You can use clickhouse-local to convert files between any of the input and output formats that ClickHouse supports (which is over 70 different formats!). In this article, we are convert a Parquet file in S3 into a CSV and JSON file.
Let's start at the beginning. ClickHouse has a collection of table functions that read from files, databases and other resoures and converts the data to a table. To demonstrate, suppose we have a Parquet file in S3. We will use the s3 table function to read it (ClickHouse knows it's a Parquet file based on the filename).
But first, let's download the clickhouse binary:
curl https://clickhouse.com/ | sh
Accessing the data using a table function
Let's verify we can read the file by using DESCRIBE on the resulting table that the s3 table function creates:
./clickhouse local -q "DESCRIBE s3('https://datasets-documentation.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/house_parquet/house_0.parquet')"
This particular file contains home prices of properties sold in the United Kingdom. The response looks like:
price Nullable(Int64)
date Nullable(UInt16)
postcode1 Nullable(String)
postcode2 Nullable(String)
type Nullable(String)
is_new Nullable(UInt8)
duration Nullable(String)
addr1 Nullable(String)
addr2 Nullable(String)
street Nullable(String)
locality Nullable(String)
town Nullable(String)
district Nullable(String)
county Nullable(String)
You can run any query you want on the data. For example, let's see which towns have the highest average price of homes:
./clickhouse local -q "SELECT
town,
avg(price) AS avg_price
FROM s3('https://datasets-documentation.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/house_parquet/house_0.parquet')
GROUP BY town
ORDER BY avg_price DESC
LIMIT 10"
The response looks like:
GATWICK 16818750
CHALFONT ST GILES 938090.0985915493
VIRGINIA WATER 789301.1320224719
COBHAM 699874.7111622555
BEACONSFIELD 677247.5483146068
ESHER 616004.6888297872
KESTON 607585.8597560975
GERRARDS CROSS 566330.2959086584
ASCOT 551491.2975753123
WEYBRIDGE 548974.828692494
Convert the Parquet file to a CSV
You can send the result of any SQL query to a file. Let's grab all the columns from our Parquet file in S3 and send the output to a new CSV file. Because the output file ends in .csv, ClickHouse knows to use the CSV output format:
./clickhouse local -q "SELECT *
FROM s3('https://datasets-documentation.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/house_parquet/house_0.parquet')
INTO OUTFILE 'house_prices.csv'"
Let's verify it worked:
$ tail house_prices.csv
70000,10508,"YO8","9XN","detached",0,"freehold","7","","POPPY CLOSE","SELBY","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
130000,14274,"YO8","9XP","detached",0,"freehold","10","","HEATHER CLOSE","","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
150000,18180,"YO8","9XP","detached",0,"freehold","11","","HEATHER CLOSE","","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
157000,18088,"YO8","9XP","detached",0,"freehold","12","","HEATHER CLOSE","","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
134000,17333,"YO8","9XP","semi-detached",0,"freehold","16","","HEATHER CLOSE","","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
250000,13405,"YO8","9YA","detached",0,"freehold","6","","YORKDALE COURT","HAMBLETON","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
59500,11166,"YO8","9YB","semi-detached",0,"freehold","4","","YORKDALE DRIVE","HAMBLETON","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
142500,17648,"YO8","9YB","semi-detached",0,"freehold","4A","","YORKDALE DRIVE","HAMBLETON","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
230000,15125,"YO8","9YD","detached",0,"freehold","1","","ONE ACRE GARTH","HAMBLETON","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
250000,15950,"YO8","9YD","detached",0,"freehold","3","","ONE ACRE GARTH","HAMBLETON","SELBY","SELBY","NORTH YORKSHIRE"
Convert the Parquet file to a JSON
To convert the Parquet file to JSON, simply change the extension on the output filename:
./clickhouse local -q "SELECT *
FROM s3('https://datasets-documentation.s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/house_parquet/house_0.parquet')
INTO OUTFILE 'house_prices.ndjson'"
Let's verify it worked:
$ tail house_prices.ndjson
{"price":"70000","date":10508,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9XN","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"7","addr2":"","street":"POPPY CLOSE","locality":"SELBY","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"130000","date":14274,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9XP","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"10","addr2":"","street":"HEATHER CLOSE","locality":"","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"150000","date":18180,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9XP","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"11","addr2":"","street":"HEATHER CLOSE","locality":"","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"157000","date":18088,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9XP","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"12","addr2":"","street":"HEATHER CLOSE","locality":"","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"134000","date":17333,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9XP","type":"semi-detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"16","addr2":"","street":"HEATHER CLOSE","locality":"","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"250000","date":13405,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9YA","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"6","addr2":"","street":"YORKDALE COURT","locality":"HAMBLETON","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"59500","date":11166,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9YB","type":"semi-detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"4","addr2":"","street":"YORKDALE DRIVE","locality":"HAMBLETON","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"142500","date":17648,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9YB","type":"semi-detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"4A","addr2":"","street":"YORKDALE DRIVE","locality":"HAMBLETON","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"230000","date":15125,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9YD","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"1","addr2":"","street":"ONE ACRE GARTH","locality":"HAMBLETON","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
{"price":"250000","date":15950,"postcode1":"YO8","postcode2":"9YD","type":"detached","is_new":0,"duration":"freehold","addr1":"3","addr2":"","street":"ONE ACRE GARTH","locality":"HAMBLETON","town":"SELBY","district":"SELBY","county":"NORTH YORKSHIRE"}
Convert CSV to Parquet
It works both ways - we can easily read in the new CSV file and output it into a Parquet file. The local file house_prices.csv can be read in ClickHouse using the file table function, and ClickHouse outputs the file in Parquet format based on the filename ending in .parquet (or we could have added the FORMAT Parquet clause):
./clickhouse local -q "SELECT *
FROM file('house_prices.csv')
INTO OUTFILE 'house_prices.parquet'"
As we mentioned above, you can use any of the ClickHouse input and output formats along with clickhouse local to easily convert files into different formats.