lancedb/docs/src/js/classes/AutoQuery.md

[**@lancedb/lancedb**](../README.md) • **Docs**

***

[@lancedb/lancedb](../globals.md) / AutoQuery

# Class: AutoQuery

A builder for automatic string searches.

Automatic search determines whether to use full-text or vector search from
the table revision selected for each execution. This builder exposes the
common operations supported by both query families.

## Extends

- `StandardQueryBase`<`NativeQuery` \| `NativeVectorQuery`>

## Properties

### inner

```ts
protected inner: Query | VectorQuery | Promise<Query | VectorQuery>;
```

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.inner`

## Methods

### analyzePlan()

```ts
analyzePlan(distributedMetrics?): Promise<string>
```

Executes the query and returns the physical query plan annotated with runtime metrics.

This is useful for debugging and performance analysis, as it shows how the query was executed
and includes metrics such as elapsed time, rows processed, and I/O statistics.

#### Parameters

* **distributedMetrics?**: [`AnalyzePlanDistributedMetrics`](../type-aliases/AnalyzePlanDistributedMetrics.md)
    How distributed worker metrics are displayed for remote query plans.
    Defaults to `"aggregate"`.

#### Returns

`Promise`&lt;`string`&gt;

A query execution plan with runtime metrics for each step.

#### Example

```ts
import * as lancedb from "@lancedb/lancedb"

const db = await lancedb.connect("./.lancedb");
const table = await db.createTable("my_table", [
  { vector: [1.1, 0.9], id: "1" },
]);

const plan = await table.query().nearestTo([0.5, 0.2]).analyzePlan();

Example output (with runtime metrics inlined):
AnalyzeExec verbose=true, metrics=[]
 ProjectionExec: expr=[id@3 as id, vector@0 as vector, _distance@2 as _distance], metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=3.292µs]
  Take: columns="vector, _rowid, _distance, (id)", metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=66.001µs, batches_processed=1, bytes_read=8, iops=1, requests=1]
   CoalesceBatchesExec: target_batch_size=1024, metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=3.333µs]
    GlobalLimitExec: skip=0, fetch=10, metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=167ns]
     FilterExec: _distance@2 IS NOT NULL, metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=8.542µs]
      SortExec: TopK(fetch=10), expr=[_distance@2 ASC NULLS LAST], metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=63.25µs, row_replacements=1]
       KNNVectorDistance: metric=l2, metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=114.333µs, output_batches=1]
        LanceScan: uri=/path/to/data, projection=[vector], row_id=true, row_addr=false, ordered=false, metrics=[output_rows=1, elapsed_compute=103.626µs, bytes_read=549, iops=2, requests=2]
```

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.analyzePlan`

***

### execute()

```ts
protected execute(options?): AsyncGenerator<RecordBatch<any>, void, unknown>
```

Execute the query and return the results as an

#### Parameters

* **options?**: `Partial`&lt;[`QueryExecutionOptions`](../interfaces/QueryExecutionOptions.md)&gt;

#### Returns

`AsyncGenerator`&lt;`RecordBatch`&lt;`any`&gt;, `void`, `unknown`&gt;

#### See

 - AsyncIterator
of
 - RecordBatch.

By default, LanceDb will use many threads to calculate results and, when
the result set is large, multiple batches will be processed at one time.
This readahead is limited however and backpressure will be applied if this
stream is consumed slowly (this constrains the maximum memory used by a
single query)

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.execute`

***

### explainPlan()

```ts
explainPlan(verbose): Promise<string>
```

Generates an explanation of the query execution plan.

#### Parameters

* **verbose**: `boolean` = `false`
    If true, provides a more detailed explanation. Defaults to false.

#### Returns

`Promise`&lt;`string`&gt;

A Promise that resolves to a string containing the query execution plan explanation.

#### Example

```ts
import * as lancedb from "@lancedb/lancedb"
const db = await lancedb.connect("./.lancedb");
const table = await db.createTable("my_table", [
  { vector: [1.1, 0.9], id: "1" },
]);
const plan = await table.query().nearestTo([0.5, 0.2]).explainPlan();
```

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.explainPlan`

***

### fastSearch()

```ts
fastSearch(): this
```

Skip searching un-indexed data. This can make search faster, but will miss
any data that is not yet indexed.

Use [Table#optimize](Table.md#optimize) to index all un-indexed data.

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.fastSearch`

***

### ~~filter()~~

```ts
filter(predicate): this
```

A filter statement to be applied to this query.

#### Parameters

* **predicate**: `string`

#### Returns

`this`

#### See

where

#### Deprecated

Use `where` instead

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.filter`

***

### fullTextSearch()

```ts
fullTextSearch(query, options?): this
```

#### Parameters

* **query**: `string` \| [`FullTextQuery`](../interfaces/FullTextQuery.md)

* **options?**: `Partial`&lt;[`FullTextSearchOptions`](../interfaces/FullTextSearchOptions.md)&gt;

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.fullTextSearch`

***

### limit()

```ts
limit(limit): this
```

Set the maximum number of results to return.

