Important

You are viewing the documentation of an older version of the TiDB database (TiDB v5.1). It is recommended that you use the latest LTS version of the TiDB database.

TiDB Specific Functions

The following functions are TiDB extensions, and are not present in MySQL:

Function name	Function description
`TIDB_BOUNDED_STALENESS()`	The `TIDB_BOUNDED_STALENESS` function instructs TiDB to read the data as new as possible within the time range. See also: Read Historical Data Using the `AS OF TIMESTAMP` Clause
`TIDB_DECODE_KEY(str)`	The `TIDB_DECODE_KEY` function can be used to decode a TiDB-encoded key entry into a JSON structure containing `_tidb_rowid` and `table_id`. These encoded keys can be found in some system tables and in logging outputs.
`TIDB_DECODE_PLAN(str)`	The `TIDB_DECODE_PLAN` function can be used to decode a TiDB execution plan.
`TIDB_IS_DDL_OWNER()`	The `TIDB_IS_DDL_OWNER` function can be used to check whether or not the TiDB instance you are connected to is the one that is the DDL Owner. The DDL Owner is the TiDB instance that is tasked with executing DDL statements on behalf of all other nodes in the cluster.
`TIDB_PARSE_TSO(num)`	The `TIDB_PARSE_TSO` function can be used to extract the physical timestamp from a TiDB TSO timestamp. See also: `tidb_current_ts`.
`TIDB_VERSION()`	The `TIDB_VERSION` function returns the TiDB version with additional build information.
`VITESS_HASH(str)`	The `VITESS_HASH` function returns the hash of a string that is compatible with Vitess' `HASH` function. This is intended to help the data migration from Vitess.

Examples

This section provides examples for some of the functions above.

TIDB_DECODE_KEY

In the following example, the table t1 has a hidden rowid that is generated by TiDB. The TIDB_DECODE_KEY is used in the statement. From the result, you can see that the hidden rowid is decoded and output, which is a typical result for the non-clustered primary key.

SELECT START_KEY, TIDB_DECODE_KEY(START_KEY) FROM information_schema.tikv_region_status WHERE table_name='t1' AND REGION_ID=2\G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
                 START_KEY: 7480000000000000FF3B5F728000000000FF1DE3F10000000000FA
TIDB_DECODE_KEY(START_KEY): {"_tidb_rowid":1958897,"table_id":"59"}
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

In the following example, the table t2 has a compound clustered primary key. From the JSON output, you can see a handle that contains the name and value for both of the columns that are part of the primary key.

show create table t2\G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: t2
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t2` (
  `id` binary(36) NOT NULL,
  `a` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL,
  `v` varchar(512) DEFAULT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (`a`,`id`) /*T![clustered_index] CLUSTERED */
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_bin
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

select * from information_schema.tikv_region_status where table_name='t2' limit 1\G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
                REGION_ID: 48
                START_KEY: 7480000000000000FF3E5F720400000000FF0000000601633430FF3338646232FF2D64FF3531632D3131FF65FF622D386337352DFFFF3830653635303138FFFF61396265000000FF00FB000000000000F9
                  END_KEY:
                 TABLE_ID: 62
                  DB_NAME: test
               TABLE_NAME: t2
                 IS_INDEX: 0
                 INDEX_ID: NULL
               INDEX_NAME: NULL
           EPOCH_CONF_VER: 1
            EPOCH_VERSION: 38
            WRITTEN_BYTES: 0
               READ_BYTES: 0
         APPROXIMATE_SIZE: 136
         APPROXIMATE_KEYS: 479905
  REPLICATIONSTATUS_STATE: NULL
REPLICATIONSTATUS_STATEID: NULL
1 row in set (0.005 sec)

select tidb_decode_key('7480000000000000FF3E5F720400000000FF0000000601633430FF3338646232FF2D64FF3531632D3131FF65FF622D386337352DFFFF3830653635303138FFFF61396265000000FF00FB000000000000F9');

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| tidb_decode_key('7480000000000000FF3E5F720400000000FF0000000601633430FF3338646232FF2D64FF3531632D3131FF65FF622D386337352DFFFF3830653635303138FFFF61396265000000FF00FB000000000000F9') |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| {"handle":{"a":"6","id":"c4038db2-d51c-11eb-8c75-80e65018a9be"},"table_id":62}                                                                                                        |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.001 sec)

TIDB_DECODE_PLAN

You can find TiDB execution plans in encoded form in the slow query log. The TIDB_DECODE_PLAN() function is then used to decode the encoded plans into a human-readable form.

