impala/docs/topics/impala_timestamp.xml

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<!DOCTYPE concept PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="timestamp">

  <title>TIMESTAMP Data Type</title>

  <titlealts audience="PDF">

    <navtitle>TIMESTAMP</navtitle>

  </titlealts>

  <prolog>
    <metadata>
      <data name="Category" value="Impala"/>
      <data name="Category" value="Impala Data Types"/>
      <data name="Category" value="SQL"/>
      <data name="Category" value="Data Analysts"/>
      <data name="Category" value="Developers"/>
      <data name="Category" value="Dates and Times"/>
    </metadata>
  </prolog>

  <conbody>

    <p>
      In Impala, the <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> data type holds a value of date and time. It can
      be decomposed into year, month, day, hour, minute and seconds fields, but with no time
      zone information available, it does not correspond to any specific point in time.
    </p>

    <p>
      Internally, the resolution of the time portion of a <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> value is in
      nanoseconds.
    </p>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/syntax_blurb"/>

    <p>
      In the column definition of a <codeph>CREATE TABLE</codeph> statement:
    </p>

<codeblock><varname>column_name</varname> TIMESTAMP

<varname>timestamp</varname> [+ | -] INTERVAL <varname>interval</varname>
DATE_ADD (<varname>timestamp</varname>, INTERVAL <varname>interval</varname> <varname>time_unit</varname>)</codeblock>

    <p>
      <b>Range:</b> 1400-01-01 to 9999-12-31
    </p>

    <p>
      Out of range <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values are converted to NULL.
    </p>

    <p>
      The range of Impala <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> is different from the Hive
      <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> type. Refer to
      <xref
        href="https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/Hive/LanguageManual+Types#LanguageManualTypes-timestamp"
        format="html" scope="external">Hive
      documentation</xref> for detail.
    </p>

    <p>
      <b>INTERVAL expressions:</b>
    </p>

    <p>
      You can perform date arithmetic by adding or subtracting a specified number of time units,
      using the <codeph>INTERVAL</codeph> keyword and the <codeph>+</codeph> operator, the
      <codeph>-</codeph> operator, <codeph>date_add()</codeph> or <codeph>date_sub()</codeph>.
    </p>

    <p>
      The following units are supported for <codeph><i>time_unit</i></codeph> in the
      <codeph>INTERVAL</codeph> clause:
      <ul>
        <li>
          <codeph>YEAR[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>MONTH[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>WEEK[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>DAY[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>HOUR[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>MINUTE[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>SECOND[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>MILLISECOND[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>MICROSECOND[S]</codeph>
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>NANOSECOND[S]</codeph>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </p>

    <p>
      You can only specify one time unit in each interval expression, for example
      <codeph>INTERVAL 3 DAYS</codeph> or <codeph>INTERVAL 25 HOURS</codeph>, but you can
      produce any granularity by adding together successive <codeph>INTERVAL</codeph> values,
      such as <codeph><varname>timestamp_value</varname> + INTERVAL 3 WEEKS - INTERVAL 1 DAY +
      INTERVAL 10 MICROSECONDS</codeph>.
    </p>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/internals_16_bytes"/>

    <p>
      <b>Time zones:</b>
    </p>

    <p>
      By default, Impala stores and interprets <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values in UTC time
      zone when writing to data files, reading from data files, or converting to and from system
      time values through functions.
    </p>

    <p>
      When you set the
      <codeph>&#8209;&#8209;use_local_tz_for_unix_timestamp_conversions</codeph> startup flag to
      <codeph>TRUE</codeph>, Impala treats the <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values specified in
      the local time zone. The local time zone is determined in the following order with the
      <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> query option takes the highest precedence:
      <ol>
        <li>
          The <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> query option
        </li>

        <li>
          <codeph>$TZ</codeph> environment variable
        </li>

        <li>
          System time zone where the impalad coordinator runs
        </li>
      </ol>
    </p>

    <p>
      The <codeph>&#8209;&#8209;use_local_tz_for_unix_timestamp_conversions</codeph> setting can
      be used to fix discrepancy in <codeph>INTERVAL</codeph> operations. For example, a
      <codeph>TIMESTAMP + INTERVAL <varname>n-hours</varname></codeph> can be affected by
      Daylight Saving Time, which Impala does not consider by default as these operations are
      applied as if the timestamp was in UTC. You can use the
      <codeph>--use_local_tz_for_unix_timestamp_conversions</codeph> setting to fix the issue.
    </p>

    <p>
      See <xref href="impala_custom_timezones.xml#custom_timezone"/> for configuring to use
      custom time zone database and aliases.
    </p>

    <p>
      See <xref href="impala_datetime_functions.xml#datetime_functions">Impala Date and Time
      Functions</xref> for the list of functions affected by the
      <codeph>--use_local_tz_for_unix_timestamp_conversions</codeph> setting.
    </p>

    <p>
      <b>Time zone handling between Impala and Hive:</b>
    </p>

    <p>
      Interoperability between Hive and Impala is different depending on the file format.
    </p>

