diff --git a/docs/MetricsQL.md b/docs/MetricsQL.md index 5e1bdefdc..123a9e091 100644 --- a/docs/MetricsQL.md +++ b/docs/MetricsQL.md @@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ MetricsQL is backwards-compatible with PromQL, so Grafana dashboards backed by P If you are unfamiliar with PromQL, then it is suggested reading [this tutorial for beginners](https://medium.com/@valyala/promql-tutorial-for-beginners-9ab455142085). The following functionality is implemented differently in MetricsQL compared to PromQL. This improves user experience: -* MetricsQL takes into account the previous point before the window in square brackets for range functions such as [rate](#rate) and [increase](#increase). +* MetricsQL takes into account the previous point before the window in square brackets for range functions such as [rate](#rate) and [increase](#increase). This allows returning the exact results users expect for `increase(metric[$__interval])` queries instead of incomplete results Prometheus returns for such queries. * MetricsQL doesn't extrapolate range function results. This addresses [this issue from Prometheus](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/issues/3746). See technical details about VictoriaMetrics and Prometheus calculations for [rate](#rate) and [increase](#increase) [in this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/1215#issuecomment-850305711). -* MetricsQL returns the expected non-empty responses for [rate](#rate) with `step` values smaller than scrape interval. This addresses [this issue from Grafana](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/11451). +* MetricsQL returns the expected non-empty responses for [rate](#rate) with `step` values smaller than scrape interval. This addresses [this issue from Grafana](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/11451). See also [this blog post](https://www.percona.com/blog/2020/02/28/better-prometheus-rate-function-with-victoriametrics/). * MetricsQL treats `scalar` type the same as `instant vector` without labels, since subtle differences between these types usually confuse users. See [the corresponding Prometheus docs](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#expression-language-data-types) for details. * MetricsQL removes all the `NaN` values from the output, so some queries like `(-1)^0.5` return empty results in VictoriaMetrics, while returning a series of `NaN` values in Prometheus. Note that Grafana doesn't draw any lines or dots for `NaN` values, so the end result looks the same for both VictoriaMetrics and Prometheus. * MetricsQL keeps metric names after applying functions, which don't change the meaining of the original time series. For example, [min_over_time(foo)](#min_over_time) or [round(foo)](#round) leaves `foo` metric name in the result. See [this issue](https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/issues/674) for details. @@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ This functionality can be evaluated at [an editable Grafana dashboard](http://pl - Graphite-compatible filters can be passed via `{__graphite__="foo.*.bar"}` syntax. This is equivalent to `{__name__=~"foo[.][^.]*[.]bar"}`, but usually works faster and is easier to use when migrating from Graphite. VictoriaMetrics also can be used as Graphite datasource in Grafana. See [these docs](https://docs.victoriametrics.com/#graphite-api-usage) for details. - Lookbehind window in square brackets may be omitted. VictoriaMetrics automatically selects the lookbehind window depending on the current step used for building the graph (e.g. `step` query arg passed to [/api/v1/query_range](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/api/#range-queries)). For instance, the following query is valid in VictoriaMetrics: `rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total)`. It is equivalent to `rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total[$__interval])` when used in Grafana. - [Aggregate functions](#aggregate-functions) accept arbitrary number of args. For example, `avg(q1, q2, q3)` would return the average values for every point across time series returned by `q1`, `q2` and `q3`. -- [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier), lookbehind window in square brackets and `step` value for [subquery](#subquery) may refer to the current step aka `$__interval` value from Grafana with `[Ni]` syntax. For instance, `rate(metric[10i] offset 5i)` would return per-second rate over a range covering 10 previous steps with the offset of 5 steps. +- [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier), lookbehind window in square brackets and `step` value for [subquery](#subqueries) may refer to the current step aka `$__interval` value from Grafana with `[Ni]` syntax. For instance, `rate(metric[10i] offset 5i)` would return per-second rate over a range covering 10 previous steps with the offset of 5 steps. - [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier) may be put anywere in the query. For instance, `sum(foo) offset 24h`. - [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier) may be negative. For example, `q offset -1h`. - Lookbehind window in square brackets and [offset](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/querying/basics/#offset-modifier) may be fractional. For instance, `rate(node_network_receive_bytes_total[1.5m] offset 0.5d)`.