EXPLAIN Statements

This documentation is for an out-of-date version of Apache Flink. We recommend you use the latest stable version.

Run an EXPLAIN statement
Syntax

EXPLAIN statements are used to explain the logical and optimized query plans of a query or an INSERT statement.

Run an EXPLAIN statement

EXPLAIN statements can be executed with the executeSql() method of the TableEnvironment, or executed in SQL CLI. The executeSql() method returns explain result for a successful EXPLAIN operation, otherwise will throw an exception.

The following examples show how to run an EXPLAIN statement in TableEnvironment and in SQL CLI.

StreamExecutionEnvironment env = StreamExecutionEnvironment.getExecutionEnvironment();
StreamTableEnvironment tEnv = StreamTableEnvironment.create(env);

// register a table named "Orders"
tEnv.executeSql("CREATE TABLE MyTable1 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)");
tEnv.executeSql("CREATE TABLE MyTable2 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)");

// explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.explainSql()
String explanation = tEnv.explainSql(
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' " +
  "UNION ALL " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2");
System.out.println(explanation);

// explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.executeSql()
TableResult tableResult = tEnv.executeSql(
  "EXPLAIN PLAN FOR " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' " +
  "UNION ALL " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2");
tableResult.print();

val env = StreamExecutionEnvironment.getExecutionEnvironment()
val tEnv = StreamTableEnvironment.create(env)

// register a table named "Orders"
tEnv.executeSql("CREATE TABLE MyTable1 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)")
tEnv.executeSql("CREATE TABLE MyTable2 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)")

// explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.explainSql()
val explanation = tEnv.explainSql(
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' " +
  "UNION ALL " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2")
println(explanation)

// explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.executeSql()
val tableResult = tEnv.executeSql(
  "EXPLAIN PLAN FOR " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' " +
  "UNION ALL " + 
  "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2")
tableResult.print()

settings = EnvironmentSettings.new_instance()...
table_env = StreamTableEnvironment.create(env, settings)

t_env.execute_sql("CREATE TABLE MyTable1 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)")
t_env.execute_sql("CREATE TABLE MyTable2 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256) WITH (...)")

# explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.explain_sql()
explanation1 = t_env.explain_sql(
    "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' "
    "UNION ALL "
    "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2")
print(explanation1)

# explain SELECT statement through TableEnvironment.execute_sql()
table_result = t_env.execute_sql(
    "EXPLAIN PLAN FOR "
    "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' "
    "UNION ALL "
    "SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2")
table_result.print()

Flink SQL> CREATE TABLE MyTable1 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256);
[INFO] Table has been created.

Flink SQL> CREATE TABLE MyTable2 (count bigint, work VARCHAR(256);
[INFO] Table has been created.

Flink SQL> EXPLAIN PLAN FOR SELECT count, word FROM MyTable1 WHERE word LIKE 'F%' 
> UNION ALL 
> SELECT count, word FROM MyTable2;

The EXPLAIN result is:

== Abstract Syntax Tree ==
LogicalUnion(all=[true])
  LogicalFilter(condition=[LIKE($1, _UTF-16LE'F%')])
    FlinkLogicalTableSourceScan(table=[[default_catalog, default_database, MyTable1]], fields=[count, word])
  FlinkLogicalTableSourceScan(table=[[default_catalog, default_database, MyTable2]], fields=[count, word])
  

== Optimized Logical Plan ==
DataStreamUnion(all=[true], union all=[count, word])
  DataStreamCalc(select=[count, word], where=[LIKE(word, _UTF-16LE'F%')])
    TableSourceScan(table=[[default_catalog, default_database, MyTable1]], fields=[count, word])
  TableSourceScan(table=[[default_catalog, default_database, MyTable2]], fields=[count, word])

== Physical Execution Plan ==
Stage 1 : Data Source
	content : collect elements with CollectionInputFormat

Stage 2 : Data Source
	content : collect elements with CollectionInputFormat

	Stage 3 : Operator
		content : from: (count, word)
		ship_strategy : REBALANCE

		Stage 4 : Operator
			content : where: (LIKE(word, _UTF-16LE'F%')), select: (count, word)
			ship_strategy : FORWARD

			Stage 5 : Operator
				content : from: (count, word)
				ship_strategy : REBALANCE

Syntax

EXPLAIN PLAN FOR <query_statement_or_insert_statement>

For query syntax, please refer to Queries page. For INSERT, please refer to INSERT page.