[HIVE-2615] CTAS with literal NULL creates VOID type

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Duplicate
• Affects Version/s: 0.6.0, 0.7.0, 0.8.0, 0.9.0, 0.10.0, 0.11.0
• Fix Version/s: 0.12.0
• Component/s: Query Processor
• Assignee: Zhuoluo Yang
• Reporter: David Phillips
• Created: 30/Nov/11 00:44
• Updated: 09/May/17 10:15
• Resolved: 23/Mar/14 02:25

Description

Create the table with a column that always contains NULL:

hive> create table bad as select 1 x, null z from dual;

Because there's no type, Hive gives it the VOID type:

hive> describe bad;
OK
x int
z void

This seems weird, because AFAIK, there is no normal way to create a column of type VOID. The problem is that the table can't be queried:

hive> select * from bad;
OK
Failed with exception java.io.IOException:java.lang.RuntimeException: Internal error: no LazyObject for VOID

Worse, even if you don't select that field, the query fails at runtime:

hive> select x from bad;
...
FAILED: Execution Error, return code 2 from org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.exec.MapRedTask

Issue Links

• duplicates: HIVE-4172 JDBC2 does not support VOID type