Time-Series Quick Start Guide

Time to Complete: 10 minutes Prerequisites: HeliosDB installed

Overview

This guide will help you get started with HeliosDB’s time-series capabilities. You will learn to:

Create a time-series table
Write time-series data points
Query time ranges
Configure retention policies
Set up downsampling

Using SQL Interface

HeliosDB supports time-series operations through SQL:

Create Time-Series Table

-- Create a time-series optimized table
CREATE TABLE sensor_readings (
    timestamp TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL,
    sensor_id VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL,
    temperature DOUBLE PRECISION,
    humidity DOUBLE PRECISION
) WITH (
    partition_by = 'DAY',
    retention = '30 days',
    compression = 'gorilla'
);

Insert Data

-- Insert sensor readings
INSERT INTO sensor_readings (timestamp, sensor_id, temperature, humidity)
VALUES
    (NOW(), 'sensor-001', 23.5, 65.0),
    (NOW(), 'sensor-002', 24.1, 62.5);

Query with Time Bucket

-- Aggregate by 5-minute buckets
SELECT
    time_bucket('5 minutes', timestamp) AS bucket,
    sensor_id,
    AVG(temperature) AS avg_temp,
    MAX(temperature) AS max_temp
FROM sensor_readings
WHERE timestamp > NOW() - INTERVAL '1 day'
GROUP BY bucket, sensor_id
ORDER BY bucket DESC;

Configure Retention via SQL

-- Set retention policy
ALTER TABLE sensor_readings
SET RETENTION POLICY '30 days';

-- Set downsampling
ALTER TABLE sensor_readings
ADD CONTINUOUS AGGREGATE sensor_readings_1h
    EVERY '1 hour'
    WITH (aggregation = 'avg');

Next Steps

Topic	Guide
Complete documentation	USER_GUIDE.md
Code examples	EXAMPLES.md
Performance optimization	../timeseries/PERFORMANCE_TUNING.md

See Also: README.md | User Guide | Examples