Cloud

SQL Statements

SQL statements are commands used to interact with Redpanda SQL. These statements let you query data, manage catalog connections, and export results.

Redpanda SQL operates in read-only mode. Data mutation operations (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) and bulk import (COPY FROM) are not available. Data is ingested into Redpanda topics and made queryable through catalog mappings.

SQL Studio in Cloud Console adds its own limit on which statements you can run in the editor. See SQL Studio.

The following table summarizes the statements supported by Redpanda SQL:

Statement	Description
ALTER … OWNER TO	Transfers ownership of a view or a schema to another role.
ALTER REDPANDA CATALOG	Modifies connection properties of an existing Redpanda catalog.
ALTER STORAGE	Modifies credentials or configuration of an existing storage connection.
ALTER TABLE	Modifies options of a catalog table mapped to a Redpanda topic.
CREATE REDPANDA CATALOG	Creates a named connection to a Redpanda cluster.
CREATE SCHEMA	Creates a SQL schema to organize views and catalog connections.
CREATE STORAGE	Creates a connection to external object storage.
CREATE TABLE	Maps a Redpanda topic to a SQL table through a catalog.
CREATE VIEW	Creates a view, a named query that you can reference like a table.
DROP TABLE	Removes a catalog table mapping. Does not delete the underlying Redpanda topic.
DROP VIEW	Removes a view.
DROP REDPANDA CATALOG	Removes a Redpanda catalog connection.
DROP SCHEMA	Removes a SQL schema, and optionally the objects in it.
DROP STORAGE	Removes a named storage definition.
EXPLAIN	Shows diagnostic information about the query planner, such as planner options and planning time for a query.
REFRESH	Updates the schema that Redpanda SQL stores for a table in a Redpanda catalog or an Iceberg catalog.
SELECT	Retrieves data from a table.
COPY TO	Exports query results or table data to CSV files.
SET/SHOW	Configures or displays session-level settings such as time zone and search path.
SHOW CATALOGS	Lists catalogs in the cluster. Variants list only Redpanda catalogs or only Iceberg catalogs.
SHOW EXECS	Displays currently running execution tasks across the cluster.
SHOW NODES	Displays the current state of nodes in a distributed cluster.
SHOW QUERIES	Displays currently running queries on the cluster.
SHOW TABLES	Lists tables mapped from Redpanda topics and Iceberg tables registered in the local catalog.
DESCRIBE	Shows detailed information about columns in a table, tables within a database, or catalog contents.

Statement

Description

ALTER … OWNER TO

Transfers ownership of a view or a schema to another role.

ALTER REDPANDA CATALOG

Modifies connection properties of an existing Redpanda catalog.

ALTER STORAGE

Modifies credentials or configuration of an existing storage connection.

ALTER TABLE

Modifies options of a catalog table mapped to a Redpanda topic.

CREATE REDPANDA CATALOG

Creates a named connection to a Redpanda cluster.