Column Specification in Engine 20 In-Database Analytic Functions | teradataml - Column Specification in Engine 20 In-Database Analytic Functions - Teradata VantageCloud Lake

Lake - Analyze Your Data with ClearScape Analytics™
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VantageCloud
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Lake
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Teradata VantageCloud Lake
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Published
February 2025
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2026-02-20
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Column Specification

Some analytic functions in the Database Engine 20 provide arguments for selecting or performing operations on multiple columns.

teradataml allows user to specify columns in the following ways:
  • Pass a single column name.

    For example, column_arg = "col1"

  • Pass multiple columns (specific columns only).

    For example, column_arg = ["col1", "col3", "col8"]

  • Pass multiple columns using DataFrame.columns and slice filtering.

    For example, column_arg = list(set(df.columns[2:10]) - set(df.columns[5:7]))

  • Pass multiple column as a column range.

    For example, column_arg = "column_range"

Specifying Column Range column_range

Column range can be specified in the following ways:
  • Without column exclusion.

    Syntax: "start_column:end_column"

    Must be passed as string.
  • With column exclusion.

    Syntax: ["start_column:end_column", "-exclude_column1", ...]

    Must be passed as a list of strings.
The start_column and end_column can be:
  • Column names.

    For example, "column1:column2".

  • Nonnegative integers that represent the indexes of columns in the table. The first column has index 0.

    For example, "0:4" specifies the first five columns in the table.

  • Empty.
    For example,
    • ":4" or ":columnD" specifies all columns up to and including the column with index 4 or columnD.
    • "4:" or "columnD:" specifies the column with index 4 (or columnD) and all columns after it.
    • ":" specifies all columns in the table.

The exclude_column is a column in the specified range, represented by either its name or its index.

For example, ["0:99", "-[50]", "-column10"] specifies the columns with indexes from 0 to 99, except the column with index 50 and column10.

Column ranges cannot overlap, and cannot include any specified column.
When handling column name containing range separators:
  • Column can be enclosed in double quotes.
    For example, if DataFrame has columns :columnA, columnB: and :column:C:, columns can be selected by enclosing in double quotes:
    • "\":columnA\"" or '":columnA"'
    • "\"columnB:\"" or '"columnB:"'
    • "\":column:C:\"" or '":column:C:"'
  • You can always use column range and exclusion by index instead of column names.

Column Range Examples

Assume "insect_sprays" DataFrame has columns groupA, :groupB, groupC:CC, groupD:, groupE:EE:EEE and :groupF:, the following examples show how to select range of columns for the group_columns argument in the ANOVA function.

Example 1: Specify range index of columns.
ANOVA(data=insect_sprays,
      group_columns="2:5",
      alpha = 0.025)
Example 2: Specify range index of columns with first column empty.
ANOVA(data=insect_sprays,
      group_columns=":5",
      alpha=0.025)
Example 3: Specify range of columns by their names. Column has separator, hence enclose it in double quotes.
ANOVA(data=insect_sprays,
      group_columns= '"groupC:CC":"groupE:EE:EEE"',
      alpha = 0.05)
Example 4: Specify range of columns by their names with second column empty. Column has separator, hence enclose it in double quotes.
ANOVA(data=insect_sprays,
      group_columns='"groupE:EE:EEE":',
      alpha = 0.05)
Example 5: Specify range of columns for all columns. Column has separator, hence enclose it in double quotes.
ANOVA(data=insect_sprays,
      group_columns=[':', "-\":groupB\""], # or [':', "-[2]"]
      alpha = 0.05)