STL_QUERYTEXT - Amazon Redshift
Table columnsSample queries

STL_QUERYTEXT

Captures the query text for SQL commands.

Query the STL_QUERYTEXT table to capture the SQL that was logged for the following statements:

  • SELECT, SELECT INTO

  • INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

  • COPY

  • UNLOAD

  • VACUUM, ANALYZE

  • CREATE TABLE AS (CTAS)

To query activity for these statements over a given time period, join the STL_QUERYTEXT and STL_QUERY tables.

Note

The STL_QUERY and STL_QUERYTEXT tables only contain information about queries, not other utility and DDL commands. For a listing and information on all statements executed by Amazon Redshift, you can also query the STL_DDLTEXT and STL_UTILITYTEXT tables. For a complete listing of all statements executed by Amazon Redshift, you can query the SVL_STATEMENTTEXT view.

See also STL_DDLTEXT, STL_UTILITYTEXT, and SVL_STATEMENTTEXT.

This table is visible to all users. Superusers can see all rows; regular users can see only their own data. For more information, see Visibility of data in system tables and views.

Table columns

Column name Data type Description
userid integer ID of the user who generated the entry.
xid bigint Transaction ID.
pid integer Process ID. Normally, all of the queries in a session are run in the same process, so this value usually remains constant if you run a series of queries in the same session. Following certain internal events, Amazon Redshift might restart an active session and assign a new PID. For more information, see STL_RESTARTED_SESSIONS. You can use this column to join to the STL_ERROR table.
query integer Query ID. The query column can be used to join other system tables and views.
sequence integer When a single statement contains more than 200 characters, additional rows are logged for that statement. Sequence 0 is the first row, 1 is the second, and so on.
text character(200) SQL text, in 200-character increments. This field might contain special characters such as backslash (\\) and newline (\n).

Sample queries

You can use the PG_BACKEND_PID() function to retrieve information for the current session. For example, the following query returns the query ID and a portion of the query text for queries executed in the current session. 

select query, substring(text,1,60)
from stl_querytext
where pid = pg_backend_pid()
order by query desc;

 query |                         substring
-------+--------------------------------------------------------------
 28262 | select query, substring(text,1,80) from stl_querytext where 
 28252 | select query, substring(path,0,80) as path from stl_unload_l
 28248 | copy category from 's3://dw-tickit/manifest/category/1030_ma
 28247 | Count rows in target table
 28245 | unload ('select * from category') to 's3://dw-tickit/manifes
 28240 | select query, substring(text,1,40) from stl_querytext where 
(6 rows)

Reconstructing stored SQL

To reconstruct the SQL stored in the text column of STL_QUERYTEXT, run a SELECT statement to create SQL from 1 or more parts in the text column. Before running the reconstructed SQL, replace any (\n) special characters with a new line. The result of the following SELECT statement is rows of reconstructed SQL in the query_statement field. 

SELECT query, LISTAGG(CASE WHEN LEN(RTRIM(text)) = 0 THEN text ELSE RTRIM(text) END) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY sequence) as query_statement, COUNT(*) as row_count 
FROM stl_querytext GROUP BY query ORDER BY query desc;

For example, the following query selects 3 columns. The query itself is longer than 200 characters and is stored in parts in STL_QUERYTEXT. 

select
1 AS a0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,
2 AS b0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,
3 AS b012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234
FROM stl_querytext;

In this example, the query is stored in 2 parts (rows) in the text column of STL_QUERYTEXT. 

select query, sequence, text
from stl_querytext where query=pg_last_query_id() order by query desc, sequence limit 10;

query  | sequence |                                                                                             text                                                                                                   
-------+----------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    45 |        0 | select\n1 AS a0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,\n2 AS b0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,\n3 AS b012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234
    45 |        1 | \nFROM stl_querytext;

To reconstruct the SQL stored in STL_QUERYTEXT, run the following SQL. 

select LISTAGG(CASE WHEN LEN(RTRIM(text)) = 0 THEN text ELSE RTRIM(text) END, '') within group (order by sequence) AS text 
from stl_querytext where query=pg_last_query_id();

To use the resulting reconstructed SQL in your client, replace any (\n) special characters with a new line. 


                                                                                                             text                                                                                                             
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 select\n1 AS a0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,\n2 AS b0123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890,\n3 AS b012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234\nFROM stl_querytext;