[HIVE-6365] Alter a partition to be of a different fileformat than the Table's fileformat. Use insert overwrite to write data to this partition. The partition fileformat is converted back to table's fileformat after the insert operation.

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved

Environment

emr

• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Pavan Srinivas
• Created: 04/Feb/14 13:55
• Updated: 17/Mar/17 16:42

Description

Lets say, there is partitioned table like

Step1:
>> CREATE TABLE srcpart (key STRING, value STRING)
PARTITIONED BY (ds STRING, hr STRING)
STORED AS TEXTFILE;

Step2:
Alter the fileformat for a specific available partition.
>> alter table srcpart partition(ds="2008-04-08", hr="12") set fileformat orc;

Step3:
Describe the partition.
>> desc formatted srcpart partition(ds="2008-04-08", hr="12")
.............

1. Storage Information
   SerDe Library: org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.OrcSerde
   InputFormat: org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.OrcInputFormat
   OutputFormat: org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.orc.OrcOutputFormat
   Compressed: No
   Num Buckets: -1
   Bucket Columns: []
   Sort Columns: []
   Storage Desc Params:
   serialization.format 1

Step4:
Write the data to this partition using insert overwrite.
>>insert overwrite table srcpart partition(ds="2008-04-08",hr="12") select key, value from .......

Step5:
Describe the partition again.
>> desc formatted srcpart partition(ds="2008-04-08", hr="12")
.................

1. Storage Information
   SerDe Library: org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe
   InputFormat: org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat
   OutputFormat: org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.HiveIgnoreKeyTextOutputFormat
   Compressed: No
   Num Buckets: -1
   Bucket Columns: []
   Sort Columns: []
   Storage Desc Params:
   serialization.format 1

The fileformat of the partition is converted back to the table's original fileformat. It should have retained and written the data in the modified fileformat.