SQL language reference

This is a SQL command reference for Databricks SQL and Databricks Runtime.

For information about using SQL with Delta Live Tables, see Delta Live Tables SQL language reference.

DML statements

You use data manipulation statements to add, change, or delete data from a Delta Lake table:

Data retrieval statements

You use a query to retrieve rows from one or more tables according to the specified clauses. The full syntax and brief description of supported clauses are explained in the Query article. The related SQL statements SELECT and VALUES are also included in this section.

In addition to standard SQL queries in the style of SELECT FROM WHERE, Databricks also supports SQL Pipeline Syntax which composes SQL as a series of chained operations such as FROM |> WHERE |> SELECT.

Databricks SQL also provides the ability to inspect the generated logical and physical plan for a query using the EXPLAIN statement.

Delta Lake statements

You use Delta Lake SQL statements to manage tables stored in Delta Lake format:

For details on using Delta Lake statements, see What is Delta Lake?.

Security statements

You use security SQL statements to manage access to data:

For details about using these statements, see Hive metastore privileges and securable objects (legacy).