SHOW INTERNAL TABLES

Use the SHOW INTERNAL TABLES command to view the existing internal tables in RisingWave. Internal tables are tables that store intermediate results (also known as internal states) of queries.

In addition to SHOW INTERNAL TABLES, you can also use the rw_internal_tables table to display internal table information. This is useful when you need to join internal table information with other data.

Syntax

SHOW INTERNAL TABLES [ FROM schema_name ] [ LIKE_expression ];

Parameters

Parameter	Description
schema_name	The schema in which tables will be listed. If not specified, tables from all schemas in the current schema search_path will be listed.
LIKE_expression	Filters the output based on names by applying pattern matching. See details in LIKE pattern matching expressions.

Example

SHOW INTERNAL TABLES;
                   Name
------------------------------------------
 public.__internal_v_20_hashjoinright_1019
 public.__internal_v_20_hashjoindegreeleft_1018
 public.__internal_v_18_grouptopnnode_1011
 public.__internal_v_20_hashjoindegreeright_1020
 public.__internal_v_17_topnnode_1010
 public.__internal_v_19_hashjoindegreeleft_1014
 public.__internal_v_20_hashjoinleft_1017
 public.__internal_v_18_hashaggresult_1012
 public.__internal_v_19_hashjoinright_1015
 public.__internal_v_19_hashjoindegreeright_1016
 public.__internal_v_19_hashjoinleft_1013
(11 rows)

You can view the data in an internal table:

SELECT * FROM __internal_v_19_hashjoinleft_1013 LIMIT 5;

 orders.o_orderkey | orders.o_orderdate | orders.o_shippriority | customer.c_custkey | orders.o_custkey
-------------------+--------------------+-----------------------+--------------------+------------------
                69 | 1994-06-04         |                     0 |                 85 |               85
               256 | 1993-10-19         |                     0 |                125 |              125
              1154 | 1992-02-15         |                     0 |                 37 |               37
              1792 | 1993-11-09         |                     0 |                 49 |               49
              1894 | 1992-03-30         |                     0 |                 76 |               76
(5 rows)

Starting from v2.7.0, the Name column in the output includes the schema name as a prefix (e.g., public.__internal_table_name). This helps distinguish internal tables with the same name in different schemas when querying across multiple schemas in the search path.