Built-in functions

Stream Analytics query language (SAQL) comes with many built-in functions to assist with aggregating and transforming data. These functions can help us with simple operations on a single value, as in data type conversions and string concatenations, as well as with more complex operations, like identifying the first event in a period of time or geospatial intersections of event locations. Types of built-in functions include scalar, record, mathematical, input metadata, date and time, aggregate, analytic, geospatial, and array functions.

Scalar functions

Simple functions that operate on a single value and return a single value are known as scalar functions. SAQL provides many scalar functions for string manipulation. For example, UPPER capitalizes all characters in a string expression, as in the following query example:

select ehinput.timestamp, ehinput.vin, ehinput.speed, ehinput.outsidetemperature,
    UPPER(ehinput.city) as city
from ehinput

Note the uppercase values in column...