    <ul>
      <li>
        <i>Text</i>
        <p>
          For text tables, <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values can be written and read
          interchangeably by Impala and Hive as Hive reads and writes <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph>
          values without converting with respect to time zones.
        </p>
      </li>

      <li>
        <i>Parquet</i>
        <note>
          This section only applies to <codeph>INT96 TIMESTAMP</codeph>. See
          <xref href="impala_parquet.xml#parquet_data_types"/> for information about Parquet
          data types.
        </note>
        <p>
          When Hive writes to Parquet data files, the <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values are
          normalized to UTC from the local time zone of the host where the data was written. On
          the other hand, Impala does not make any time zone adjustment when it writes or reads
          <codeph>INT96 TIMESTAMP</codeph> values to Parquet files. This difference in time zone
          handling can cause potentially inconsistent results when Impala processes
          <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values in the Parquet files written by Hive.
        </p>

        <p>
          To avoid incompatibility problems or having to code workarounds, you can specify one
          or both of these impalad startup flags:
          <ul>
            <li>
              <codeph>&#8209;use_local_tz_for_unix_timestamp_conversions=true</codeph>
            </li>

            <li>
              <codeph>&#8209;convert_legacy_hive_parquet_utc_timestamps=true</codeph>
            </li>
          </ul>
        </p>

        <p>
          When the <codeph>&#8209;&#8209;convert_legacy_hive_parquet_utc_timestamps</codeph>
          setting is enabled, Impala recognizes the Parquet data files written by Hive, and
          applies the same UTC-to-local-timezone conversion logic during the query as Hive does.
        </p>

        <p>
          In <keyword keyref="impala30"/> and lower, the
          <codeph>‑‑convert_legacy_hive_parquet_utc_timestamps</codeph> setting had a severe
          impact on multi-threaded performance. The new time zone implementation in
          <keyword keyref="impala31"/> eliminated most of the performance overhead and made
          Impala scale well to multiple threads. The
          <codeph>‑‑convert_legacy_hive_parquet_utc_timestamps</codeph> setting is turned
          off by default for a performance reason. To avoid unexpected incompatibility problems,
          you should turn on the option when processing <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> columns in
          Parquet files written by Hive.
        </p>

        <p>
          Hive currently cannot write <codeph>INT64</codeph> <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values.
        </p>
        <p>
          In <keyword
            keyref="impala32"/> and higher, <codeph>INT64
          TIMESTAMP</codeph> values annotated with the <codeph>TIMESTAMP_MILLIS</codeph> or
          <codeph>TIMESTAMP_MICROS</codeph> <codeph>OriginalType</codeph> are assumed to be
          always UTC normalized, so the UTC to local conversion will be always done.
          <codeph>INT64 TIMESTAMP</codeph> annotated with the <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph>
          <codeph>LogicalType</codeph> specifies whether UTC to local conversion is necessary
          depending on the Parquet metadata.
        </p>
      </li>
    </ul>

    <p>
      <b>Conversions:</b>
    </p>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/timestamp_conversions"
      conrefend="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/cast_string_to_timestamp"/>

    <p>
      <ph conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/cast_int_to_timestamp"/>
    </p>

    <p>
      In Impala 1.3 and higher, the <codeph>FROM_UNIXTIME()</codeph> and
      <codeph>UNIX_TIMESTAMP()</codeph> functions allow a wider range of format strings, with
      more flexibility in element order, repetition of letter placeholders, and separator
      characters. In <keyword
        keyref="impala23_full"/> and higher, the
      <codeph>UNIX_TIMESTAMP()</codeph> function also allows a numeric timezone offset to be
      specified as part of the input string. See
      <xref
        href="impala_datetime_functions.xml#datetime_functions"/> for details.
    </p>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/y2k38"/>

    <p>
      <b>Partitioning:</b>
    </p>

    <p>
      Although you cannot use a <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> column as a partition key, you can
      extract the individual years, months, days, hours, and so on and partition based on those
      columns. Because the partition key column values are represented in HDFS directory names,
      rather than as fields in the data files themselves, you can also keep the original
      <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values if desired, without duplicating data or wasting storage
      space. See <xref
        href="impala_partitioning.xml#partition_key_columns"/> for more
      details on partitioning with date and time values.
    </p>

<codeblock>[localhost:21000] &gt; create table timeline (event string) partitioned by (happened timestamp);
ERROR: AnalysisException: Type 'TIMESTAMP' is not supported as partition-column type in column: happened
</codeblock>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/null_bad_timestamp_cast"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/hbase_ok"/>

    <p>
      <b>Parquet consideration:</b> <codeph>INT96</codeph> encoded Parquet timestamps are
      supported in Impala. <codeph>INT64</codeph> timestamps are supported in
      <keyword
        keyref="impala32"/> and higher.
    </p>

    <p/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/parquet_ok"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/text_bulky"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/column_stats_constant"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/sqoop_blurb" audience="hidden"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/sqoop_timestamp_caveat"
      audience="hidden"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/kudu_blurb"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/kudu_timestamp_details"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/restrictions_blurb"/>

