TRANSFORM

Description

The TRANSFORM clause is used to specify a Hive-style transform query specification to transform the inputs by running a user-specified command or script.

Syntax

SELECT TRANSFORM ( expression [ , ... ] )
    [ ROW FORMAT row_format ]
    [ RECORDWRITER record_writer_class ]
    USING command_or_script [ AS ( [ col_name [ col_type ] ] [ , ... ] ) ]
    [ ROW FORMAT row_format ]
    [ RECORDREADER record_reader_class ]

Parameters

SerDe behavior

Spark uses the Hive SerDe org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe by default, so columns will be casted to STRING and combined by tabs before feeding to the user script. All NULL values will be converted to the literal string "\N" in order to differentiate NULL values from empty strings. The standard output of the user script will be treated as tab-separated STRING columns, any cell containing only "\N" will be re-interpreted as a NULL value, and then the resulting STRING column will be cast to the data type specified in col_type. If the actual number of output columns is less than the number of specified output columns, insufficient output columns will be supplemented with NULL. If the actual number of output columns is more than the number of specified output columns, the output columns will only select the corresponding columns and the remaining part will be discarded. If there is no AS clause after USING my_script, an output schema will be key: STRING, value: STRING. The key column contains all the characters before the first tab and the value column contains the remaining characters after the first tab. If there is no enough tab, Spark will return NULL value. These defaults can be overridden with ROW FORMAT SERDE or ROW FORMAT DELIMITED.

Examples

CREATE TABLE person (zip_code INT, name STRING, age INT);
INSERT INTO person VALUES
    (94588, 'Zen Hui', 50),
    (94588, 'Dan Li', 18),
    (94588, 'Anil K', 27),
    (94588, 'John V', NULL),
    (94511, 'David K', 42),
    (94511, 'Aryan B.', 18),
    (94511, 'Lalit B.', NULL);

-- With specified output without data type
SELECT TRANSFORM(zip_code, name, age)
   USING 'cat' AS (a, b, c)
FROM person
WHERE zip_code > 94511;
+-------+---------+-----+
|    a  |        b|    c|
+-------+---------+-----+
|  94588|   Anil K|   27|
|  94588|   John V| NULL|
|  94588|  Zen Hui|   50|
|  94588|   Dan Li|   18|
+-------+---------+-----+

-- With specified output with data type
SELECT TRANSFORM(zip_code, name, age)
   USING 'cat' AS (a STRING, b STRING, c STRING)
FROM person
WHERE zip_code > 94511;
+-------+---------+-----+
|    a  |        b|    c|
+-------+---------+-----+
|  94588|   Anil K|   27|
|  94588|   John V| NULL|
|  94588|  Zen Hui|   50|
|  94588|   Dan Li|   18|
+-------+---------+-----+

-- Using ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
SELECT TRANSFORM(name, age)
    ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
    LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
    NULL DEFINED AS 'NULL'
    USING 'cat' AS (name_age string)
    ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
    FIELDS TERMINATED BY '@'
    LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
    NULL DEFINED AS 'NULL'
FROM person;
+---------------+
|       name_age|
+---------------+
|      Anil K,27|
|    John V,null|
|     ryan B.,18|
|     David K,42|
|     Zen Hui,50|
|      Dan Li,18|
|  Lalit B.,null|
+---------------+

-- Using Hive Serde
SELECT TRANSFORM(zip_code, name, age)
    ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe'
    WITH SERDEPROPERTIES (
      'field.delim' = '\t'
    )
    USING 'cat' AS (a STRING, b STRING, c STRING)
    ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe'
    WITH SERDEPROPERTIES (
      'field.delim' = '\t'
    )
FROM person
WHERE zip_code > 94511;
+-------+---------+-----+
|    a  |        b|    c|
+-------+---------+-----+
|  94588|   Anil K|   27|
|  94588|   John V| NULL|
|  94588|  Zen Hui|   50|
|  94588|   Dan Li|   18|
+-------+---------+-----+

-- Schema-less mode
SELECT TRANSFORM(zip_code, name, age)
    USING 'cat'
FROM person
WHERE zip_code > 94500;
+-------+---------------------+
|    key|                value|
+-------+---------------------+
|  94588|	  Anil K    27|
|  94588|	  John V    \N|
|  94511|	Aryan B.    18|
|  94511|	 David K    42|
|  94588|	 Zen Hui    50|
|  94588|	  Dan Li    18|
|  94511|	Lalit B.    \N|
+-------+---------------------+