[HIVE-17027] HPL/SQL requires single quotes for string literals, resulting in surprising behavior

• Type: Bug
• Status: Patch Available
• Priority: Critical
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Component/s: hpl/sql
• Assignee: Dmitry Tolpeko
• Reporter: Carter Shanklin
• Created: 04/Jul/17 21:21
• Updated: 05/Sep/17 10:49

Description

This bug is part of a series of issues and surprising behavior I encountered writing a reporting script that would aggregate values and give rows different classifications based on an the aggregate. Addressing some or all of these issues would make HPL/SQL more accessible to newcomers.

Consider this script:

CREATE FUNCTION test1()
  RETURNS STRING
DECLARE
  VAR ret string;
BEGIN
  ret := 'VALUE IS SET';
  print(ret);
END;

CREATE FUNCTION test2()
  RETURNS STRING
DECLARE
  VAR ret string;
BEGIN
  ret := "VALUE IS SET";
  print(ret);
END;

test1();
test2();

The output of this script is:
VALUE IS SET
ret

Hive accepts both quoting styles. It would be better if HPL/SQL did as well, or threw an error for th
e unsupported style.

Version = 3.0.0-SNAPSHOT r71f52d8ad512904b3f2c4f04fe39a33f2834f1f2