Categories:: Aggregate functions (Percentile Estimation) , Window functions

APPROX_PERCENTILE¶

Returns an approximated value for the desired percentile (that is, if column c has n numbers, APPROX_PERCENTILE(c, p) returns a number such that approximately n * p of the numbers in c are smaller than the returned number).

This function uses an improved version of the t-Digest algorithm. For more information, see Estimating Percentile Values.

See also:: APPROX_PERCENTILE_ACCUMULATE , APPROX_PERCENTILE_COMBINE , APPROX_PERCENTILE_ESTIMATE

Syntax¶

Aggregate function

APPROX_PERCENTILE( <expr> , <percentile> )

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Window function

APPROX_PERCENTILE( <expr> , <percentile> ) OVER ( [ PARTITION BY <expr3> ] )

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Arguments¶

expr: A valid expression, such as a column name, that evaluates to a numeric value.
percentile: A constant real value greater than or equal to 0.0 and less than 1.0. This indicates the percentile (from 0 to 99.999…). E.g. The value 0.65 indicates the 65th percentile.
expr3: This is the optional expression used to group rows into partitions.

Returns¶

The output is returned as a DOUBLE value.

Usage notes¶

Percentile works only on numeric values, so expr should produce values that are numbers or can be cast to numbers.
The values returned are not necessarily in the data set.
The value returned is an approximation. The size of the data set and the skew in the data set affect the accuracy of the approximation.

When this function is called as a window function, it does not support:
- An ORDER BY clause within the OVER clause.
- Explicit window frames.

Examples¶

Demonstrate the APPROX_PERCENTILE function:

Create and populate a table with values:

CREATE TABLE testtable (c1 INTEGER);
INSERT INTO testtable (c1) VALUES 
    (0),
    (1),
    (2),
    (3),
    (4),
    (5),
    (6),
    (7),
    (8),
    (9),
    (10);

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Run queries and show the output:

SELECT APPROX_PERCENTILE(c1, 0.1) FROM testtable;
+----------------------------+
| APPROX_PERCENTILE(C1, 0.1) |
|----------------------------|
|                        1.5 |
+----------------------------+

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SELECT APPROX_PERCENTILE(c1, 0.5) FROM testtable;
+----------------------------+
| APPROX_PERCENTILE(C1, 0.5) |
|----------------------------|
|                        5.5 |
+----------------------------+

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Note that the value returned in this case is higher than any value actually in the data set:

SELECT APPROX_PERCENTILE(c1, 0.999) FROM testtable;
+------------------------------+
| APPROX_PERCENTILE(C1, 0.999) |
|------------------------------|
|                         10.5 |
+------------------------------+

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