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Literals

String Literal​

A string literal is used to specify a character string value.

Syntax​

"char [ ... ]" | "char [ ... ]";

Parameters​

  • char One character from the character set. Use \ to escape special characters (e.g., ' or \).

Examples​

SELECT 'Hello, World!' AS col;
+-------------+
|          col|
+-------------+
|Hello, World!|
+-------------+

SELECT "SPARK SQL" AS col;
+---------+
|      col|
+---------+
|Spark SQL|
+---------+

SELECT 'it\'s $10.' AS col;
+---------+
|      col|
+---------+
|It's $10.|
+---------+

Binary Literal​

A binary literal is used to specify a byte sequence value.

Syntax​

X { 'num [ ... ]' | "num [ ... ]" }

Parameters​

  • num Any hexadecimal number from 0 to F.

Examples​

SELECT X'123456' AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|[12 34 56]|
+----------+

Null Literal​

A null literal is used to specify a null value.

Syntax​

NULL

Examples​

SELECT NULL AS col;
+----+
| col|
+----+
|NULL|
+----+

Boolean​

A boolean literal is used to specify a boolean value.

Syntax​

TRUE | FALSE

Examples​

SELECT TRUE AS col;
+----+
| col|
+----+
|true|
+----+

Numeric Literal​

A numeric literal is used to specify a fixed or floating-point number.

Integral Literal​

Syntax​

[ + | - ] digit [ ... ] [ L | S | Y ]

Parameters​

  • digit Any numeral from 0 to 9.
  • L Case insensitive, indicates BIGINT, which is an 8-byte signed integer number.
  • S Case insensitive, indicates SMALLINT, which is a 2-byte signed integer number.
  • Y Case insensitive, indicates TINYINT, which is a 1-byte signed integer number.
  • default (no postfix) Indicates a 4-byte signed integer number.

Examples​

SELECT -2147483648 AS col;
+-----------+
|        col|
+-----------+
|-2147483648|
+-----------+

SELECT 9223372036854775807l AS col;
+-------------------+
|                col|
+-------------------+
|9223372036854775807|
+-------------------+

SELECT -32Y AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
|-32|
+---+

SELECT 482S AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
|482|
+---+

Fractional Literals​

Syntax​

decimal literals:

decimal_digits { [ BD ] | [ exponent BD ] } | digit [ ... ] [ exponent ] BD

double literals:

decimal_digits  { D | exponent [ D ] }  | digit [ ... ] { exponent [ D ] | [ exponent ] D }

While decimal_digits is defined as

[ + | - ] { digit [ ... ] . [ digit [ ... ] ] | . digit [ ... ] }

and exponent is defined as

E [ + | - ] digit [ ... ]

Parameters​

  • digit Any numeral from 0 to 9.
  • D Case insensitive, indicates DOUBLE, which is an 8-byte double-precision floating point number.
  • BD Case insensitive, indicates DECIMAL, with the total number of digits as precision and the number of digits to right of decimal point as scale.

Examples​

SELECT 12.578 AS col;
+------+
|   col|
+------+
|12.578|
+------+

SELECT -0.1234567 AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|-0.1234567|
+----------+

SELECT -.1234567 AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|-0.1234567|
+----------+

SELECT 123. AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
|123|
+---+

SELECT 123.BD AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
|123|
+---+

SELECT 5E2 AS col;
+-----+
|  col|
+-----+
|500.0|
+-----+

SELECT 5D AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
|5.0|
+---+

SELECT -5BD AS col;
+---+
|col|
+---+
| -5|
+---+

SELECT 12.578e-2d AS col;
+-------+
|    col|
+-------+
|0.12578|
+-------+

SELECT -.1234567E+2BD AS col;
+---------+
|      col|
+---------+
|-12.34567|
+---------+

SELECT +3.e+3 AS col;
+------+
|   col|
+------+
|3000.0|
+------+

SELECT -3.E-3D AS col;
+------+
|   col|
+------+
|-0.003|
+------+

Datetime Literal​

A Datetime literal is used to specify a datetime value.

