Starrocks Table Design

StarRocks Table Design

Design table schemas for StarRocks (a sub-second MPP OLAP database): table types, partitioning, bucketing/distribution, and indexing.

Reference: StarRocks Partitioning Best Practices

When to Use

• Creating or modifying a StarRocks table schema
• Choosing a key model (Duplicate / Aggregate / Unique / Primary Key)
• Deciding partition strategy and granularity
• Sizing bucket counts and choosing the distribution key
• Selecting indexes for filter/lookup performance

Related skills: [starrocks-query-optimization] for verifying partition pruning and JOIN strategies; [starrocks-data-loading] for loading into the tables you design.

Table Types and DDL

Choosing the Right Table Type

1. Duplicate Key Table

Use when: Raw event logging, append-only data, no deduplication needed

CREATE TABLE events_log (
    event_time DATETIME NOT NULL,
    user_id BIGINT,
    event_type VARCHAR(50),
    properties JSON
)
DUPLICATE KEY (event_time, user_id)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', event_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32;

Pros: Fastest ingestion, no overhead Cons: No deduplication, largest storage

2. Aggregate Key Table

Use when: Data can be pre-aggregated during ingestion

CREATE TABLE metrics_daily (
    metric_date DATE NOT NULL,
    metric_name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
    total_count BIGINT SUM,
    total_amount DECIMAL(20, 2) SUM,
    max_value DECIMAL(20, 2) MAX,
    min_value DECIMAL(20, 2) MIN
)
AGGREGATE KEY (metric_date, metric_name)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', metric_date)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(metric_name) BUCKETS 16;

Pros: Reduced storage, faster queries Cons: Limited aggregation functions (SUM, MAX, MIN, REPLACE)

3. Unique Key Table

Use when: Need to enforce uniqueness, support updates

CREATE TABLE user_profiles (
    user_id BIGINT NOT NULL,
    username VARCHAR(100),
    email VARCHAR(200),
    status VARCHAR(20),
    updated_at DATETIME
)
UNIQUE KEY (user_id)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 16
PROPERTIES (
    "enable_persistent_index" = "true"
);

Pros: Supports upserts, deduplication Cons: Higher write latency than DUPLICATE

4. Primary Key Table

Use when: Frequent updates, real-time analytics with mutable data

CREATE TABLE orders_realtime (
    order_id BIGINT NOT NULL,
    order_time DATETIME NOT NULL,
    customer_id BIGINT,
    status VARCHAR(50),
    amount DECIMAL(18, 2),
    updated_at DATETIME
)
PRIMARY KEY (order_id)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', order_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(order_id) BUCKETS 32
PROPERTIES (
    "enable_persistent_index" = "true",
    "replicated_storage" = "true"
);

Pros: Best update performance, point query optimization Cons: More memory usage for indexes

Column Type Selection

Best practices:

• Use DATETIME for time columns (not VARCHAR)
• Use DECIMAL for monetary values (not DOUBLE)
• Use BIGINT for IDs (not VARCHAR when possible)
• Use JSON for semi-structured data
• Use ARRAY/MAP/STRUCT for nested data

Example:

CREATE TABLE transactions (
    -- Good: DATETIME for timestamps
    transaction_time DATETIME NOT NULL,

    -- Good: BIGINT for IDs
    transaction_id BIGINT NOT NULL,
    user_id BIGINT,

    -- Good: DECIMAL for money
    amount DECIMAL(18, 2),

    -- Good: VARCHAR with appropriate length
    currency VARCHAR(3),

    -- Good: JSON for flexible data
    metadata JSON,

    -- Good: ARRAY for multi-value
    tags ARRAY<VARCHAR(50)>
)
DUPLICATE KEY (transaction_time, transaction_id)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', transaction_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(transaction_id) BUCKETS 32;

Partitioning Strategies

Modern partitioning uses expression-based syntax with automatic partition creation.

Partitioning vs Bucketing - Different Jobs

When Should You Partition?

Key question: If 80%+ of queries include a time filter, partition on time.

