Learn Teide in 10 Minutes

A hands-on walkthrough that takes you from zero to writing real queries. You'll create tables, filter data, aggregate results, join tables, and use window functions.

Step 1: Launch the REPL

Start the interactive shell:

cargo run --release --features cli

You'll see the teide> prompt. Every SQL statement must end with a semicolon. Let's dive in.

Step 2: Create Your First Table

Let's build a small employees dataset directly in the REPL:

CREATE TABLE employees (id INTEGER, name VARCHAR, dept VARCHAR, salary REAL);

INSERT INTO employees VALUES
  (1, 'Alice',  'engineering', 95000.0),
  (2, 'Bob',    'engineering', 87000.0),
  (3, 'Carol',  'marketing',   72000.0),
  (4, 'Dave',   'marketing',   68000.0),
  (5, 'Eve',    'engineering', 92000.0),
  (6, 'Frank',  'sales',       78000.0),
  (7, 'Grace',  'sales',       81000.0),
  (8, 'Heidi',  'marketing',   74000.0);

Check it worked:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM employees;

Step 3: Query the Data

Select all rows:

SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY id;

Pick specific columns:

SELECT name, salary FROM employees ORDER BY salary DESC;

Use aliases to rename columns in the output:

SELECT name, salary / 12.0 AS monthly FROM employees ORDER BY monthly DESC LIMIT 3;

Step 4: Filter with WHERE

Find engineers earning over 90k:

SELECT name, salary FROM employees
WHERE dept = 'engineering' AND salary > 90000.0
ORDER BY salary DESC;

Use BETWEEN, IN, and LIKE:

-- Salary range
SELECT name, salary FROM employees WHERE salary BETWEEN 75000.0 AND 90000.0 ORDER BY salary;

-- Multiple departments
SELECT name, dept FROM employees WHERE dept IN ('engineering', 'sales') ORDER BY name;

-- Pattern matching
SELECT name FROM employees WHERE name LIKE '%a%' ORDER BY name;

Step 5: Aggregate with GROUP BY

Get summary statistics per department:

SELECT
  dept,
  COUNT(*)   AS headcount,
  AVG(salary) AS avg_salary,
  MIN(salary) AS min_salary,
  MAX(salary) AS max_salary
FROM employees
GROUP BY dept
ORDER BY avg_salary DESC;

Use HAVING to filter groups:

SELECT dept, AVG(salary) AS avg_sal
FROM employees
GROUP BY dept
HAVING AVG(salary) > 75000.0
ORDER BY avg_sal DESC;

Step 6: Join Tables

Create a departments table and join it with employees:

CREATE TABLE departments (name VARCHAR, floor INTEGER, budget REAL);

INSERT INTO departments VALUES
  ('engineering', 3, 500000.0),
  ('marketing',   2, 200000.0),
  ('sales',       1, 300000.0),
  ('hr',          2, 150000.0);

INNER JOIN — only rows that match in both tables:

SELECT e.name, e.dept, d.floor, d.budget
FROM employees e
INNER JOIN departments d ON e.dept = d.name
ORDER BY e.name;

LEFT JOIN — keep all departments, even those with no employees:

SELECT d.name AS dept, COUNT(e.id) AS headcount
FROM departments d
LEFT JOIN employees e ON d.name = e.dept
GROUP BY d.name
ORDER BY headcount DESC;

Step 7: Window Functions

Rank employees by salary within each department:

SELECT
  name, dept, salary,
  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank
FROM employees
ORDER BY dept, rank;

Compute a running total of salary per department:

SELECT
  name, dept, salary,
  SUM(salary) OVER (PARTITION BY dept ORDER BY salary) AS running_total
FROM employees
ORDER BY dept, salary;

Compare each salary to the department average:

SELECT
  name, dept, salary,
  AVG(salary) OVER (PARTITION BY dept) AS dept_avg
FROM employees
ORDER BY dept, name;

Step 8: Subqueries & CTEs

Find employees in departments with above-average budgets:

SELECT e.name, e.dept, d.budget
FROM employees e
INNER JOIN departments d ON e.dept = d.name
WHERE d.budget > (SELECT AVG(budget) FROM departments)
ORDER BY e.name;

Use a CTE (WITH clause) for cleaner multi-step logic:

WITH dept_stats AS (
  SELECT dept, COUNT(*) AS headcount, AVG(salary) AS avg_salary
  FROM employees
  GROUP BY dept
)
SELECT dept, headcount, avg_salary
FROM dept_stats
WHERE headcount > 2
ORDER BY avg_salary DESC;

Step 9: Load a CSV File

Teide can load CSV files directly:

CREATE TABLE trades AS SELECT * FROM read_csv('trades.csv');

Or start the REPL with a CSV preloaded as table t:

teide trades.csv

Then query immediately:

SELECT * FROM t ORDER BY price DESC LIMIT 10;

Step 10: Useful REPL Commands

While in the REPL, these dot commands help you explore:

Next Steps