---
title: "Query a table"
method: POST
path: "/v1/table/{id}/query"
tags: ["Table", "Data"]
---

# Query a table

`POST /v1/table/{id}/query`

Query table `id` with vector search, full text search and optional SQL filtering.
Returns results in Arrow IPC file or stream format.

## Path parameters

- `id` string, required

## Query parameters

- `delimiter` string, nullable — An opaque token that allows pagination for list operations (e.g. ListNamespaces). For an initial request of a list operation, if the implementation cannot return all items in one response, or if there are more items than the page limit specified in the request, the implementation must return a page token in the response, indicating there are more results available. After the initial request, the value of the page token from each response must be used as the page token value for the next request. Caller must interpret either `null`, missing value or empty string value of the page token from the implementation's response as the end of the listing results.

## Request body

- QueryTableRequest
  - `id` string[]
  - `bypass_vector_index` boolean — Whether to bypass vector index
  - `columns` string[], nullable — Optional list of columns to return
  - `distance_type` string — Distance metric to use
  - `ef` integer — Search effort parameter for HNSW index
  - `fast_search` boolean — Whether to use fast search
  - `filter` string — Optional SQL filter expression
  - `full_text_query` QueryTableRequestFullTextQuery, nullable — Optional full-text search query. Provide either string_query or structured_query, not both.
    - `string_query` StringFtsQuery
      - `columns` string[]
      - `query` string, required
    - `structured_query` StructuredFtsQuery
      - `query` FtsQuery, required — Full-text search query. Exactly one query type field must be provided. This structure follows the same pattern as AlterTransactionAction to minimize differences and compatibility issues across codegen in different languages.
        - `match` MatchQuery
          - `boost` number, float
          - `column` string, required
          - `fuzziness` integer
          - `max_expansions` integer — The maximum number of terms to expand for fuzzy matching. Default to 50.
          - `operator` 'And' | 'Or'
          - `prefix_length` integer — The number of beginning characters being unchanged for fuzzy matching. Default to 0.
          - `terms` string, required
        - `phrase` PhraseQuery
          - `column` string
          - `slop` integer
          - `terms` string, required
        - `boost` BoostQuery — Boost query that scores documents matching positive query higher and negative query lower
          - `positive` FtsQuery, required — recursive
          - `negative` FtsQuery, required — recursive
          - `negative_boost` number, float — Boost factor for negative query (default: 0.5)
        - `multi_match` MultiMatchQuery
          - `match_queries` MatchQuery[], required
            - `boost` number, float
            - `column` string, required
            - `fuzziness` integer
            - `max_expansions` integer — The maximum number of terms to expand for fuzzy matching. Default to 50.
            - `operator` 'And' | 'Or'
            - `prefix_length` integer — The number of beginning characters being unchanged for fuzzy matching. Default to 0.
            - `terms` string, required
        - `boolean` BooleanQuery — Boolean query with must, should, and must_not clauses
          - `must` FtsQuery[], required — Queries that must match (AND)
          - `must_not` FtsQuery[], required — Queries that must not match (NOT)
          - `should` FtsQuery[], required — Queries that should match (OR)
  - `k` integer, required — Number of results to return
  - `lower_bound` number, float — Lower bound for search
  - `nprobes` integer — Number of probes for IVF index
  - `offset` integer — Number of results to skip
  - `prefilter` boolean — Whether to apply filtering before vector search
  - `refine_factor` integer — Refine factor for search
  - `upper_bound` number, float — Upper bound for search
  - `vector` QueryTableRequestVector, nullable, required — Query vector(s) for similarity search. Provide either single_vector or multi_vector, not both.
    - `single_vector` number[] — Single query vector
    - `multi_vector` array[] — Multiple query vectors for batch search
      - number[]
  - `vector_column` string — Name of the vector column to search
  - `version` integer — Table version to query
  - `with_row_id` boolean — If true, return the row id as a column called `_rowid`

## Response `200`

Query results in Arrow IPC file or stream format

## Other responses

- `400` — Indicates a bad request error. It could be caused by an unexpected request body format or other forms of request validation failure, such as invalid json. Usually serves application/json content, although in some cases simple text/plain content might be returned by the server's middleware.
- `401` — Unauthorized. The request lacks valid authentication credentials for the operation.
- `403` — Forbidden. Authenticated user does not have the necessary permissions.
- `404` — A server-side problem that means can not find the specified resource.
- `503` — The service is not ready to handle the request. The client should wait and retry. The service may additionally send a Retry-After header to indicate when to retry.
- `5XX` — A server-side problem that might not be addressable from the client side. Used for server 5xx errors without more specific documentation in individual routes.

## Changes

- **2025-07-29** `40a3bc489d46` — 6 breaking, 12 warning, 12 info
  - the response property `type` became optional for the status `400`
  - the response property `type` became optional for the status `401`
  - the response property `type` became optional for the status `403`
  - the response property `type` became optional for the status `404`
  - …26 more
- **2025-07-25** `8769f8e36bc4` — 20 breaking, 2 warning, 1 info
  - the request property `bypass_vector_index` became not nullable
  - the request property `distance_type` became not nullable
  - the request property `ef` became not nullable
  - the request property `fast_search` became not nullable
  - …19 more
- **2025-07-22** `ac7519693c52` — 3 info
  - added the new optional `query` request parameter `delimiter` to all path's operations
  - added the new optional `query` request parameter `delimiter`
  - added the media type `application/vnd.apache.arrow.file` for the response with the status `200`
- **2025-07-21** `db7569410aa4` — 1 info
  - api tag `Data` added
- **2025-07-21** `6790486d1fac` — 14 breaking, 19 warning, 49 info
  - added the new required request property `name`
  - added the new required request property `namespace`
  - request property `full_text_query/structured_query/query/match/operator` was restricted to a list of enum values
  - request property `full_text_query/structured_query/query/multi_match/match_queries/items/operator` was restricted to a list of enum values
  - …78 more

[Change history](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification/changes/v1/table/:id/query/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/lance-format/apis/lance-namespace-specification/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc-service-production.skmtc.workers.dev/v1/apis/lance-format/lance-namespace-specification/revisions/89fbd6272646/schema)