Ingest from query (.set, .append, .set-or-append, .set-or-replace)

These commands execute a query or a control command and ingest the results of the query into a table. The difference between these commands, is how they treat existing or nonexistent tables and data.

Command	If table exists	If table doesn't exist
.set	The command fails	The table is created and data is ingested
.append	Data is appended to the table	The command fails
.set-or-append	Data is appended to the table	The table is created and data is ingested
.set-or-replace	Data replaces the data in the table	The table is created and data is ingested

Note

To cancel an ingest from query command, see cancel operation.

Syntax

.set [async] TableName [with (PropertyName = PropertyValue [, ...])] <| QueryOrCommand

.append [async] TableName [with (PropertyName = PropertyValue [, ...])] <| QueryOrCommand

.set-or-append [async] TableName [with (PropertyName = PropertyValue [, ...])] <| QueryOrCommand

.set-or-replace [async] TableName [with (PropertyName = PropertyValue [, ...])] <| QueryOrCommand

Arguments

• async: If specified, the command will immediately return and continue ingestion in the background. The results of the command will include an OperationId value that can then be used with the .show operations command, to retrieve the ingestion completion status and results.
• TableName: The name of the table to ingest data into. The table name is always related to the database in context.
• PropertyName, PropertyValue: Any number of ingestion properties that affect the ingestion process.

Ingestion properties that are supported.

Property	Description
creationTime	The datetime value, formatted as an ISO8601 string, to use at the creation time of the ingested data extents. If unspecified, the current value (now()) will be used. When specified, make sure the Lookback property in the target table's effective Extents merge policy is aligned with the specified value
extend_schema	A Boolean value that, if specified, instructs the command to extend the schema of the table. Default is "false". This option applies only to .append, .set-or-append, and set-or-replace commands. The only permitted schema extensions have additional columns added to the table at the end
recreate_schema	A Boolean value that. If specified, describes if the command may recreate the schema of the table. Default is "false". This option applies only to the set-or-replace command. This option takes precedence over the extend_schema property if both are set
folder	The folder to assign to the table. If the table already exists, this property will overwrite the table's folder.
ingestIfNotExists	A string value that. If specified, prevents ingestion from succeeding if the table already has data tagged with an ingest-by: tag with the same value
policy_ingestiontime	A Boolean value. If specified, describes if to enable the Ingestion Time Policy on a table that is created by this command. The default is "true"
tags	A JSON string that represents a list of tags to associate with the created extent
docstring	A string documenting the table

Property that controls the behavior of the command.

Property	Type	Description
distributed	bool	Indicates that the command ingests from all nodes executing the query in parallel. Default is "false". See remarks below.

• QueryOrCommand: The text of a query or a control command whose results will be used as data to ingest.

Note

Only .show control commands are supported.

Remarks

• .set-or-replace replaces the data of the table if it exists. It drops the existing data shards or creates the target table, if doesn't already exist. The table schema will be preserved unless one of extend_schema or recreate_schema ingestion properties is set to "true". If the schema is modified, it happens before the actual data ingestion in its own transaction. A failure to ingest the data doesn't mean the schema wasn't modified.
• .set-or-append and .append commands will preserve the schema unless the extend_schema ingestion property is set to "true". If the schema is modified, it happens before the actual data ingestion in its own transaction. A failure to ingest the data doesn't mean the schema wasn't modified.
• We recommended that you limit the data for ingestion to less than 1 GB per ingestion operation. Multiple ingestion commands may be used, if necessary.
• Data ingestion is a resource-intensive operation that might affect concurrent activities on the cluster, including running queries. Avoid running too many such commands at the same time.
• When matching the result set schema to that of the target table, the comparison is based on the column types. There's no matching of column names. Make sure that the query result schema columns are in the same order as the table. Else data will be ingested into the wrong column.
• Setting the distributed flag to "true" is useful when the amount of data being produced by the query is large, exceeds 1GB, and the query doesn't require serialization, so that multiple nodes can produce output in parallel. When the query results are small, don't use this flag, since it might needlessly generate many small data shards.

Examples

Create a new table called RecentErrors in the database that has the same schema as LogsTable and holds all the error records of the last hour.

.set RecentErrors <|
   LogsTable
   | where Level == "Error" and Timestamp > now() - time(1h)

Create a new table called "OldExtents" in the database that has a single column, "ExtentId", and holds the extent IDs of all extents in the database that has been created more than 30 days earlier. The database has an existing table named "MyExtents". Since the dataset is expected to be bigger than 1GB (more than ~1 million rows) use the distributed flag

.set async OldExtents with(distributed=true) <|
   MyExtents 
   | where CreatedOn < now() - time(30d)
   | project ExtentId

Append data to an existing table called "OldExtents" in the current database that has a single column, "ExtentId", and holds the extent IDs of all extents in the database that have been created more than 30 days earlier. Mark the new extent with tags tagA and tagB, based on an existing table named "MyExtents".

.append OldExtents with(tags='["TagA","TagB"]') <| 
   MyExtents 
   | where CreatedOn < now() - time(30d) 
   | project ExtentId

Append data to the "OldExtents" table in the current database, or create the table if it doesn't already exist. Tag the new extent with ingest-by:myTag. Do so only if the table doesn't already contain an extent tagged with ingest-by:myTag, based on an existing table named "MyExtents".

.set-or-append async OldExtents with(tags='["ingest-by:myTag"]', ingestIfNotExists='["myTag"]') <|
   MyExtents
   | where CreatedOn < now() - time(30d)
   | project ExtentId

Replace the data in the "OldExtents" table in the current database, or create the table if it doesn't already exist. Tag the new extent with ingest-by:myTag.

.set-or-replace async OldExtents with(tags='["ingest-by:myTag"]', ingestIfNotExists='["myTag"]') <| 
   MyExtents 
   | where CreatedOn < now() - time(30d) 
   | project ExtentId

Append data to the "OldExtents" table in the current database, while setting the created extent(s) creation time to a specific datetime in the past.

.append async OldExtents with(creationTime='2017-02-13T11:09:36.7992775Z') <| 
   MyExtents 
   | where CreatedOn < now() - time(30d) 
   | project ExtentId     

Return output

Returns information on the extents created because of the .set or .append command.

Example output

ExtentId	OriginalSize	ExtentSize	CompressedSize	IndexSize	RowCount
23a05ed6-376d-4119-b1fc-6493bcb05563	1291	5882	1568	4314	10