Expression-Based Partitioning (Recommended)

Daily partitions (most common):

CREATE TABLE click_stream (
    user_id BIGINT,
    event_time DATETIME,
    url STRING,
    page_views INT
)
DUPLICATE KEY (user_id, event_time)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', event_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32;

Hourly partitions (high-frequency data):

CREATE TABLE iot_sensors (
    sensor_id BIGINT,
    reading_time DATETIME,
    temperature DOUBLE
)
DUPLICATE KEY (sensor_id, reading_time)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('hour', reading_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(sensor_id) BUCKETS 64;

Monthly partitions (long-term storage):

CREATE TABLE historical_archive (
    report_month DATETIME,
    account_id BIGINT,
    metrics JSON
)
DUPLICATE KEY (report_month, account_id)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('month', report_month)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(account_id) BUCKETS 16;

Composite Partitioning (Multi-Tenant)

Pattern A: Time-first (recommended for most SaaS workloads)

Prunes on time, keeps tenant rows co-located:

CREATE TABLE metrics (
    tenant_id INT,
    dt DATETIME,
    metric_name STRING,
    value DOUBLE
)
PRIMARY KEY (tenant_id, dt, metric_name)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', dt)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(tenant_id) BUCKETS 32;

Pattern B: Tenant-first (for large tenants needing isolation)

Enables tenant-specific operations but creates more partitions:

CREATE TABLE activity (
    tenant_id INT,
    dt DATETIME,
    id BIGINT,
    event_data JSON
)
DUPLICATE KEY (dt, id)
PARTITION BY tenant_id, date_trunc('month', dt)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(id) BUCKETS 32;

-- Warning: #tenants × #months partitions. Keep under 100k total.

Choosing the Partition Key

Priority order:

1. Time-first default - If 80%+ of queries include a time filter: PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', dt)
2. Tenant isolation - Add tenant for tenant-level data management: PARTITION BY tenant_id, date_trunc('day', dt)
3. Retention alignment - Partition by the column you'll purge on (enables metadata-only DROP)
4. Composite keys - Creates #tenants × #days partitions - keep total under 100k

Choosing Partition Granularity

Sizing guidelines:

• Each partition: ≤100 GB data
• Each partition: ≤20k tablets (across all replicas)
• Total partitions per table: <100k (critical for FE memory)
• Watch composite partitions: 1000 tenants × 365 days = 365k partitions ⚠️

Mixed granularity (StarRocks 3.4+): You can merge historical partitions into coarser granularity for better efficiency.

Partition Management

With expression-based partitioning, partitions are created automatically on INSERT.

-- View existing partitions
SHOW PARTITIONS FROM table_name;

-- Example output shows auto-generated partition names:
-- p20240101        (for date_trunc('day', ...)  — date only, no time component)
-- p2024010112      (for date_trunc('hour', ...))
-- p10001_20240101  (for composite: tenant_id, date_trunc('day', ...))

-- Drop old partitions by name
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP PARTITION p20231201;

-- Drop multiple partitions
ALTER TABLE table_name
DROP PARTITION p20231201, p20231202;

-- Truncate specific partition
TRUNCATE TABLE table_name PARTITION (p20240101);

Partition lifecycle management (TTL):

-- Keep only the most recent N partitions (count-based)
ALTER TABLE events
SET ("partition_live_number" = "90");  -- Keep only last 90 partitions

-- Or use an expression-based retention condition (StarRocks 3.5+)
ALTER TABLE events
SET ("partition_retention_condition" = "dt >= CURRENT_DATE() - INTERVAL 3 MONTH");

Partition Pruning Verification

-- ✅ Good: Filter on partitioned column directly
EXPLAIN VERBOSE
SELECT * FROM events
WHERE event_time >= '2024-01-01' AND event_time < '2024-01-07';
-- Look for: partitions=7/365 (only 7 partitions scanned)

-- ❌ Bad: Function on partitioned column breaks pruning
EXPLAIN VERBOSE
SELECT * FROM events
WHERE DATE(event_time) = '2024-01-01';
-- Results in: partitions=365/365 (full scan!)

-- ✅ Good: Use date_trunc in query matching partition definition
EXPLAIN VERBOSE
SELECT * FROM events
WHERE date_trunc('day', event_time) = '2024-01-01';
-- Results in: partitions=1/365

Best practice: Always filter using the same expression or direct comparison on the partitioned column.

