SQL
This tool allows you to get access to any data stored in devtodev (basic and custom events) via SQL-based queries. It is available for the whole Space, which means that you can build a query for several projects simultaneously.
Query creation
Letโs look at how it works. First, explore the interface.
There is a list of the projects in Space represented by the tables on the left side of the screen. Each app in our database has its own unique identifier which looks like pXXXXX
. The name of the app is mentioned in the brackets.
You can expand this project to see its table and column structure.
On the right side of the screen, there is a field where you can write a query (Query Editor tab
).
To do it faster you can use the following methods:
One click on the scheme, table, or column in the list will put their names to the text of the query.
A combination of
Ctrl + Enter
will run the query.
You can also change the time zone for the queries by choosing the right one in the top right corner.
If there is a mistake in the query, you will see a notification. If there are no mistakes, the query will be stored in History
which will be available on the next tab.
After you run the correct query, you will see the results at the bottom of the screen, where you can export them as a CSV file (up to 10M rows) or create a chart.
Making a chart
Columns in the result of the query will be used for making a chart.
You need to select a type of chart. There are eight options are available: line chart, area chart, column and pie charts, area and column stacked charts, combo chart and number.
Then you can select a metric from the query result columns which will be used as the X-axis. You can select only one metric.
Then you can select one or several ัolumns which will be displayed on the Y-axis. The number of these metrics depends on the selected chart type. For the pie chart, you can choose only one metric, for the rest of the chart types you can select up to 10 metrics.
It is enough to create a chart but you can also customize it if you open the View advanced options
section. This menu allows you to:
add axis name;
add up to four Y-axes which will be useful when you create a chart for the metrics with completely different units or values (e.g. ARPU, Gross, Paying share, Number of purchases);
change the axis type to linear, logarithmic or categorical;
distribute metrics by different Y-axes;
set a metric type when you use the combo chart;
set a specific rounding of values;
select a color for the chart;
write down the units that will be used to label the values on the chart and will be displayed in hints (%, pcs. $, etc.).
Axis scale settings
By default the values on the chart are scaled automatically so that the graph is centered.
You can change the axis boundaries by clicking on Axis scale
button. Axis scale settings are available for Chart, Area chart, Stacked area chart, Bar chart and Stacked bar chart types.
Set the minimum or maximum value for the axis and click Save
to apply the settings. To turn on automatic scaling again, remove the value and save the settings.
When you save a widget to the dashboard or copy report URL, the settings for axes are saved as well.
Managing SQL query variables
Filters are often used in SQL queries, e.g. filters by country, registration date, app version, user ID, payment status, etc. Occasionally, you need to change parameters of these filters to run a query on another user category. Even more, sometimes you need to change them not in the query but directly in the dashboard.
The feature described below allows you to use the interface to change values of query variables without altering the text of the query.
How to create a variable
You can specify variables in the SQL query text, save it as a widget (with defined variables) on a dashboard and later change the variable values if you need.
To create a variable, open a menu by clicking the
@
icon in the top right corner. Click+ Add variable
.In the
Variable name
block, specify the variable name that will be used in the text of the query. This name will also be used when merging variables in a single dashboard.In the
Control title
block, specify the name of control that will be used in the interface.After that, select the variable type (read more about types below). There are the following types:
Date
Timestamp
Period Interval
Text
Number
List of reference values
List of numbers
List of strings
Set a default value of each variable. You can change this value later.
After adjusting all the settings, click
Save
in the column with variable names on the left.
Actions available for variables:
Edit variable settings. Click the
@
button (the one you used for variable creation) and select the desired variable from the list on the left. After that, open the list of settings that you can change any time.Edit variable values. Open a list of variables in the
Defined variables
block and click on the variable. In the window that opens you can set or change the value of the variable. You can also do this by clicking theEdit
button in the block of variables.Set default values of variables by clicking the
Reset to default
button. This will reset the values of variables to their default values specified at the time those variables were created.Delete a variable. Click the
@
button and then click the cross next to the variable to delete it.
