[IMPALA-3217] Allow text quoted by single quotes be treated as a literal value of char/varchar

• Type: New Feature
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Done
• Affects Version/s: Impala 2.4.0
• Component/s: Frontend
• Epic Link: Character Datatype
• Target Version: Product Backlog
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Yibing Shi
• Created: 21/Mar/16 03:01
• Updated: 30/Jun/23 08:50
• Resolved: 30/Jun/23 08:50

Description

Currently, in Impala, a string quoted with single quotes (such as 'abcd') is treated as a literal value of String type. To use it with char/varchar type, an explicit conversion is needed.

For example, blow query doesn't work:

insert into table tbl (char_col) values ('abcd')

Only below query works:

insert into table tbl (char_col) values ( cast ('abcd' as char(20)))

It does make sense to allow the first query.

Issue Links

• is related to: IMPALA-10173 Allow implicit casts between numeric and string types when inserting into table
• relates to: IMPALA-1333 Missing implicit casts between char/varchar/string.