Type Values
Types in SuperSQL are first class and conform
with the type type in the
super-structured data model.
The type type represents the type of a type value.
A type value is formed by enclosing a type specification in
angle brackets (< followed by the type followed by >).
For example, the integer type int64 is expressed as a value
with the syntax <int64>.
The syntax for primitive type names are listed in the data model specification and have the same syntax in SuperSQL. Complex types also follow the SUP syntax for types.
Note that the type of a type value is simply type.
Here are a few examples of complex types:
- a simple record type -
{x:int64,y:int64} - an array of integers -
[int64] - a set of strings -
|[string]| - a map of strings keys to integer values -
|{string,int64}| - a union of string and integer -
string|int64
Complex types may be composed in a nested fashion,
as in [{s:string}|{x:int64}] which is an array of type
union of two types of records.
The typeof function returns a value’s type as
a value, e.g., typeof(1) is <int64> and typeof(<int64>) is <type>.
Note the somewhat subtle difference between a record value with a field t of
type type whose value is type string
{t:<string>}
and a record type used as a value
<{t:string}>
First-class types are quite powerful because types can serve as grouping keys or be used in data shaping logic. A common workflow for data introspection is to first perform a search of exploratory data and then count the shapes of each type of data as follows:
search ... | count() by typeof(this)
Examples
Various type examples using f-string and typeof
# spq
values f"{this} has type {typeof(this)}"
# input
1
"foo"
1.5
192.168.1.1
192.168.1.0/24
[1,"bar"]
|[1,2,3]|
2025-08-21T21:22:18.046568Z
1d3h
<int64>
# expected output
"1 has type <int64>"
"foo has type <string>"
"1.5 has type <float64>"
"192.168.1.1 has type <ip>"
"192.168.1.0/24 has type <net>"
"[1,\"bar\"] has type <[int64|string]>"
"|[1,2,3]| has type <|[int64]|>"
"2025-08-21T21:22:18.046568Z has type <time>"
"1d3h has type <duration>"
"<int64> has type <type>"
Count the different types in the input
# spq
count() by typeof(this) | sort this
# input
1
2
"foo"
10.0.0.1
<string>
# expected output
{typeof:<int64>,count:2::uint64}
{typeof:<string>,count:1::uint64}
{typeof:<ip>,count:1::uint64}
{typeof:<type>,count:1::uint64}