By clicking the @
button, you can not only create a new variable (Create new variable
option), but also select a variable out of the variables previously created in the current project by a single user. Click Select from recently created
and get a list of the last 10 variables.
Variable types
Date
This type of variable allows you to set a date in the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD) to use it in the query, e.g. 2022-03-15 date specifies that you will factor in all values received from 2022-03-15 00:00:00
to 2022-03-15 23:59:59
.
There is a Rolling time frame option available for this type of variable. If you select it, then when opening the report, you will get the defined date with an offset for the number of days passed as the value of the variable. For example, you set 2022-03-15 in the Select default value field, then after five days you run the SQL query and the system will use another date โ 2022-03-20.
Timestamp
This type of variable allows you to set a date and time in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss), e.g. 2022-03-15 14:35:00
.
Period
This type of variable allows you to set a date range, e.g. 07.Mar.2022 โ 13.Mar.2022 means that you are going to include the entire time period from 07.Mar.2022 00:00:00
to 12.Mar.2022 23:59:59
.
To use the Period type variable in a query, write the following:
Interval
This type of variable allows you to work with relative time intervals, e.g. 30 days, 4 weeks, 2 months.
You can use the intervals to limit action time or registration dates. Intervals are convenient to work with because they are not fixed but are always changing. For example, a payment made within the past 30 days:
Text
This type of variable allows you to use text values, e.g. names of game characters or items:
Number
The Number type of variable allows you to input a number as a variable value, e.g. 2 or 2.6.
Use it in a query to filter values of custom event parameters or number of payments:
List of reference values
Here you can select available values from the lists, e.g. certain countries, campaigns, item names, etc. It works similar to filters in the interface of our reports:
To use the variable in a query, write the following:
List of numbers
This type of variable allows you to specify a list of numbers that can be further filtered using a query, e.g. values of a custom event parameter or tutorial step numbers:
To use the list, write:
Use commas to separate the numbers in the list.
List of strings
You can use several string values in this variable, e.g. version numbers, list of items or countries, string parameters values.
To use the list, write:
Use commas to separate the values in the list.
How to use variables in queries
After you have created the variables, they will show up in the Defined variables block above the query text.
This block works similar to creating variables using the DECLARE
function. In this case, however, you don't need to duplicate them in the text of the query. In the query, you can use the variables described in the Defined variables list.
To add a variable to a query, click on its name in the Defined variables block and it will appear where the cursor is positioned. Or you can type in the name of the variable after @
in the text of the query.
Change widgetโs variable values on a dashboard
After youโve added a query with created variables to a dashboard as a widget, you can change the values of the variables by using the filter icon in the top right corner of the widget.
If the variable value in the filter is different from a default value, then the filter icon turns darker.
Create common dashboard controls
If a dashboard contains several widgets with similar variables, e.g. country or creation date, then you can choose to edit the values of the variables simultaneously in all the widgets that contain them.
To create a dashboard control that will be common for all the widgets, click Manage controls
in the dashboard menu.
In this section you can create a control (e.g. country) and assign it to respective variables from the dashboard widgets. Also, in this section you can view, edit and delete created dashboard controls.
To create a control:
Enter the name of the control.
Select the variable type (date, text, list of numbers etc.).
In the drop-down menu, select the widgets (out of those containing the variable of the selected type) to which the common filter will be applied.
In the next drop-down menu, select a specific variable of the selected type in the selected widget. It may be that there are two variables of the same type in the widget (e.g. installation date โ
created
and date of event โeventtime
) then when creating a general control you need to select the one that you need.
Letโs look at an example. A dashboard has several SQL widgets that contain variables of the List of reference โ Country
type. You want the values of these variables to change simultaneously in all dashboard widgets that contain it. Create a common dashboard control for the three widgets. Default values are pulled up from the first variable in the list and become default for the entire control. It means that all three widgets will be built for the same countries.
Another example. You want all dashboard widgets to be built over the same period. In this case we need to create a Period
type of variable in each SQL widget that will set the date range for the report (the period will be pulled up automatically from widgets created in other reports). After that, you need to create a common dashboard control and unite the Period
variables from all the widgets.
