Create hypertables

When you have created your database, you're ready to create your first hypertable. Creating a hypertable is a two-step process; you need to create a standard PostgreSQL table, and then convert it into a TimescaleDB hypertable. The method for creating distributed hypertable on a multi-node cluster is similar.

Create a hypertable

To create a hypertable, you need to create a standard PostgreSQL table, and then convert it into a TimescaleDB hypertable.

Creating a hypertable

Create a standard PostgreSQL table:

CREATE TABLE conditions (
   time        TIMESTAMPTZ       NOT NULL,
   location    TEXT              NOT NULL,
   temperature DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL,
   humidity    DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL
);

From the psql prompt on your new table, create the hypertable:
```
SELECT create_hypertable('conditions', 'time');
```

note

The time column used in the create_hypertable function supports timestamp, date, or integer types, so you can use a parameter that is not explicitly time-based, as long as it can increment. For example, a monotonically increasing ID works.

If you need to migrate data from an existing table to a hypertable, set the migrate_data argument to true when you call the create_hypertable function. For more information about migrating data in your hypertables, see the migration section.

Create a distributed hypertable

When you have set up your multi-node environment, you can create a distributed hypertable across your data nodes. In this example, we create a multi-dimensional distributed hypertable across all data nodes, partitioned along time and location. Using this partitioning configuration, data is distributed as evenly as possible using across all attached data nodes based on a hash of the partitioning columns, allowing concurrent and parallel execution of a query across the data nodes.

important

You must have set up your multi-node cluster before you create a distributed hypertable. If you have not configured multi-node, creating a distributed hypertable fails. For more information about setting up multi-node, see the multi-node section multi-node.

Creating a distributed hypertable

On the access node of your multi-node cluster, create a standard PostgreSQL table:

CREATE TABLE conditions (
  time        TIMESTAMPTZ       NOT NULL,
  location    TEXT              NOT NULL,
  temperature DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL,
  humidity    DOUBLE PRECISION  NULL
);

From the psql prompt on your new table, create the hypertable:

SELECT create_distributed_hypertable('conditions', 'time', 'location');

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Keywords

Hypertables TimescaleDB

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Create hypertables

Create a hypertable

Creating a hypertable

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Creating a distributed hypertable

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