{% hint style="info" %}
[Vectors](/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/vectors.md) are available from [MariaDB 11.7](/docs/release-notes/community-server/old-releases/11.7/what-is-mariadb-117.md).
{% endhint %}
## Syntax
```sql
VEC_DISTANCE_COSINE(v, s)
```
## Description
`VEC_Distance_Cosine` is an SQL function that calculates the [Cosine distance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosine_similarity#Cosine_distance) between two (not necessarily normalized) vectors.
Vectors must be of the same length. A distance between two vectors of different lengths is not defined, and `VEC_Distance_Cosine` will return `NULL` in such cases.
If the vector index was not built for the cosine function (see [CREATE TABLE with Vectors](/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/vectors/create-table-with-vectors.md)), the index is not used — a full table scan is performed instead. The [VEC\_DISTANCE](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/vector-functions/vector-functions-vec_distance.md) function is a generic function that behaves either as [VEC\_DISTANCE\_EUCLIDEAN](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/vector-functions/vec_distance_euclidean.md) or `VEC_DISTANCE_COSINE`, depending on the underlying index type.
## Example
```sql
SELECT VEC_DISTANCE_COSINE(vec_fromtext('[1,2,3]'), vec_fromtext('[3,5,7]'));
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| VEC_DISTANCE_COSINE(vec_fromtext('[1,2,3]'), vec_fromtext('[3,5,7]')) |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 0.00258509695694209 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
```
## See Also
* [VEC\_DISTANCE](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/vector-functions/vector-functions-vec_distance.md)
* [VEC\_DISTANCE\_EUCLIDEAN](/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/vector-functions/vec_distance_euclidean.md)
* [Vector Overview](/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/vectors/vector-overview.md)
* [CREATE TABLE with Vectors](/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/vectors/create-table-with-vectors.md)
*This page is licensed: CC BY-SA / Gnu FDL*
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