Vim for Vertica (V4V)

When the best editor meets the best database...

Update May 2020

A lot of new functionalities have been added like:

• the possibility to get DDL and other info on tables
• the possibility to generate SQL starting from a table names thank to the scripts contributed by my colleague and friend Marco Gessner
• the possibility to get information about currently running SQL statements and other host information
• lot of small issues have been fixed and scripts are now easier to read and maintain

What is V4V

V4V stands for Vim for Vertica. It's a set of VIM plugins and syntax files in order to:

• Highlight SQL Vertica "the right way"
• Format SQL commands
• Run vsql from within VIM getting the results back in VIM
• Copy SQL snippets in HTML format into your clipboard

What V4V consists of

V4V consists of:

• VIM Syntax file: sqlvertica.vim
• VIM File Type plugin: sql.vim
• Several add-on scripts: vfv_<something>
• settings to be added to your VIM initialization file: .vimrc

Which tools are used by V4V

V4V uses:

• vsql to run you SQL commands. By default vsql is executed with the following options: o -X to exclude local vsqlrc o -i to add execution elapsed o vsql uses standard VSQL_USER``, VSQL_PASSWORD, VSQL_HOST```, etc settings.
• A SQL formatter called sqlformat (see in the following section how to install it)
• xclip(Linux)/pbcopy(Mac) tool to copy formatted SQL to your clipboard
• sed to manipulate the SQL Interpreter (vsql by default) output
• GraphViz's dot to transform the Vertica EXPLAIN plan into a graph
• xdg-open (Linux) or open to run the PDF visualizer installed on your system

You are free to use a different SQL clients and/or SQL formatters by changing the sql.vim file type plugin.

How to Install V4V

V4V Prerequisites

V4V uses an external SQL formatter. You can use any SQL formatter you like as long as you change the default sqlformat call in the V4V's sql.vim plugin file. The default formatter (sqlformat) can be installed either as a package:

sudo apt install sqlformat

or as a byproduct of python-sqlparse as follows:

• Downloadpython-sqlparse from https://github.com/andialbrecht/sqlparse
• Install the python setup tools: sudo apt install python-setuptools
• Install sqlparse: cd sqlparse-master && sudo python setup.py install
• Unzip sqlparse archihve: unzip sqlparse-master.zip

This will create the /usr/local/bin/sqlformat executable which is then used by V4V.

sqlformat has several options you might want to explore. This is the standard way v4v uses it:

    sqlformat -k upper 
              -s 
              -r 
             --indent_width 4 
             --indent_columns.

You can change default sqlformat behaviour to better suit your needs by modifying V4V's sql.vim plugin.

V4V also uses xclip(Linux) or pbcopy (Mac) to copy formatted and syntax highlighted SQL into your clipboard. To installl xclip under Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install xclip. Mac version doesn't need any installation because pbcopy is available by default.

And, finally, to produce the graphical EXPLAIN plan, V4V uses GraphViz.More specifically the program dot. The installation of this product depends on your operating system... it could be sudo apt install graphviz under Linux Ubuntu, sudo yum install graphviz under Linux CentOS or brew install graphviz on your Mac.

V4V Installation in 5 easy steps

• Step 1: Create a backup copy of your .vimrc before modifying it.
• Step 2: merge sample.vimrc with your pre-existing copy. The important settings are:

let g:sql_type_default = 'sqlvertica'
nnoremap <Tab> za " Toggle to expand/close folds 
menu 20.351 Edit.Copy\ to\ HTML :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR> 
vnoremenu 1.31 PopUp.Copy\ to\ HTML :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR> 

And the CopyToHTML function to copy formatted SQL:

function! CopyToHTML(line1, line2)
"Copy_to_HTML
function! CopyToHTML(line1, line2)
    let g:html_number_lines=0
    let g:html_ignore_folding=1
    let g:html_dynamic_folds=0
    let g:html_use_css=0
    let g:html_font="Courier"
    exec a:line1.','.a:line2.'TOhtml'
    %g/<body/normal k$dgg
    %s/<body\s*\(bgcolor="[^"]*"\)\s*text=\("[^"]*"\).*$/<table \1 width="95%" cellPadding=0><tr><td><font color=\2>/
    %s#</body>\(.\|\n\)*</html>#\='</font></td></tr></table>'#i
    w !pbcopy " Mac: pbcopy, Linux: xclip -selection clipboard
    q!  
endfunction
command! -range=% Copy2HTML :silent call CopyToHTML(<line1>,<line2>)