Change the values of widget variables
After you create a common dashboard control in the Manage controls section, it will appear as a block in the upper part of the dashboard.
To change control values, click these values and then click Edit
in the top right corner of the Variables
block. After that, the variable values will be updated in all the widgets that contain the variables.
If a variable of a widget is taken out of control on the dashboard level, then changing its values in the widget filter is impossible.
Saving and downloading the data
After you get the results of the query you can save the report by clicking on the Settings
button in the top right corner. The chart settings will be saved as well.
This saved report will be available in the Reports -> Saved reports section.
You can also download the results of the query to a CSV file by clicking on buttons above the table with the results or use the Settings
button on the top right corner.
Now letโs explore the details of writing SQL-queries.
SQL functions description
The major PostgreSQL functions are available in this tool for writing a query such as:
All types of
Joins
andUnion
;Subqueries and aliases;
Operators for comparison values (!=, <, >, between โฆ);
Logic operators (and, not, or);
Mathematical operators (+, -, abs, log, โฆ);
Working with strings (substring, concat, length, ...);
Conditions (case, coalesce, least, โฆ);
Grouping, ordering, limit, having;
etc.
To learn more about SQL queries functions visit this page
Functions that are currently not available:
temporary table creation;
tables creation and adding data to tables;
creation of indexes to the table;
stored procedures;
Working with the date and time
You can easily select the time zone for queries using the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the query editor.
After selecting the time zone, it will be applied automatically to all dates used in the query. The editor uses the ISO 8601 format for dates and time.
Getting the date
To get the date you can apply the following functions:
Function | Description |
CURRENT_DATE | Current date (YYYY-MM-DD) in selected time zone |
CURRENT_TIME | Current time (HH-MM-SS) in UTC |
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | Current date and time in selected time zone |
LOCALTIME | Current time (HH-MM-SS) in selected time zone |
LOCALTIMESTAMP | Current date and time in selected time zone |
Modifying date and time
To modify date and time, use the following functions:
Function | Input | Result |
::<type_name> | '2020-12-14 09:46:47.744594'::date '2020-11-01 18:00+3'::timestamptz | 2020-12-14 2020-11-01 15:00:00.0 |
to_date(<text>, <mask>) | to_date('2020-11-01 18:00', 'yyyy-mm-dd') | 2020-11-01 |
to_timestamp(<text>, <mask>) | to_timestamp('2020-12-01 9:30:20', 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS') | 2020-12-01 09:30:20.0 |
date | date '2020-11-01 18:00' | 2020-11-01 |
Time intervals
Use intervals to move dates:
Function | Input | Result |
interval | date('2020-11-01 18:00+3') + interval '3 week 2 day 6 hour' current_date - interval '1 month' | 2020-11-24 06:00:00.0 |
Here are several examples of how you can set the intervals:
โ1-2โ
(means 1 year and 2 months);โ0-1 2โ
(means 1 month and 2 days);โ1 02:03โ
(means 1 day 2 hours and 3 minutes);1 week 02:03:04
(means 1 week 2 hours 3 minutes 4 seconds);1 year 2 month 3 week 4 day 17 min
Round dates
For rounding dates use this function:
Function | Input | Result |
date_trunc(โfieldโ, โvalueโ) | date_trunc('hour', timestamp '2020-12-01 19:05:45') | 2020-12-01 19:00:00.0 |
The following values can be used as the โfieldโ
:
Microsecond
Millisecond
Second
Minute
Hour
Day
Week
Month
Quarter
Year
Decade
Century
Millennium
Date formatting
For formatting dates use this function:
Function | Input | Result |
to_char(<value>, <mask>) | to_char(eventtime, 'yyyy-mm') | 2024-07 |
Here are several mask examples:
HH12
โ hour of day (01-12);HH24
โ hour of day (00-23);MI
โ minute (00-59);MS
โ millisecond (000-999);AM
,am
,PM
orpm
โ meridiem indicator (without periods);YYYY
โ year (4 or more digits);Y
โ last digit of year;IYYY
โ week-numbering year (4 or more digits);MONTH
โ full upper case month name (blank-padded to 9 chars);MM
โ month number (01-12);DAY
โ full upper case day name (blank-padded to 9 chars);DD
โ day of month (01-31);WW
โ week number of year (1-53) (the first week starts on the first day of the year);TZ
โ upper case time-zone name;etc.
