Query data with the InfluxDB API

The InfluxDB API is the primary means for querying data in InfluxDB (see the command line interface and client libraries for alternative ways to query the database).

Query data with the InfluxDB API using Flux or InfluxQL.

Note: The following examples use curl, a command line tool that transfers data using URLs. Learn the basics of curl with the HTTP Scripting Guide.

Query data with Flux

For Flux queries, the /api/v2/query endpoint accepts POST HTTP requests. Use the following HTTP headers:

• Accept: application/csv
• Content-type: application/vnd.flux

If you have authentication enabled, provide your InfluxDB username and password with the Authorization header and Token schema. For example: Authorization: Token username:password.

The following example queries Telegraf data using Flux: :

$ curl -XPOST localhost:8086/api/v2/query -sS \
  -H 'Accept:application/csv' \
  -H 'Content-type:application/vnd.flux' \
  -d 'from(bucket:"telegraf")
        |> range(start:-5m)
        |> filter(fn:(r) => r._measurement == "cpu")'  

Flux returns annotated CSV:

{,result,table,_start,_stop,_time,_value,_field,_measurement,cpu,host
,_result,0,2020-04-07T18:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T19:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T18:08:19Z,4.152553004641827,usage_user,cpu,cpu-total,host1
,_result,0,2020-04-07T18:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T19:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T18:08:29Z,7.608695652173913,usage_user,cpu,cpu-total,host1
,_result,0,2020-04-07T18:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T19:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T18:08:39Z,2.9363988504310883,usage_user,cpu,cpu-total,host1
,_result,0,2020-04-07T18:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T19:02:54.924273Z,2020-04-07T18:08:49Z,6.915093159934975,usage_user,cpu,cpu-total,host1}

The header row defines column labels for the table. The cpu measurement has four points, each represented by one of the record rows. For example the first point has a timestamp of 2020-04-07T18:08:19.

Flux

Check out the Get started with Flux to learn more about building queries with Flux. For more information about querying data with the InfluxDB API using Flux, see the API reference documentation.

Query data with InfluxQL

To perform an InfluxQL query, send a GET request to the /query endpoint, set the URL parameter db as the target database, and set the URL parameter q as your query. You can also use a POST request by sending the same parameters either as URL parameters or as part of the body with application/x-www-form-urlencoded. The example below uses the InfluxDB API to query the same database that you encountered in Writing Data.

curl -G 'http://localhost:8086/query?pretty=true' --data-urlencode "db=mydb" --data-urlencode "q=SELECT \"value\" FROM \"cpu_load_short\" WHERE \"region\"='us-west'"

InfluxDB returns JSON:

{
    "results": [
        {
            "statement_id": 0,
            "series": [
                {
                    "name": "cpu_load_short",
                    "columns": [
                        "time",
                        "value"
                    ],
                    "values": [
                        [
                            "2015-01-29T21:55:43.702900257Z",
                            2
                        ],
                        [
                            "2015-01-29T21:55:43.702900257Z",
                            0.55
                        ],
                        [
                            "2015-06-11T20:46:02Z",
                            0.64
                        ]
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Note: Appending pretty=true to the URL enables pretty-printed JSON output. While this is useful for debugging or when querying directly with tools like curl, it is not recommended for production use as it consumes unnecessary network bandwidth.

InfluxQL

Check out the Data Exploration page to get acquainted with InfluxQL. For more information about querying data with the InfluxDB API using InfluxQL, see the API reference documentation.