14.21 Vector Functions

MySQL 9.3 supports SQL functions to work with VECTOR values. These functions are described in this section.

Table 14.31 Vector Functions

Name	Description
DISTANCE()	Calculates the distance between two vectors per the specified method
STRING_TO_VECTOR()	Get the binary value of the VECTOR column represented by a conforming string
VECTOR_DIM()	Get the length of a vector (that is, the number of entries it contains)
VECTOR_TO_STRING()	Get the string representation of a VECTOR column, given its value as a binary string

• DISTANCE(vector, vector, string)

  Calculates the distance between two vectors per the specified calculation method. It accepts the following arguments:

  • A column of VECTOR data type.

  • An input query of VECTOR data type.

  • A string that specifies the distance metric. The supported values are COSINE, DOT, and EUCLIDEAN. Since the argument is a string, it must be quoted.

  VECTOR_DISTANCE is a synonym for this function.

  Examples:

  mysql> SELECT DISTANCE(STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.01231, 2.0123123, 3.0123123, 4.01231231]"), STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1, 2, 3, 4]"), "COSINE");
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  | DISTANCE(STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.01231, 2.0123123, 3.0123123, 4.01231231]"), STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1, 2, 3, 4]"), "COSINE") |
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  |                                                                                              0.0000016689300537109375 |
  +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

  Note

  DISTANCE() is available only for users of HeatWave MySQL on OCI; it is not included in MySQL Commercial or Community distributions.

• STRING_TO_VECTOR(string)

  Converts a string representation of a vector to a binary one. The expected format of the string consists of a list one or more comma-separated float values, encased in square brackets ([ ]). Values may be expressed using decimal or scientific notation. Since the argument is a string, it must be quoted.

  TO_VECTOR() is a synonym for this function.

  Examples:

  mysql> SELECT STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32]");
  +---------------------------------------+
  | STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32]") |
  +---------------------------------------+
  | 0x6666863F66668EC100000042            |
  +---------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)
  
  mysql> SELECT TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32, 123.456]");
  +-----------------------------------------+
  | TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32, 123.456]") |
  +-----------------------------------------+
  | 0x6666863F66668EC10000004279E9F642      |
  +-----------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)

  VECTOR_TO_STRING() is the inverse of this function:

  mysql> SELECT VECTOR_TO_STRING(STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32]"));
  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  | VECTOR_TO_STRING(STRING_TO_VECTOR("[1.05, -17.8, 32]")) |
  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  | [1.05000e+00,-1.78000e+01,3.20000e+01]                  |
  +---------------------------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)

  Previously, this function rejected values containing extra whitespaces other than an optional single spaces following commas. In MySQL 9.1 and later, all whitespace characters in such values—following numbers, preceding or following square brackets, or any combination of these—are trimmed before being used.

• VECTOR_DIM(vector)

  Given a VECTOR column value, this function returns the number of entries the vector contains.

  Example:

  mysql> SELECT VECTOR_DIM(0x0040004000800080);
  +--------------------------------+
  | VECTOR_DIM(0x0040004000800080) |
  +--------------------------------+
  |                              2 |
  +--------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)
  
  mysql> SELECT VECTOR_DIM(TO_VECTOR('[2, 3, 5]') );
  +-------------------------------------+
  | VECTOR_DIM(TO_VECTOR('[2, 3, 5]') ) |
  +-------------------------------------+
  |                                   3 |
  +-------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)

  An argument to this function that cannot be parsed as a vector value raises an error.

• VECTOR_TO_STRING(vector)

  Given the binary representation of a VECTOR column value, this function returns its string representation, which is in the same format as described for the argument of the STRING_TO_VECTOR() function.

  FROM_VECTOR() is accepted as a synonym for this function.

  Examples:

  mysql> SELECT VECTOR_TO_STRING(0x00000040000040400000A0400000E040);
  +------------------------------------------------------+
  | VECTOR_TO_STRING(0x00000040000040400000A0400000E040) |
  +------------------------------------------------------+
  | [2.00000e+00,3.00000e+00,5.00000e+00,7.00000e+00]    |
  +------------------------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)
  
  mysql> SELECT FROM_VECTOR(0x00000040000040400000A040);
  +-----------------------------------------+
  | FROM_VECTOR(0x00000040000040400000A040) |
  +-----------------------------------------+
  | [2.00000e+00,3.00000e+00,5.00000e+00]   |
  +-----------------------------------------+
  1 row in set (0.00 sec)

  An argument to this function that cannot be parsed as a vector value raises an error.

  The maximum size of the output of this function is 262128 (16 * 16383) bytes.