By default, a plain search has no limit.  If this method is not
called then every valid row from the table will be returned.

#### Parameters

* **limit**: `number`

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.limit`

***

### offset()

```ts
offset(offset): this
```

Set the number of rows to skip before returning results.

This is useful for pagination.

#### Parameters

* **offset**: `number`

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.offset`

***

### orderBy()

```ts
orderBy(ordering): this
```

Sort the results by the specified column(s).

#### Parameters

* **ordering**: [`ColumnOrdering`](../interfaces/ColumnOrdering.md) \| [`ColumnOrdering`](../interfaces/ColumnOrdering.md)[]

#### Returns

`this`

This query builder.

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.orderBy`

***

### outputSchema()

```ts
outputSchema(): Promise<Schema<any>>
```

Returns the schema of the output that will be returned by this query.

This can be used to inspect the types and names of the columns that will be
returned by the query before executing it.

#### Returns

`Promise`&lt;`Schema`&lt;`any`&gt;&gt;

An Arrow Schema describing the output columns.

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.outputSchema`

***

### select()

```ts
select(columns): this
```

Return only the specified columns.

By default a query will return all columns from the table.  However, this can have
a very significant impact on latency.  LanceDb stores data in a columnar fashion.  This
means we can finely tune our I/O to select exactly the columns we need.

As a best practice you should always limit queries to the columns that you need.  If you
pass in an array of column names then only those columns will be returned.

You can also use this method to create new "dynamic" columns based on your existing columns.
For example, you may not care about "a" or "b" but instead simply want "a + b".  This is often
seen in the SELECT clause of an SQL query (e.g. `SELECT a+b FROM my_table`).

To create dynamic columns you can pass in a Map<string, string>.  A column will be returned
for each entry in the map.  The key provides the name of the column.  The value is
an SQL string used to specify how the column is calculated.

For example, an SQL query might state `SELECT a + b AS combined, c`.  The equivalent
input to this method would be:

#### Parameters

* **columns**: `string` \| `string`[] \| `Record`&lt;`string`, `string`&gt; \| `Map`&lt;`string`, `string`&gt;

#### Returns

`this`

#### Example

```ts
new Map([["combined", "a + b"], ["c", "c"]])

Columns will always be returned in the order given, even if that order is different than
the order used when adding the data.

Note that you can pass in a `Record<string, string>` (e.g. an object literal). This method
uses `Object.entries` which should preserve the insertion order of the object.  However,
object insertion order is easy to get wrong and `Map` is more foolproof.
```

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.select`

***

### toArray()

```ts
toArray(options?): Promise<any[]>
```

Collect the results as an array of objects.

#### Parameters

* **options?**: `Partial`&lt;[`QueryExecutionOptions`](../interfaces/QueryExecutionOptions.md)&gt;

#### Returns

`Promise`&lt;`any`[]&gt;

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.toArray`

***

### toArrow()

```ts
toArrow(options?): Promise<Table<any>>
```

Collect the results as an Arrow

#### Parameters

* **options?**: `Partial`&lt;[`QueryExecutionOptions`](../interfaces/QueryExecutionOptions.md)&gt;

#### Returns

`Promise`&lt;`Table`&lt;`any`&gt;&gt;

#### See

ArrowTable.

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.toArrow`

***

### useLsm()

```ts
useLsm(enable): this
```

Control MemWAL read routing for this query.

By default (unset), when the table carries a MemWAL write spec (see
[Table#setLsmWriteSpec](Table.md#setlsmwritespec)), reads are routed through the LSM scanner so
they also return data written via the `mergeInsert` LSM path that has not yet
been compacted into the base table (the active/frozen in-memory memtables and
the flushed generations), deduplicated by primary key; a table without a spec
reads the base table.

#### Parameters

* **enable**: `boolean`
    `true` forces the LSM scanner and errors if the table has no
    MemWAL write spec. `false` bypasses the MemWAL and reads the base table only,
    even when a spec is present.
    Note: the LSM scanner does not support every query shape (e.g. reranking,
    hybrid search, `orderBy`). On a MemWAL table those shapes error unless
    `useLsm(false)` is set, because a base-only read would silently exclude
    un-compacted MemWAL data.

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.useLsm`

***

### where()

```ts
where(predicate): this
```

A filter statement to be applied to this query.

The filter should be supplied as an SQL query string.  For example:

#### Parameters

* **predicate**: `string`

#### Returns

`this`

#### Example

```ts
x > 10
y > 0 AND y < 100
x > 5 OR y = 'test'

Filtering performance can often be improved by creating a scalar index
on the filter column(s).

Calling this multiple times combines the filters with a logical AND rather
than replacing the previous filter.
```

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.where`

***

### withRowId()

```ts
withRowId(): this
```

Whether to return the row id in the results.

This column can be used to match results between different queries. For
example, to match results from a full text search and a vector search in
order to perform hybrid search.

#### Returns

`this`

#### Inherited from

`StandardQueryBase.withRowId`