Data structure
Let's take a look at the database structure.
The root folder of the tree contains all projects in the space. Each project contains a list of tables. Some of them are related to basic events, others โ to custom events (their names start with the underscore sign _
).
Common table fields
Most of the tables include the following fields:
devtodevid
โ unique identifier of the user which is used in devtodev and assigned to the user when he launches the app for the first time. It could be different for one user in different apps.eventtime
โ time in unix timestamp format when the specific event was performed.abtestvalues
โ collection of user's groups in the A/B test.appversion
โ current version of the app for specific user.appversionid
โ ID of the current app version.cheater
โ whether the user has cheated or not (true/false).country
โ userโs country.created
โ when the user opened the app for the first time.device
โ name of the device model (IPHONE 6S PLUS, GALAXY NOTE 10+, etc.).deviceid
โ identifier of the device.eventlevel
โ on which level user performed the specific event.firstappversion
โ the first version installed by the user.firstappversionid
โ ID of the first installation version.firstpaymentdate
โ unix timestamp of the first user payment.lastpaymentdate
โ unix timestamp of the last user payment.level
โ current userโs level which couldnโt be decreased.locale
โ userโs language.location
โ current location of the user. Also the location where the event was made.locationid
โ ID of the location.osversion
โ user device's operating system version.osversionid
โ ID of the device OS.payingstatus
โ shows if the user is Paying or Non-Paying.paymentcount
โ number of payments that the user have made in the app.paymentsum
โ total sum of payments in USD.sbsfirstpaymentdate
โ unix timestamp of the first subscription payment date.sbspaymentcount
โ the number of subscription payments made by the user in the app.sbspaymentsum
โ total amount of subscription payments in USD.sdkversion
โ version of the devtodev SDK on the device.sdkversionid
โ ID of the SDK version.segmentvalues
โ whether or not the user belongs to a segment. For more information, see the User segments section below.sessionid
โ ID of the session when the event was made.tester
โ whether the user is a tester or not (true/false).
Levelups table specific fields
Fields in levelups
table:
leveluprecordid
โ identifier which can be used for connection withlevelup_currencies
table.
Levelup_currencies table specific fields
Fields in levelup_currencies
table:
leveluprecordid
โ identifier which can be used for connection withlevelups
table.type
โ how the resource was changed. It could be: 'BALANCE', 'SPENT', 'EARNED', 'BOUGHT'._{currency_name}
โ such column will be created for each currency of the project. For example, "_Coins". The name of the column will be the same as it was received from the app.
Tutorials table specific fields
Fields in tutorials
table:
step
โ if the value is more than 0, then it is the number of the tutorial step.Step = 0
means that tutorial was skipped,step = -1
means that tutorial was started,step = -2
means that tutorial was finished.
Payments table specific fields
Fields in payments
table (this table contains information about real payments):
currency
โ shows the currency of the payment.paymentid
โ identifier of the payment.price
โ price of the product in the user's currency.priceusd
โ price of the product in USD.revenueusd
โ price of the product in USD after the store comission rate. The revenue rate is set up in Settings -> SDK -> Payments.product
โ name of the purchased product.valid
โ shows if the payment is valid or not (True/False).
Subscriptions table specific fields
Fields in subscriptions
table:
action
โ what happened to the subscription. Example values: purchased, expired, revoked, canceled, renewed.bundle
โ name of the bundle.period
โ subscription period. Example values: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.state
โ subscription state. Example values: Upgraded, Downgraded, None, Trial, Expired, Renewed, New, Refunded, Reactivated.sequencenumber
โ number of times the user renewed the subscription.currency
โ shows the currency of the payment.paymentid
โ identifier of the payment.price
โ price of the product in the user's currency.priceusd
โ price of the product in USD.valid
โ shows if the payment is valid or not (True/False).