Date Literal​

Syntax​

DATE { 'yyyy' |
       'yyyy-[m]m' |
       'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d' |
       'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d[T]' }

Note: defaults to 01 if month or day is not specified.

Examples​

SELECT DATE '1997' AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|1997-01-01|
+----------+

SELECT DATE '1997-01' AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|1997-01-01|
+----------+

SELECT DATE '2011-11-11' AS col;
+----------+
|       col|
+----------+
|2011-11-11|
+----------+

Timestamp Literal​

Syntax​

TIMESTAMP { 'yyyy' |
            'yyyy-[m]m' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d ' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d[T][h]h[:]' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d[T][h]h:[m]m[:]' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d[T][h]h:[m]m:[s]s[.]' |
            'yyyy-[m]m-[d]d[T][h]h:[m]m:[s]s.[ms][ms][ms][us][us][us][zone_id]'}

Note: defaults to 00 if hour, minute or second is not specified. zone_id should have one of the forms:

  • Z - Zulu time zone UTC+0
  • +|-[h]h:[m]m
  • An id with one of the prefixes UTC+, UTC-, GMT+, GMT-, UT+ or UT-, and a suffix in the formats:
    • +|-h[h]
    • +|-hh[:]mm
    • +|-hh:mm:ss
    • +|-hhmmss
  • Region-based zone IDs in the form area/city, such as Europe/Paris

Note: defaults to the session local timezone (set via spark.sql.session.timeZone) if zone_id is not specified.

Examples​

SELECT TIMESTAMP '1997-01-31 09:26:56.123' AS col;
+-----------------------+
|                    col|
+-----------------------+
|1997-01-31 09:26:56.123|
+-----------------------+

SELECT TIMESTAMP '1997-01-31 09:26:56.66666666UTC+08:00' AS col;
+--------------------------+
|                      col |
+--------------------------+
|1997-01-30 17:26:56.666666|
+--------------------------+

SELECT TIMESTAMP '1997-01' AS col;
+-------------------+
|                col|
+-------------------+
|1997-01-01 00:00:00|
+-------------------+

Interval Literal​

An interval literal is used to specify a fixed period of time.

INTERVAL interval_value interval_unit [ interval_value interval_unit ... ] |
INTERVAL 'interval_value interval_unit [ interval_value interval_unit ... ]' |
INTERVAL interval_string_value interval_unit TO interval_unit

Parameters​

  • interval_value Syntax:

    [ + | - ] number_value | '[ + | - ] number_value'

  • interval_string_value year-month/day-time interval string.

  • interval_unit Syntax:

    YEAR[S] |
      MONTH[S] |
      WEEK[S] |
      DAY[S] |
      HOUR[S] |
      MINUTE[S] |
      SECOND[S] |
      MILLISECOND[S] |
      MICROSECOND[S];

Examples​

SELECT INTERVAL 3 YEAR AS col;
+-------+
|    col|
+-------+
|3 years|
+-------+

SELECT INTERVAL -2 HOUR '3' MINUTE AS col;
+--------------------+
|                 col|
+--------------------+
|-1 hours -57 minutes|
+--------------------+

SELECT INTERVAL '1 YEAR 2 DAYS 3 HOURS';
+----------------------+
|                   col|
+----------------------+
|1 years 2 days 3 hours|
+----------------------+

SELECT INTERVAL 1 YEARS 2 MONTH 3 WEEK 4 DAYS 5 HOUR 6 MINUTES 7 SECOND 8
    MILLISECOND 9 MICROSECONDS AS col;
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                        col|
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
|1 years 2 months 25 days 5 hours 6 minutes 7.008009 seconds|
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

SELECT INTERVAL '2-3' YEAR TO MONTH AS col;
+----------------+
|             col|
+----------------+
|2 years 3 months|
+----------------+

SELECT INTERVAL '20 15:40:32.99899999' DAY TO SECOND AS col;
+---------------------------------------------+
|                                          col|
+---------------------------------------------+
|20 days 15 hours 40 minutes 32.998999 seconds|
+---------------------------------------------+

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