Casting a byte array that contains a double value to an int results in a null
pointer
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Key: PIG-312
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PIG-312
Project: Pig
Issue Type: Bug
Affects Versions: types_branch
Reporter: Alan Gates
Fix For: types_branch
{code}
a = load 'myfile' as (name, age, gpa);
c = foreach a generate age * 10, (int)gpa * 2;
store c into 'outfile';
{code}
The values in gpa are doubles. The issue is that they are read as byte arrays
and then when the user tries to cast them to an int, the system does a direct
cast from byte array to int, which results in a null. First of all, it should
result in a zero, not a null (unless the underlying value is null). Second, we
have to clarify semantics here. gpa was never officially declared to be a
double, so trying to do a cast directly from bytearray to int is a reasonable
thing to do. But users may not see it that way. Do we want to first cast
numbers to double and then to anything subsequent to avoid this? Or should we
force users to write this as (int)(double)gpa * 2 so we know to first cast to
double and then int? In the interest of speed (especially considering the
rarity of doubles in most data) I'd vote for the latter.
--
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
-
You can reply to this email to add a comment to the issue online.
