---
title: Flux data scripting language
description: Flux is a functional data scripting language designed for querying, analyzing, and acting on time series data.
url: https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1/flux/
estimated_tokens: 1489
product: InfluxDB OSS v1
version: v1
---

# Flux data scripting language

This page documents an earlier version of InfluxDB OSS. [InfluxDB 3 Core](/influxdb3/core/) is the latest stable version.

Flux is a functional data scripting language designed for querying, analyzing, and acting on time series data. It takes the power of [InfluxQL](/influxdb/v1/query_language/spec/) and the functionality of [TICKscript](/kapacitor/v1/reference/tick/introduction/) and combines them into a single, unified syntax.

> Flux is production-ready and included with [InfluxDB v1.8+](/influxdb/v1/).

## Flux design principles

Flux is designed to be usable, readable, flexible, composable, testable, contributable, and shareable. Its syntax is largely inspired by [2018’s most popular scripting language](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018#technology), JavaScript, and takes a functional approach to data exploration and processing.

The following example illustrates pulling data from a bucket (similar to an InfluxQL database) for the last five minutes, filtering that data by the `cpu` measurement and the `cpu=cpu-total` tag, windowing the data in 1 minute intervals, and calculating the average of each window:

```js
from(bucket:"telegraf/autogen")
  |> range(start:-1h)
  |> filter(fn:(r) =>
    r._measurement == "cpu" and
    r.cpu == "cpu-total"
  )
  |> aggregateWindow(every: 1m, fn: mean)
```

### [Query data with Flux](/influxdb/v1/flux/guides/)

Guides that walk through both common and complex queries and use cases for Flux.

### [Enable Flux](/influxdb/v1/flux/installation/)

Instructions for enabling Flux in your InfluxDB configuration.

### [Flux vs InfluxQL](/influxdb/v1/flux/flux-vs-influxql/)

Flux is an alternative to [InfluxQL](/influxdb/v1/query_language/) and other SQL-like query languages for querying and analyzing data. Flux uses functional language patterns making it incredibly powerful, flexible, and able to overcome many of the limitations of InfluxQL. This article outlines many of the tasks possible with Flux but not InfluxQL and provides information about Flux and InfluxQL parity.

-   [Possible with Flux](#possible-with-flux)
-   [InfluxQL and Flux parity](#influxql-and-flux-parity)

## Possible with Flux

-   [Joins](#joins)
-   [Math across measurements](#math-across-measurements)
-   [Sort by tags](#sort-by-tags)
-   [Group by any column](#group-by-any-column)
-   [Window by calendar months and years](#window-by-calendar-months-and-years)
-   [Work with multiple data sources](#work-with-multiple-data-sources)
-   [DatePart-like queries](#datepart-like-queries)
-   [Pivot](#pivot)
-   [Histograms](#histograms)
-   [Covariance](#covariance)
-   [Cast booleans to integers](#cast-booleans-to-integers)
-   [String manipulation and data shaping](#string-manipulation-and-data-shaping)
-   [Work with geo-temporal data](#work-with-geo-temporal-data)

### Joins

InfluxQL has never supported joins. They can be accomplished using [TICKscript](/kapacitor/v1/reference/tick/introduction/), but even TICKscript’s join capabilities are limited. Flux’s [`join()` function](/flux/v0/stdlib/universe/join/) allows you to join data **from any bucket, any measurement, and on any columns** as long as each data set includes the columns on which they are to be joined. This opens the door for really powerful and useful operations.

### [Get started with Flux](/influxdb/v1/flux/get-started/)

Get started with Flux, InfluxData’s new functional data scripting language. This step-by-step guide will walk you through the basics and get you on your way.