/with_recursive_(top_level)

magicalhippo 5 years ago | |

FWIW Sybase SQL Anywhere has supported it since v10[1] at least. Current version is v17[2].

[1]: http://dcx.sap.com/index.html#1001/en/dbrfen10/rf-select-sta...

[2]: http://dcx.sap.com/index.html#sqla170/en/html/8190aea36ce210...

alexf95 5 years ago | |

This is the list that i could find:

Microsoft SQL Server, Firebird 2.1, PostgreSQL, SQLite, IBM Informix version, CUBRID, MariaDB and MySQL

geogra4 5 years ago | | |

Not oracle?

exdsq 5 years ago | |

I sort of assumed all of them did!

tandav 5 years ago |

    spark.sparkContext.range(1_000_000, numSlices=200).take(20)

coremoff 5 years ago |

in oracle, this can be done using heirarchical queries:

  select dbms_random.value from dual connect by level < 1000001;

edit: 1,000,001 as level starts with 1

SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS units(n) CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS tens(n) CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS hundreds(n) CROSS JOIN (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS thousands(n) WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337

WITH Digits AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS d(n)) SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 FROM Digits AS units CROSS JOIN Digits AS tens CROSS JOIN Digits AS hundreds CROSS JOIN Digits AS thousands WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337

WITH Digits AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0), (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9)) AS d(n)) , Thousands AS (SELECT seq = units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 FROM Digits AS units CROSS JOIN Digits AS tens CROSS JOIN Digits AS hundreds CROSS JOIN Digits AS thousands ) SELECT seq FROM thousands ORDER BY seq WHERE units.n + tens.n*10 + hundreds.n*100 + thousands.n*1000 BETWEEN 1 AND 1337