Chapter 3. Data Definition and Description

This chapter introduces the basic data types, data definition language, and schema in Hive to describe data. It also covers the best practices to describe data correctly and effectively by using internal or external tables, partitions, buckets, and views.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Hive primitive and complex data types
  • Data type conversions
  • Hive tables
  • Hive partitions
  • Hive buckets
  • Hive views

Understanding Hive data types

Hive data types are categorized into two types: primitive and complex data types. String and integer are the most useful primitive types, which are supported by most Hive functions.

Tip

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files from your account ...

Get Apache Hive Essentials now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.