• Step 3: copy V4V's syntax file sqlvertica.vim under your local syntax directory (for example ~/.vim/syntax/)
• Step 4: copy V4V's File Type plugin sql.vim under your local after-directory. You can check the location in VIM with :echo &rtp. It could be something like ~/.vim/after/ftplugin (Linux) or ~.vim/ftplugin (Mac).
• Step 5: create a directory ~/.vim/vertica and copy under this directory the following files:
  • vfv_info.sh (executable)
  • vfv_prof.sh (executable)
  • vfv_copy.sql
  • vfv_insert.sql
  • vfv_select.sql
  • vfv_where.sql
  • vfv_update.sql
  • vfv_merge.sql
  • vfv_jobs.sql
  • vfv_host.sql
  • vfv_help.txt

How to use V4V

Start vim (or its GUI version gvim) and open your SQL file

• To FORMAT your SQL:
  • Select the lines containing the SQL to be formatted
  • Hit F3 or (gvim): right click and select SQL Format
• To RUN your SQL:
  • Select the lines containing the SQL you want to run
  • Hit F4 or (gvim): right click and select SQL run
• To EXPLAIN your SQL:
  • Select the lines containing the SQL you want to EXPLAIN
  • Hit F5 or (gvim): right click and select SQL explain text
• To get the graphical EXPLAIN of your SQL:
  • Select the lines containing the SQL you want to EXPLAIN
  • Hit F6 or (gvim): right click and select SQL explain graph
• To print current VSQL environment:
  • Hit F7
• To profile your SQL:
  • Select the lines containing the SQL you want to PROFILE
  • Hit F8 or (gvim): right click and select SQL prof
  • a new tab with the profile information will be created
• To VIM-source a block (containing for example let $VSQL_USER='xxx':
  • put your cursor in the block of text (separated by blank lines) containing the VIM instructions you want to source
  • Hit F9 or (gvim): right click and select VIM source block
• To list currently running SQL statements:
  • Hit F10 or (gvim): right click and select SQL running jobs
• To list host resources:
  • Hit F12 or (gvim): right click and select SQL host resources
• To get table and associated projection definition (in a new tab):
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,D or (gvim): right click and select SQL get DDL
• To get table information like rows distribution and encoding related information(in a new tab):
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,I or (gvim): right click and select SQL get info
• To generate a COPY statement for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,c or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen copy to get the COPY statement in a new tab
  • Hit ,.c to get the COPY statement inline in the same tab
• To generate a SELECT statement for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,s or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen select to get the SELECT statement in a new tab
  • Hit ,.s to get the SELECT statement inline in the same tab
• To generate an INSERT statement for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,i or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen insert to get the INSERT statement in a new tab
  • Hit ,.i to get the INSERT statement inline in the same tab
• To generate a MERGE statement for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,m or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen merge to get the MERGE statement in a new tab
  • Hit ,.m to get the MERGE statement inline in the same tab
• To generate an UPDATE statement for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,u or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen update to get the UPDATE statement in a new tab
  • Hit ,.u to get the UPDATE statement inline in the same tab
• To generate a WHERE clause for a specific table:
  • put your cursor on the table name
  • Hit ,w or (gvim): right click and select SQL gen where to get the WHERE clause in a new tab
  • Hit ,.w to get the WHERE clause inline in the same tab
• To get help on the Function Keys and other command lines keys:
  • Hit ,h
• To EXPAND/CLOSE the result set:
  • Hit TAB
• To COPY your SQL snippet to HTML:
  • Select the lines you want to copy
  • Run :'<,'>Copy2HTML<CR> or (gvim): right click and select Copy to HTML

With a graphical version of Vim, right-clicking on a selected query should present a menu like this:

How to customize V4V

As we said Vim for Vertica uses - by default - vsql to interact with Vertica. Sometimes you might want to change the standard environment variables used by vsql in V4V to use a different database, or a different host or user.

• to check all environment variables used by VSQL: :!set | grep VSQL_
• to check individual variables use, for example: :echo $VSQL_USER

To set or change a VSQL environment variable:

• :let $VSQL_DATABASE="<my db name>"
• :let $VSQL_HOST="<my Vertica host>"
• :let $VSQL_PASSWORD="<my secret password>"
• :let $VSQL_PORT="5433"
• :let $VSQL_USER="<my user>"