DDL Statements in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink

In Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink®, a statement is a high-level resource that’s created when you enter a SQL query.

Data Definition Language (DDL) statements are imperative verbs that define metadata in Flink SQL by adding, changing, or deleting tables.

Unlike Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements, DDL statements modify only metadata and don’t change data. When you want to change data, use DML statements.

For valid lexical structure of statements, see Flink SQL Syntax in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink.

Available DDL statements

These are the available DDL statements in Confluent Cloud for Flink SQL.

ALTER
CREATE
  • CREATE TABLE: Register a table into the current or specified catalog (Confluent Cloud environment).
  • CREATE FUNCTION: Register a user-defined function (UDF) in the current database (Apache Kafka® cluster).
  • CREATE MODEL: Create a new AI model.
DESCRIBE
  • DESCRIBE: Show properties of a table, AI model, or UDF.
DROP
EXPLAIN
  • EXPLAIN: View the query plan of a Flink SQL statement.
RESET
  • RESET: Reset the Flink SQL shell configuration to default settings.
SET
  • SET: Modify or list the Flink SQL shell configuration.
SHOW
USE