[IMPALA-12918] Do not allow non-numeric values in Hive table stats during an alter table

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: Impala 4.0.0
• Component/s: Catalog
• Labels: alter alter-table catalog-2024 newbie ramp-up stats validation
• Epic Color: ghx-label-4
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Miklos Szurap
• Created: 18/Mar/24 16:33
• Updated: 23/Apr/24 01:49

Description

Hive table properties are string in their nature, however some of them have special meaning and should have numeric values, like the "totalSize", "numRows", "rawDataSize".
Impala currently allows these to be set to non-numeric values (including empty string).
From certain applications (like from Spark) we get quite obscure "NumberFormatException" errors while trying to access such broken tables. (see SPARK-47444)

Impala should also validate "alter table" statements and not allow non-numeric values in the "totalSize", "numRows", "rawDataSize" table properties.

For example a query which may break the table (after it can't be read from Spark):

[impalacoordinator:21000] default> alter table t1p set tblproperties('numRows'='', 'STATS_GENERATED_VIA_STATS_TASK'='true');

Note: beeline/Hive validates alter table statements with the "numRows" and "rawDataSize", the "totalSize" still needs validation there too.