[HIVE-6560] varchar and char types cannot be cast to binary

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.12.0, 0.13.0, 0.13.1
• Fix Version/s: 0.14.0
• Component/s: Types, UDF
• Tags: TODOC14
• Assignee: Chao Sun
• Reporter: Xuefu Zhang
• Created: 06/Mar/14 01:25
• Updated: 13/Nov/14 19:42
• Resolved: 16/Jul/14 22:44

Description

GenericUDFToBinary can convert string to binary. VARCHAR and CHAR are substitutable with string. Thus, GenericUDFToBinary should also be able to convert VARCHAR and CHAR to binary. However,

hive> select binary(cast('abc' as varchar(5)) from decimal_udf limit 1;
FAILED: ParseException line 1:40 missing ) at 'from' near '<EOF>'
hive> select binary(cast('abc' as varchar(5))) from decimal_udf limit 1;
FAILED: SemanticException Line 0:-1 Wrong arguments ''abc'': Only string or binary data can be cast into binary data types.