Store vector embeddings

Required database extension

Use the vector extension, version 0.5.0.google-1 or later, which includes pgvector functions and operators, to store generated embeddings as vector values. This is a version of pgvector that Google has extended with optimizations specific to AlloyDB.

  CREATE 
  
 EXTENSION 
  
 IF 
  
 NOT 
  
 EXISTS 
  
 vector 
 ; 
 

Store generated embeddings

Ensure that you have already created a table in your AlloyDB database.

To store vector embeddings, do the following:

1. Create a vector[] column in your table to store your embeddings:

     ALTER 
     
    TABLE 
     
     TABLE 
    
     
    ADD 
     
    COLUMN 
     
     EMBEDDING_COLUMN 
    
     
    vector 
    ( 
     DIMENSIONS 
    
    ); 
    
   

   Replace the following:

   • TABLE : the table name

   • EMBEDDING_COLUMN : the name of the new embedding column

   • DIMENSIONS : the number of dimensions that the model supports.

     For example, if you are using one of the textembedding-gecko English models—for example, textembedding-gecko@003 with Vertex AI, specify 768 .

2. Copy the vectors to the vector column. The following example assumes your embeddings are available in a CSV file:

     COPY 
     
     TABLE 
    
     
    ( 
     EMBEDDING_COLUMN 
    
    ) 
     
    FROM 
     
    ' 
     PATH_TO_VECTOR_CSV 
    
     
    ( 
    FORMAT 
     
    CSV 
    ); 
    
   

   Replace the following:

   • PATH_TO_VECTOR_CSV : the full path of where you have stored your CSV file.

After you store the embeddings, you can use the vector extension or the alloydb_scann extension to create indexes for faster query performance.

What's next

• Create indexes and query vectors
• An example embedding workflow