This function is useful because a plan is captured at the time the statement is executed. Re-executing the statement in EXPLAIN might produce different results as data distribution and statistics evolves over time.

SELECT tidb_decode_plan('8QIYMAkzMV83CQEH8E85LjA0CWRhdGE6U2VsZWN0aW9uXzYJOTYwCXRpbWU6NzEzLjHCtXMsIGxvb3BzOjIsIGNvcF90YXNrOiB7bnVtOiAxLCBtYXg6IDU2OC41wgErRHByb2Nfa2V5czogMCwgcnBjXxEpAQwFWBAgNTQ5LglZyGNvcHJfY2FjaGVfaGl0X3JhdGlvOiAwLjAwfQkzLjk5IEtCCU4vQQoxCTFfNgkxXzAJMwm2SGx0KHRlc3QudC5hLCAxMDAwMCkNuQRrdgmiAHsFbBQzMTMuOMIBmQnEDDk2MH0BUgEEGAoyCTQzXzUFVwX1oGFibGU6dCwga2VlcCBvcmRlcjpmYWxzZSwgc3RhdHM6cHNldWRvCTk2ISE2aAAIMTUzXmYA')\G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
  tidb_decode_plan('8QIYMAkzMV83CQEH8E85LjA0CWRhdGE6U2VsZWN0aW9uXzYJOTYwCXRpbWU6NzEzLjHCtXMsIGxvb3BzOjIsIGNvcF90YXNrOiB7bnVtOiAxLCBtYXg6IDU2OC41wgErRHByb2Nfa2V5czogMCwgcnBjXxEpAQwFWBAgNTQ5LglZyGNvcHJfY2FjaGVfaGl0X3JhdGlvOiAwLjAwfQkzLjk5IEtCCU4vQQoxCTFfNgkxXz:     id                     task         estRows    operator info                              actRows    execution info                                                                                                                         memory     disk
    TableReader_7          root         319.04     data:Selection_6                           960        time:713.1µs, loops:2, cop_task: {num: 1, max: 568.5µs, proc_keys: 0, rpc_num: 1, rpc_time: 549.1µs, copr_cache_hit_ratio: 0.00}    3.99 KB    N/A
    └─Selection_6          cop[tikv]    319.04     lt(test.t.a, 10000)                        960        tikv_task:{time:313.8µs, loops:960}                                                                                                   N/A        N/A
      └─TableFullScan_5    cop[tikv]    960        table:t, keep order:false, stats:pseudo    960        tikv_task:{time:153µs, loops:960}                                                                                                     N/A        N/A

TIDB_PARSE_TSO

The TIDB_PARSE_TSO function can be used to extract the physical timestamp from a TiDB TSO timestamp. TSO stands for Time Stamp Oracle and is a monotonically increasing timestamp given out by PD (Placement Driver) for every transaction.

A TSO is a number that consists of two parts:

A physical timestamp
A logical counter

BEGIN;
SELECT TIDB_PARSE_TSO(@@tidb_current_ts);
ROLLBACK;

+-----------------------------------+
| TIDB_PARSE_TSO(@@tidb_current_ts) |
+-----------------------------------+
| 2021-05-26 11:33:37.776000        |
+-----------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.0012 sec)

Here TIDB_PARSE_TSO is used to extract the physical timestamp from the timestamp number that is available in the tidb_current_ts session variable. Because timestamps are given out per transaction, this function is running in a transaction.

TIDB_VERSION

The TIDB_VERSION function can be used to get the version and build details of the TiDB server that you are connected to. You can use this function when reporting issues on GitHub.

SELECT TIDB_VERSION()\G

*************************** 1. row ***************************
TIDB_VERSION(): Release Version: v5.1.0-alpha-13-gd5e0ed0aa-dirty
Edition: Community
Git Commit Hash: d5e0ed0aaed72d2f2dfe24e9deec31cb6cb5fdf0
Git Branch: master
UTC Build Time: 2021-05-24 14:39:20
GoVersion: go1.13
Race Enabled: false
TiKV Min Version: v3.0.0-60965b006877ca7234adaced7890d7b029ed1306
Check Table Before Drop: false
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

MySQL compatibility

The TIDB_VERSION function is TiDB-specific and not compatible with MySQL. If MySQL compatibility is required, you can also use VERSION to get version information, but the result does not contain build details.