Create hive table using "as select" or "like" and also specify delimiter

Is it possible to do a

create table <mytable> as select <query statement>

using

row format delimited fields terminated by '|'; 

or to do a

create table <mytable> like <other_table> row format delimited fields terminated by '|';

The Language Manual seems to indicate not.. but something tickles me I had achieved this in the past.

3 Answers

Create Table as select (CTAS) is possible in Hive.

You can try out below command:

CREATE TABLE new_test row format delimited fields terminated by '|' STORED AS RCFile AS select * from source where col=1 

1. Target cannot be partitioned table.
2. Target cannot be external table.
3. It copies the structure as well as the data

Create table like is also possible in Hive.

1. It just copies the source table definition.

Let's say we have an external table called employee

hive> SHOW CREATE TABLE employee; OK CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE employee( id string, fname string, lname string, salary double) ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde2.lazy.LazySimpleSerDe' WITH SERDEPROPERTIES ( 'colelction.delim'=':', 'field.delim'=',', 'line.delim'='\n', 'serialization.format'=',') STORED AS INPUTFORMAT 'org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat' OUTPUTFORMAT 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.HiveIgnoreKeyTextOutputFormat' LOCATION 'maprfs:/user/hadoop/data/employee' TBLPROPERTIES ( 'COLUMN_STATS_ACCURATE'='false', 'numFiles'='0', 'numRows'='-1', 'rawDataSize'='-1', 'totalSize'='0', 'transient_lastDdlTime'='1487884795') 

1. To create a person table like employee

   CREATE TABLE person LIKE employee;

2. To create a person external table like employee

   CREATE TABLE person LIKE employee LOCATION 'maprfs:/user/hadoop/data/person';

3. then use DESC person; to see the newly created table schema.

Both the answers provided above work fine.

1. CREATE TABLE person AS select * from employee;
2. CREATE TABLE person LIKE employee;