    <p>
      If you cast a <codeph>STRING</codeph> with an unrecognized format to a
      <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph>, the result is <codeph>NULL</codeph> rather than an error. Make
      sure to test your data pipeline to be sure any textual date and time values are in a
      format that Impala <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> can recognize.
    </p>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/avro_no_timestamp"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/example_blurb"/>

    <p>
      The following examples demonstrate using <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values with built-in
      functions:
    </p>

<codeblock>select cast('1966-07-30' as timestamp);
select cast('1985-09-25 17:45:30.005' as timestamp);
select cast('08:30:00' as timestamp);
select hour('1970-01-01 15:30:00');         -- Succeeds, returns 15.
select hour('1970-01-01 15:30');            -- Returns NULL because seconds field required.
select hour('1970-01-01 27:30:00');         -- Returns NULL because hour value out of range.
select dayofweek('2004-06-13');             -- Returns 1, representing Sunday.
select dayname('2004-06-13');               -- Returns 'Sunday'.
select date_add('2004-06-13', 365);         -- Returns 2005-06-13 with zeros for hh:mm:ss fields.
select day('2004-06-13');                   -- Returns 13.
select datediff('1989-12-31','1984-09-01'); -- How many days between these 2 dates?
select now();                               -- Returns current date and time in local timezone.
</codeblock>

    <p>
      The following examples demonstrate using <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values with
      HDFS-backed tables:
    </p>

<codeblock>create table dates_and_times (t timestamp);
insert into dates_and_times values
  ('1966-07-30'), ('1985-09-25 17:45:30.005'), ('08:30:00'), (now());
</codeblock>

    <p rev="IMPALA-5137">
      The following examples demonstrate using <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> values with Kudu
      tables:
    </p>

<codeblock rev="IMPALA-5137">create table timestamp_t (x int primary key, s string, t timestamp, b bigint)
  partition by hash (x) partitions 16
  stored as kudu;

-- The default value of now() has microsecond precision, so the final 3 digits
-- representing nanoseconds are all zero.
insert into timestamp_t values (1, cast(now() as string), now(), unix_timestamp(now()));

-- Values with 1-499 nanoseconds are rounded down in the Kudu TIMESTAMP column.
insert into timestamp_t values (2, cast(now() + interval 100 nanoseconds as string), now() + interval 100 nanoseconds, unix_timestamp(now() + interval 100 nanoseconds));
insert into timestamp_t values (3, cast(now() + interval 499 nanoseconds as string), now() + interval 499 nanoseconds, unix_timestamp(now() + interval 499 nanoseconds));

-- Values with 500-999 nanoseconds are rounded up in the Kudu TIMESTAMP column.
insert into timestamp_t values (4, cast(now() + interval 500 nanoseconds as string), now() + interval 500 nanoseconds, unix_timestamp(now() + interval 500 nanoseconds));
insert into timestamp_t values (5, cast(now() + interval 501 nanoseconds as string), now() + interval 501 nanoseconds, unix_timestamp(now() + interval 501 nanoseconds));

-- The string representation shows how underlying Impala TIMESTAMP can have nanosecond precision.
-- The TIMESTAMP column shows how timestamps in a Kudu table are rounded to microsecond precision.
-- The BIGINT column represents seconds past the epoch and so if not affected much by nanoseconds.
select s, t, b from timestamp_t order by t;
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+------------+
| s                             | t                             | b          |
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+------------+
| 2017-05-31 15:30:05.107157000 | 2017-05-31 15:30:05.107157000 | 1496244605 |
| 2017-05-31 15:30:28.868151100 | 2017-05-31 15:30:28.868151000 | 1496244628 |
| 2017-05-31 15:34:33.674692499 | 2017-05-31 15:34:33.674692000 | 1496244873 |
| 2017-05-31 15:35:04.769166500 | 2017-05-31 15:35:04.769167000 | 1496244904 |
| 2017-05-31 15:35:33.033082501 | 2017-05-31 15:35:33.033083000 | 1496244933 |
+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+------------+
</codeblock>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/added_forever"/>

    <p conref="../shared/impala_common.xml#common/related_info"/>

    <ul>
      <li>
        <xref href="impala_literals.xml#timestamp_literals"/>.
      </li>

      <li>
        To convert to or from different date formats, or perform date arithmetic, use the date
        and time functions described in
        <xref
          href="impala_datetime_functions.xml#datetime_functions"/>. In
        particular, the <codeph>from_unixtime()</codeph> function requires a case-sensitive
        format string such as <codeph>"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSS"</codeph>, matching one of the
        allowed variations of a <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> value (date plus time, only date,
        only time, optional fractional seconds).
      </li>

      <li>
        See <xref href="impala_langref_unsupported.xml#langref_hiveql_delta"
        /> for
        details about differences in <codeph>TIMESTAMP</codeph> handling between Impala and
        Hive.
      </li>
    </ul>

  </conbody>

</concept>