Virtual payments table specific fields
Fields in virtual_payments
table (this table contains information about in-game payments):
amount
โ amount of the purchased product.currency
โ currency of the purchased product.item
โ name of the purchased product.itemtype
โ group of the purchased product.price
โ price of the purchased product._{currency_name}
โ such column will be created for each currency of the project. For example, "_Coins". The name of the column will be the same as it was received from the app.
Sessions table specific fields
Fields in sessions
table:
activityduration
โ duration of the session in seconds.sessionstarts
โ indicates a start of a session.eventtype
โ type of the event:ss
โ indicates a start of a session,ue
โ contains activity duration.
Progression table specific fields
Fields in progression
table (this table contains information about changes of locations):
difficulty
โ difficulty of the location.duration
โ duration of completing the location in seconds.locationsource
โ name of the location.locationsourceid
โ identifier of the location.progressionrecordid
โ identifier of the event. Can be used for connection with theprogression_currencies
table.success
โ whether the location was passed successfully or not.
Progression currencies specific table
Fields in progression_currencies
table (this table contains information about resources which was sent with progression events):
difficulty
โ difficulty of the location.duration
โ duration of completing the location in seconds.locationsource
โ name of the location.locationsourceid
โ identifier of the location.progressionrecordid
โ identifier of the event. Can be used for connection with theprogression
table.success
โ whether the location was passed successfully or not.type
โ how the resource was changed. It could be: 'SPENT', 'EARNED'._{currency_name}
โ such column will be created for each currency of the project. For example, "_Coins". The name of the column will be the same as it was received from the app.
Push clicked table specific fields
Fields in push_clicked
table:
pushcampaign
โ campaign name.pushcampaigntag
โ identifier of the campaign sent via Push API.pushcampaignid
โ push campaign identifier.
Push sent table specific fields
Fields in push_sent
table:
pushcampaign
โ campaign name.pushcampaigntag
โ identifier of the campaign sent via Push API.status
โ delivery status. Example values: Control group, Token rejected, Sent.pushcampaignid
โ push campaign identifier.
Custom events table specific fields
Fields in custom_events
table:
customeventid
- identifier of the custom event.name
โ custom event name.
Tables with custom events have the same fields as tables with basic events. If there are any parameters in these tables, their names also start with the underscore sign.
_{custom_param_name}
โ each event parameter has a column with its name which contains the parameter value (for example, "_bonus").
Ad impressions table specific fields
Fields in ad_impressions
table:
ad_network
โ name of the ad network responsible for the impression.ad_unit
โ banner name.ad_placement
โ banner placement.ad_source
โ ad impression data provider.revenue
โ reward for banner display in USD.
Ad revenue aggregates table specific fields
Fields in ad_revenue_aggregates
table:
ad_source
โ ad revenue data provider.revenue
โ reward for banner display in USD.clicks
โ number of clicks.impressions
โ number of impressions.
External acquisition cost table specific fields
Fields in external_acquisition_cost
table:
publisher
โ name of the publisher.campaign
โ ad campaign name.adgroup
โ name of the ad group.cost
โ ad cost in USD.clicks
โ number of clicks.impressions
โ number of impressions.
Retention tables specific fields
Fields in returns_by_24h
and returns_by_calendar
tables:
retentionday
โ day on which the user returned to the app.
User property updates table specific fields
Fields in user_property_updates
table:
data
โ JSON that contains all of the custom user properties._{user_property_name}
โ each custom user property has a column with its name which contains the property value (for example, "_Difficulty").
