Add NULL DEFINED AS to ROW FORMAT specification
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Key: HIVE-1466
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HIVE-1466
Project: Hadoop Hive
Issue Type: Improvement
Reporter: Adam Kramer
I just updated the Hive wiki to clarify what some would consider an oddity:
When NULL values are exported to a script via TRANSFORM, they are converted to
the string "\N", and then when the script's output is read, any cell that
contains only \N is treated as a NULL value.
I believe that there are very VERY few reasons why anyone would need cells that
contain only a backslash and then a capital N to be distinguished from NULL
cells, but for complete generality, we should allow this.
The way to do that is probably by adding a specification in the ROW FORMAT for
a table that would allow any string to be treated as a NULL if it is the only
string in a cell. Some may prefer the empty string, others the word NULL in
caps, etc. I vote for keeping \N as the default because I am used to it, but
also for allowing this to be customized.
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