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Once you've connected to your SQL database, it's time to write your query and paste it into Geckoboard. Here are a few things you need to know when writing your query:

Your columns must contain certain data in order to recreate specific visualizations. See table of requirements for each visualization type.
Queries don't need to be terminated with a semicolon (;).
Avoid including comments in your SQL query. This includes single line comments using the -- symbol and multi-line comments using the /* and */ symbols.
You can load data from views as well as tables.
We have a query execution limit of 15 seconds, after which, the widget will timeout. If you hit this limit, please take steps to simplify your query.
We limit the size of data returned at 4MB. If you hit this limit, please take steps to simplify your query.

You can check your query syntax with this free SQL query syntax check and validator.

Running your SQL query

To run your SQL query in Databases follow these steps:

In the pop-up window that appears Paste your SQL query and click Run query.

We encourage you to write your query elsewhere before copying and pasting into this window.
If successful, you'll see a confirmation. Depending on your query you'll see one or more highlighted visualization options.
Hovering over each visualization type will tell you why it was, or wasn’t, suitable for your query. For a list of requirements for each visualization, see our table.
Get help
If you're experiencing errors at this point, see if you need to use one of our workarounds. Otherwise, get in touch with our Customer Success team.
To add a widget, hover over your chosen visualization type and click the + button that replaces it.
With your Databases widget now added to your dashboard, you can set a refresh time so it updates regularly. Refresh time options range from 3 minutes to 12 hours, with a default set to 10 minutes.

Required column data for each visualization type

The following table lists the required data your columns must contain for each of the visualization types:

Visualization	Specification
Number	The result is a single numeric value.
Gauge	The result is a single numeric value.
Line Chart	The first column is a date/datetime (for X-axis labels) The remaining columns are all numeric
Column Chart	The first column is a date, datetime or string (for X-axis labels). The remaining columns are all numeric.
Bar Chart	There are exactly two columns. The first column is a date, datetime or string (for Y-axis labels). The second column is numeric.
Leaderboard	There are exactly two columns. The first column is a string (for Y-axis labels) The second column is numeric.
Table	There are ten columns or fewer.

Unsupported statements

For security reasons, only SELECT statements are allowed. However, the following SELECT statements and functions are not yet supported:

UNION

Unsupported data types

JSONB

JSONB is not supported. To display JSONB data, you'll need to use CAST to convert it to another data type.

Example of using CAST to convert a JSONB datatype

To convert a JSONB data type, use:

SELECT surname, CAST(address as varchar) FROM gecko_keepers WHERE title = 'Dr

One value from the JSONB can be displayed as text in a table visualization by using this query:

SELECT surname, address ->> 'road' AS road FROM gecko_keepers WHERE title = 'Dr

Money

Money is not a supported datatype, and so will not be displayed in visualizations.

Money can be displayed in a table by using CAST to convert from one data type into another.

Example of using CAST to convert currencies

To convert a currency to numeric, use:

SELECT destination_id, TRUNC(CAST(value_of_food_money AS NUMERIC)) AS Value, shipping_date from shipping_geckos

UNIX time

UNIX Epoch time is not supported. Only DATE and DATETIME types can be used to build historic visualisations.

Tips and workarounds

Avoid converting dates into strings

Some functions used for formatting dates are in fact intended to convert the data type from "date" to "char". For example, using a query like this to get the month in which an event has happened:

SELECT TO_CHAR((Subscriptions.ended_at AT TIME ZONE 'UTC'), 'YYYY-MM') AS "month"

Instead, you can use a query like this as DATE_TRUNC preserves the datatype as "date":

DATE_TRUNC ('month',Subscriptions.ended_at AT TIME ZONE 'UTC') AS "month"

Minimum and maximum values

The following table illustrates the minimum and maximum values for integer and serial types:

Data type	Min value	Max value
Integer	-2147483648	2147483647
Serial	1	9007199254740991

You might experience a loss in precision when using real, double precision, numeric or decimal types with large numbers or very small negative numbers.

We support Integer values up to 32 bits.

Bigint types not only consume a lot of storage but also decrease the performance of the database, therefore, you should have a good reason to use it.

Decimal points

When choosing how many decimal points you'd like, it's best to use the TRUNC function. TRUNC returns a truncated value of a number or a datetime value. For more information, see PostgreSQL's list of Mathematical Functions and Operators.

Example uses of TRUNC

To round mean_temperature_c to 2 decimal points, use:

SELECT date_first_shipped_to, TRUNC(mean_temperature_c,2) as Temperature FROM destinations;

For no decimal points, use:

SELECT date_first_shipped_to, TRUNC(gravity) FROM destinations;

PostgreSQL documentation

Includes manuals for PostgreSQL versions 11.1, 10.6, 9.6, 9.5, and 9.4.

PostgreSQL Tutorial

Contains practical examples to help you learn PosgreSQL quickly.

Create visualizations from SQL queries