Users table specific fields
Fields in users
table:
lasttime
โ unix timestamp of the last time the user was active.pushavailable
โ shows whether devtodev received the user's push-token and the user can receive notifications (true/false).publisherid
โ ID of the publisherpublisher
โ name of the publisher.campaign
โ name of the campaign to which the user is attributed.placement
โ ad banner placement.ad
โ name of the ad.mainid
โ users's main identifier. By default the same as devices' advertising id.customuid
โ optional custom user identifier.idfa
โ Identifier for Advertisers (Apple).idfv
โ Identifier for Vendors (Apple).advertisingid
โ advertising identifier of the device.timezoneoffset
โ user's offset from the space timezone.inactivitydays
โ number of days the user is inactive.adrevenue
โ advertisement revenue from the user.adimpressions
โ number of ad impressions.predicted_payingstatus
โ devtodev's prediction if the user will become a paying one.
If you want to combine users from different projects then use the following user identifiers:
If these apps are on different platforms (for example, iOS and Android), you can merge them only if your project uses a custom identifier that is sent to devtodev. Then you can use
customuid
field.If the apps are on the same platform, then you can use
idfa
field for iOS apps oradvertisingid
for Android apps.
Information about Users and Payments is available for the whole time, the rest of the data is available for the last 90 days.
User segments
segmentvalues
field in the user card (the Users
table) contains information about the current user segment with a true/false value. In event tables there is also a segmentvalues
field which contains segment values at the time of the user performing it.
A special data type has been created for segments that is converted to an array of segment names while being displayed.
Usage example:
Views in SQL
In devtodev analytics, you can create materialized, automatically updated as well as normal (with no physical materialization) query Views.
A View is a virtual table with a content determined by a query. Like a table, a View consists of a set of named columns and rows of data. After you create a View, it appears in the list of tables in the views
directory on the left and can be used for writing SQL queries.
The use of materialized Views can drastically speed up dashboard load time. It allows you to execute a query against a data sample prepared in the View instead of running it against a larger dataset.
In addition, you can collect the necessary data from several tables in a single View and thus speed up query execution because it allows you to avoid joining entire tables.
How to create a View
OR REPLACE
โ if a View with a specified name already exists, it gets replaced with a new one. This works only with the Views that are visible during query execution. If you use an SQL project to create the View and it is conflicting with a View from another project, then OR REPLACE
wonโt function.
MATERIALIZED
โ the View result is saved as a table.
DAILY|WEEKLY|NEVER
โ the View is automatically updated with the specified frequency (calendar day or week). If not specified, NEVER
is used โ with no auto update.
name
โ View name. When creating the View, it is prohibited to specify a schema. All Views are stored in a dedicated views schema.
( column_name [, ...] )
โ a list of fields. If specified, columns are named this way. The number of columns must be equal to the number of columns in the data sample. They are matched with columns in the data sample by index.
query
โ content of the View. SELECT
or VALUES
are available.
Types of Views
You can set up both materialized and normal Views.
Normal Views are basically named queries. They can be used to avoid repeat statements in the queries.
Materialized Views are tables that are created based on a specified query and get updated on a schedule (DAILY
, WEEKLY
). If NEVER
is used, or the update rate is not specified, the View "freezes" the data sample.
Materialized Views can drastically speed up dashboard loading. Instead of running a query against a large data sample, you โfreezeโ the required part of it for a certain period of time (most often one calendar day) as a materialized View and then your dashboards get built much quicker. When using materialized Views, itโs a good idea to create intermediate data sets that can be used in a large number of dashboards, rather than setting up a separate View for each graph.
Some specific features of working with Views
View dependencies are supported โ that is, you can create a View that uses other Views.
Important! Views can NOT contain more than 10 mln rows!
Important! When using a materialized View, itโs very important to use the same time zone that was set when the View was created.
If you want to revise or modify the View, open the list of all views (
VIEWS
) and change the code that was used to create it.To delete views, use the
DROP VIEW
command.
Usage examples
Create a projection (DAU, in this case):
Use view in a query:
Create dictionaries:
SQL query examples
Letโs explore several SQL query examples.
Number of purchases of different product grouped by months:
On the next tab, we can build a chart using data from the results of the query:
The number of users who installed the app 1 month ago, passed at least 3 levels, and haven't added a friend:
You can find more examples in the next article:
SQL Query examplesLast updated