# Select API Quickstart Guide [](https://slack.minio.io)
Traditional retrieval of objects is always as whole entities, i.e GetObject for a 5 GiB object, will always return 5 GiB of data. S3 Select API allows us to retrieve a subset of data by using simple SQL expressions. By using Select API to retrieve only the data needed by the application, drastic performance improvements can be achieved.
> This implementation is compatible with AWS S3 Select API
You can use the Select API to query objects with following features:
### Implemention status:
- CSV, JSON and Parquet - Objects must be in CSV, JSON, or Parquet format.
- UTF-8 is the only encoding type the Select API supports.
- GZIP or BZIP2 - CSV and JSON files can be compressed using GZIP or BZIP2. The Select API supports columnar compression for Parquet using GZIP, Snappy, LZO, LZ4. Whole object compression is not supported for Parquet objects.
- Server-side encryption - The Select API supports querying objects that are protected with server-side encryption.
- Full S3 SQL syntax is supported
- All aggregation, conditional, type-conversion and strings SQL functions are supported
- JSONPath expressions are not yet evaluated
- Large numbers (more than 64-bit) are not yet supported
- Date related functions are not yet supported (EXTRACT, DATE_DIFF, etc)
- S3's reserved keywords list is not yet respected
Type inference and automatic conversion of values is performed based on the context when the value is un-typed (such as when reading CSV data). If present, the CAST function overrides automatic conversion.
## 1. Prerequisites
- Install Minio Server from [here](http://docs.minio.io/docs/minio-quickstart-guide).
- Familiarity with AWS S3 API
- Familiarity with AWS S3 API.
- Familiarity with Python and installing dependencies.
## 2. Install boto3
@ -62,7 +60,7 @@ for event in r['Payload']:
```
## 4. Run the Program
Upload first a sample dataset downloaded from [TotalPopulation.csv](https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/DVD/Files/1_Indicators%20(Standard)/CSV_FILES/WPP2017_TotalPopulationBySex.csv) using the following commands.
Upload a sample dataset to Minio using the following commands.
For a more detailed SELECT SQL reference, please see [here](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-select-sql-reference-select.html)
## 5. Explore Further
- [Use `mc` with Minio Server](https://docs.minio.io/docs/minio-client-quickstart-guide)
- [Use `mc sql` with Minio Server](https://docs.minio.io/docs/minio-client-complete-guide.html#sql)
- [Use `minio-go` SDK with Minio Server](https://docs.minio.io/docs/golang-client-quickstart-guide)
- [Use `aws-cli` with Minio Server](https://docs.minio.io/docs/aws-cli-with-minio)
- [Use `s3cmd` with Minio Server](https://docs.minio.io/docs/s3cmd-with-minio)
- Full AWS S3 [SELECT SQL](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-select-sql-reference-select.html) syntax is supported.
- All [operators](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-select-sql-reference-operators.html) are supported.
- All aggregation, conditional, type-conversion and string functions are supported.
- JSON path expressions such as `FROM S3Object[*].path` are not yet evaluated.
- Large numbers (more than 64-bit) are not yet supported.
- Date [functions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-select-sql-reference-date.html) are not yet supported (EXTRACT, DATE_DIFF, etc).
- AWS S3's [reserved keywords](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/s3-glacier-select-sql-reference-keyword-list.html) list is not yet respected.
Harshavardhana
6 years ago
committed by