[IMPALA-4033] ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION treats string-partition key values as case insensitive.

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: Impala 2.5.0, Impala 2.6.0, Impala 2.7.0
• Fix Version/s: Impala 2.9.0
• Component/s: Frontend
• Labels: ramp-up
• Assignee: Amos Bird
• Reporter: Alexander Behm
• Created: 27/Aug/16 01:12
• Updated: 24/Jan/17 05:21
• Resolved: 24/Dec/16 09:26

Description

Partition-key values should be treated no different than regular data values, so string partition-key values should be case sensitive.

However, in ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION, Impala treats string partition-key values as case insensitive.

Repro:

create table t (c int) partitioned by (p string);
alter table t add partition (p="abc");
alter table t add partition (p="ABC");
ERROR: AnalysisException: Partition spec already exists: (p='ABC').

Creating the same partition via static or dynamic insert works finr:

insert into t partition(p="ABC") values(1);
insert into t partition(p) values(1, "aBc");
show partitions t;
+-------+-------+--------+------+--------------+-------------------+--------+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| p     | #Rows | #Files | Size | Bytes Cached | Cache Replication | Format | Incremental stats | Location                                      |
+-------+-------+--------+------+--------------+-------------------+--------+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| ABC   | -1    | 1      | 2B   | NOT CACHED   | NOT CACHED        | TEXT   | false             | hdfs://localhost:20500/test-warehouse/t/p=ABC |
| aBc   | -1    | 1      | 2B   | NOT CACHED   | NOT CACHED        | TEXT   | false             | hdfs://localhost:20500/test-warehouse/t/p=aBc |
| abc   | -1    | 0      | 0B   | NOT CACHED   | NOT CACHED        | TEXT   | false             | hdfs://localhost:20500/test-warehouse/t/p=abc |
| Total | -1    | 2      | 4B   | 0B           |                   |        |                   |                                               |
+-------+-------+--------+------+--------------+-------------------+--------+-------------------+-----------------------------------------------+