Vector Database Quick Start ​

Quick Deployment ​

For details, see Installing the Container Image.

Creating a Vector Table ​

DataVec introduces various vector data types, including vector, bitvector, and sparsevector. Creating a vector table follows the same syntax as native openGauss, requiring only the specification of the vector type during creation.

CREATE TABLE [TABLE_NAME]
(
    COL1 DATATYPE,
    ...,
    COLN VECTORTYPE,
);

Example 1: Create a table with 3-dimensional vectors.

openGauss=# CREATE TABLE items (val vector(3));

Data Insertion ​

Vector data insertion follows the same syntax as native openGauss. Use INSERT or COPY to insert data, with data type specified.

INSERT INTO [TABLE_NAME] VALUES 
(
    DATA1,
    ...,
    [0.1, 0.3, 0.6, ...]
);

Example 2: Insert vector data.

openGauss=# INSERT INTO items (val) VALUES ('[1,2,3]'), ('[4,5,6]');

Vector Index Creation ​

DataVec currently supports various vector indexes based on algorithms such as IVFFLAT, HNSW, IVFPQ, and HNSWPQ. Built upon the ASTORE storage engine in openGauss, these index structures enable efficient retrieval of query results.

CREATE INDEX [INDEX_NAME]
ON [TABLE_NAME]
USING [ivfflat|hnsw|...]
WITH (
    lists=<LISTS>,|
    m=<M>,
    ef_construction=<EF_CONSTRUCTION>,
    ...
);

Example 3: Create an index.

openGauss=# CREATE INDEX ON items USING ivfflat (val vector_l2_ops) WITH (lists = 100);
openGauss=# CREATE INDEX ON items USING hnsw (val vector_cosine_ops) WITH (m = 16, ef_construction=200);

Vector Retrieval ​

With ANN indexes, DataVec can perform efficient approximate search. In addition, exact retrieval without indexes is also supported.

SELECT COL1, COLN 
FROM [TABLE_NAME] 
ORDER BY COLN [VECTOR_OPERATER]  '[0.1, 0.3, 0.7, ...]' 
LIMIT <TOPK>;

Example 4: Compute nearest neighbors.

openGauss=# SELECT * FROM items ORDER BY val <-> '[3,1,2]' LIMIT 5;
openGauss=# SELECT * FROM items ORDER BY val <#> '[3,1,2]' LIMIT 5;
openGauss=# SELECT * FROM items ORDER BY val <=> '[3,1,2]' LIMIT 5;

For more usage details, see:

• Vector Data Types

• Vector Functions and Operators

• Vector Index