Bucketing and Distribution

Determining Bucket Count

Formula:

bucket_count = (data_size_per_partition_GB / 2GB) × number_of_BE_nodes
Minimum: 1
Maximum: typically 128-256

Examples:

Distribution Strategies

1. Hash Distribution (Most Common)

-- Single column hash
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32;

-- Multi-column hash (for better distribution)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id, event_date) BUCKETS 32;

Choose hash column based on:

• High cardinality (many unique values)
• Frequently used in WHERE/JOIN conditions
• Even distribution (avoid skew)

2. Random Distribution

DISTRIBUTED BY RANDOM BUCKETS 16;

Use when:

• No good hash key available
• Data is already evenly distributed
• Table is small

Colocate Groups (Advanced)

Use for: Frequently joined large tables

-- Create first table in group
CREATE TABLE orders (
    order_id BIGINT,
    user_id BIGINT,
    amount DECIMAL(18, 2)
)
DUPLICATE KEY (order_id)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32
PROPERTIES (
    "colocate_with" = "user_order_group"
);

-- Create second table in same group
CREATE TABLE users (
    user_id BIGINT,
    username VARCHAR(100)
)
UNIQUE KEY (user_id)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32
PROPERTIES (
    "colocate_with" = "user_order_group"
);

-- Now JOINs on user_id are local (no network shuffle)
SELECT o.*, u.username
FROM orders o
JOIN users u ON o.user_id = u.user_id;

Requirements:

• Same bucketing column
• Same bucket count
• Same replication strategy

Indexes and Optimization

1. Prefix Index (Automatic)

StarRocks automatically creates a prefix index on the first 36 bytes of DUPLICATE/AGGREGATE/UNIQUE keys.

-- This table has automatic prefix index on (event_time, user_id)
CREATE TABLE events (
    event_time DATETIME NOT NULL,  -- 8 bytes
    user_id BIGINT NOT NULL,       -- 8 bytes
    event_type VARCHAR(50),        -- 50+ bytes (only partially indexed)
    data JSON
)
DUPLICATE KEY (event_time, user_id, event_type)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', event_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32;

Best practice: Put frequently filtered columns first in key definition

2. Bloom Filter Index

CREATE TABLE users (
    user_id BIGINT,
    email VARCHAR(200),
    phone VARCHAR(20),
    username VARCHAR(100)
)
UNIQUE KEY (user_id)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 16
PROPERTIES (
    "bloom_filter_columns" = "email,phone"
);

-- Or add to existing table
ALTER TABLE users
SET ("bloom_filter_columns" = "email,phone");

Use for:

• High-cardinality VARCHAR columns
• Equality filters (WHERE email = '...') and IN lists

Don't use for:

• Low-cardinality columns
• Range queries
• Numeric columns with range filters

3. Bitmap Index

-- Add to an existing table
CREATE INDEX idx_status ON events (status) USING BITMAP;
-- (equivalently: ALTER TABLE events ADD INDEX idx_status (status) USING BITMAP;)

-- Or inline in CREATE TABLE (INDEX is a separate entry in the column list)
CREATE TABLE events (
    event_time DATETIME,
    user_id BIGINT,
    status VARCHAR(20),
    category VARCHAR(50),
    INDEX idx_status (status) USING BITMAP
)
DUPLICATE KEY (event_time, user_id)
PARTITION BY date_trunc('day', event_time)
DISTRIBUTED BY HASH(user_id) BUCKETS 32;

Use for:

• Columns where the filter eliminates the vast majority of rows
• Frequent WHERE/point-query filters
• Common in OLAP dimensions (status, category, region)

4. NGram Bloom Filter (Full-text Search)

ALTER TABLE articles
ADD INDEX idx_content (content) USING NGRAMBF ("gram_num" = "4", "bloom_filter_fpp" = "0.05");

Use for:

• LIKE '%keyword%' searches
• Text search scenarios

Table Design Checklist

Before creating production tables:

• Choose correct table type (Duplicate/Aggregate/Unique/Primary)
• Use DATETIME for time columns (not VARCHAR)
• Partition with date_trunc() expression matching query patterns
• Partition granularity matches use case (hour/day/month)
• Composite partitions kept under 100k total
• Bucket count follows formula: (partition_size_GB / 2GB) × BE_count
• Hash key has high cardinality and even distribution
• Frequently filtered columns in DUPLICATE KEY prefix (first 36 bytes)
• Bloom filter on high-cardinality string columns (email, phone)
• Bitmap index on low-cardinality filter columns (status, region)
• Colocate frequently joined tables in same group
• Enable persistent index for Primary Key tables
• Set replication_num = 3 for production
• Configure partition TTL for automatic cleanup

Common Anti-Patterns to Avoid

❌ Don't use VARCHAR for time columns that will be partitioned ❌ Don't apply functions to partition columns in WHERE (breaks pruning) ❌ Don't create too many buckets (causes small files) ❌ Don't create too few buckets (causes data skew) ❌ Don't use UNIQUE KEY if you only need deduplication (use DUPLICATE + GROUP BY) ❌ Don't create composite partitions that exceed 100k total partitions