Profile Query Language (PQL) overview

Last update: June 19, 2023

CREATED FOR:

  • User

Profile Query Language (PQL) is an Experience Data Model (XDM) compliant query language which is designed to support the definition and execution of segmentation queries for Real-Time Customer Profile data.

This guide provides a general overview of PQL, covering formatting guidelines and providing example PQL expressions.

PQL query formatting

PQL queries have the following signature:

({INPUT_PARAMETER_1}, {INPUT_PARAMETER_2}, ...) => {RESULT_TYPE}

The input parameter can be a simple primitive, such as a boolean or a string, or a more complex type, such as an object, array, or map.

There are three different ways to refer to input parameters within the body of a PQL expression:

Implicit reference to the first parameter

In the example below, since the first parameter is always in context, a property reference (homeAddress) can be made directly to it.

homeAddress.stateProvince = workAddress.stateProvince

Explicit reference to the first parameter

In the example below, $1 refers to the first parameter. As a result, $2 would refer to the second parameter, etc.

$1.homeAddress.stateProvince = $1.homeAddress.stateProvince

Usage of named variables, using the lambda notation

In the example below, Profile is a variable name, which can be chosen by the query author.

(Profile) => Profile.homeAddress.stateProvince = Profile.workAddress.stateProvince

PQL literals

PQL provides support for the following literal types:

Literal
Definition
Example
String
A data type comprised of characters surrounded by double quotes.
"pizza", "jobs", "antidisestablishmentarianism"
Boolean
A data type that is either true or false.
true, false
Integer
A data type representing a whole number. It can be positive, negative, or zero.
-201, 0, 412
Double
A data type representing any real number. It can be positive, negative, or zero.
-51.24, 3.14, 0.6942058
Date
A data type that can be used to create dates based on the year, month, and day as integer parameters. It is formatted as date(year, month, day)
date(2020, 3, 14)
Array
A data type that is comprised as a group of other literal values. It uses square brackets to group and commas to delimit between different values.
Note: You cannot directly access properties of items within an array. So, if you need to access a property within an array, the supported method is select X from array where X.item = ....
PQL reserves the word xEvent to refer to an array of experience events linked to a profile.
[1, 4, 7], ["US", "CA"]
Relative time references

Reserved words that can be used to form timestamp and time interval references.

  • now, today, yesterday, tomorrow
  • this, last, next
  • before, after, from
  • millisecond(s), second(s), minute(s), hour(s), day(s), week(s), month(s), year(s), decade(s), century/centuries, millennium/millennia
X.timestamp occurs before today, X.timestamp occurs last month, X.timestamp occurs <= 3 days before now