← R2 SQL / r2-sql

Troubleshooting guide

This guide covers potential errors and limitations you may encounter when using R2 SQL. R2 SQL is in open beta, and supported functionality will evolve and change over time.

Problem: R2 SQL requires a FROM clause in your query.

-- Invalid - Missing FROM clause
SELECT user_id WHERE status = 200;

-- Valid
SELECT user_id
FROM my_namespace.http_requests
WHERE status = 200 AND timestamp BETWEEN '2025-09-24T01:00:00Z' AND '2025-09-25T01:00:00Z';

Solution: Always include FROM with a fully qualified table name (namespace_name.table_name).

Symptom: Query returns 502 Bad Gateway or times out.

Problem: Multi-way joins across large tables can exceed resource limits, especially with COUNT(DISTINCT) or other memory-intensive aggregations.

-- May timeout: cross-joining two large fact tables
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT h.ray_id), COUNT(DISTINCT f.event_id)
FROM my_namespace.http_requests h
INNER JOIN my_namespace.firewall_events f ON h.zone_id = f.zone_id

Solution:

• Add WHERE filters to reduce intermediate result sizes.
• Join through dimension tables instead of directly joining fact tables.
• Use approx_distinct() instead of COUNT(DISTINCT) for approximate counts.
• Break complex multi-way joins into smaller queries using CTEs or sequential queries.

-- Better: filter both sides and use approx_distinct
SELECT z.plan,
       approx_distinct(h.ray_id) AS unique_requests
FROM my_namespace.zones z
INNER JOIN my_namespace.http_requests h ON z.zone_id = h.zone_id
WHERE z.plan = 'enterprise'
  AND h.status_code >= 400
GROUP BY z.plan

Symptom: NOT IN subquery returns unexpected results or errors.

Problem: NOT IN subqueries are not supported when the subquery column can contain NULL values.

-- Fails: nullable_col may contain NULLs
SELECT zone_id
FROM my_namespace.http_requests
WHERE zone_id NOT IN (
    SELECT nullable_col FROM my_namespace.other_table
)
LIMIT 20

Solution: Use NOT EXISTS with a correlated subquery instead.

-- Works: NOT EXISTS handles NULLs correctly
SELECT h.zone_id
FROM my_namespace.http_requests h
WHERE NOT EXISTS (
    SELECT 1 FROM my_namespace.other_table o
    WHERE o.nullable_col = h.zone_id
)
LIMIT 20

Symptom: EXISTS or NOT EXISTS subquery runs slowly.

Problem: Correlated subqueries with complex conditions can be slow because the inner query is evaluated for each row of the outer query.

-- Slower: multiple filter conditions in correlated subquery
SELECT z.domain
FROM my_namespace.zones z
WHERE EXISTS (
    SELECT 1 FROM my_namespace.firewall_events f
    WHERE f.zone_id = z.zone_id
      AND f.risk_score > 0.9
      AND f.colo = 'SJC'
)
LIMIT 20

Solution:

• Simplify correlated conditions where possible.
• Consider rewriting as a JOIN with GROUP BY instead of EXISTS.
• Use an IN subquery with pre-aggregated results instead of EXISTS.

Problem: JSON functions are not yet implemented. You cannot filter on fields inside JSON objects using JSON path operators.

-- Invalid - JSON path operators not supported
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.requests WHERE json_data->>'level' = 'error'

-- Valid - Filter on the entire JSON column
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.logs WHERE json_data IS NOT NULL LIMIT 100

Solution:

• Denormalize frequently queried JSON fields into separate columns.
• Filter on the entire JSON field, and handle parsing in your application.

Problem: LIMIT values must be between 1 and 10,000.

-- Invalid - Out of range
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events LIMIT 50000

-- Valid
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events LIMIT 10000

Solution: Use LIMIT values between 1 and 10,000.

Problem: OFFSET is not supported.

-- Invalid - Pagination not supported
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events LIMIT 100 OFFSET 200

-- Valid - Use cursor-based pagination with ORDER BY and WHERE
-- Page 1
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events
WHERE timestamp >= '2024-01-01'
ORDER BY timestamp
LIMIT 100

-- Page 2 - Use the last timestamp from the previous page
SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events
WHERE timestamp > '2024-01-01T10:30:00Z'
ORDER BY timestamp
LIMIT 100

Solution: Implement cursor-based pagination using ORDER BY and WHERE conditions.

Problem: R2 SQL is a read-only query engine. DDL and DML statements are not supported.

-- Invalid - Schema changes not supported
ALTER TABLE my_namespace.events ADD COLUMN new_field STRING
UPDATE my_namespace.events SET status = 200 WHERE user_id = '123'
CREATE TABLE my_namespace.test (id INT)
DROP TABLE my_namespace.events

Solution: Manage your schema through your data ingestion pipeline and R2 Data Catalog.

If your queries are running slowly:

1. Always include partition (timestamp) filters: This is the most important optimization.

   -- Good - Narrows data scan to one day
   SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events
   WHERE timestamp BETWEEN '2024-01-01' AND '2024-01-02'
   LIMIT 100

2. Use selective filtering: Include specific conditions to reduce result sets.

   -- Good - Multiple filters reduce scanned data
   SELECT * FROM my_namespace.events
   WHERE status = 200 AND region = 'US' AND timestamp > '2024-01-01'
   LIMIT 100

3. Select specific columns: Avoid SELECT * when you only need a few fields.

   -- Good - Only reads the columns you need
   SELECT user_id, status, timestamp
   FROM my_namespace.events
   WHERE timestamp > '2024-01-01'
   LIMIT 100

4. Use EXPLAIN to inspect the execution plan: Verify that predicate pushdown and file pruning are working.

   EXPLAIN SELECT user_id, status
   FROM my_namespace.events
   WHERE timestamp > '2024-01-01' AND status = 200

5. Enable compaction: Enable compaction in R2 Data Catalog to reduce the number of small files scanned per query.