Literals

  • Article

A literal (also known as a constant) represents a fixed data value.

String literals

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 \). To represent unicode characters, use 16-bit or 32-bit unicode escape of the form \uxxxx or \Uxxxxxxxx, where xxxx and xxxxxxxx are 16-bit and 32-bit code points in hexadecimal respectively (e.g., \u3042 for あ and \U0001F44D for πŸ‘).

Examples

SELECT 'Hello, World!' AS col;

+-------------+
|          col|
+-------------+
|Hello, World!|
+-------------+
```sql
SELECT "Spark SQL" AS col;

+-------------+
|          col|
+-------------+
|Spark SQL    |
+-------------+

SELECT 'it\'s $10.' AS col;

+---------+
|      col|
+---------+
|It's $10.|
+---------+

Binary literals

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 literals

A null literal is used to specify a null value.

Syntax

NULL

Examples

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

Boolean literals

A Boolean literal is used to specify a Boolean value.

Syntax

TRUE | FALSE

Examples

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

Numeric literals

A numeric literal is used to specify a fixed or floating-point number. There are two kinds of numeric literals: integral literal and fractional literal.

Integral Literal Syntax

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

Integral Literal 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.

Integral Literal 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 }

  • Float literals:

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

where decimal_digits is defined as

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

and exponent is defined as E [ + | - ] digit [ ... ].

Fractional Literals Parameters

  • digit: Any numeral from 0 to 9.
  • D: Case insensitive, indicates DOUBLE, which is an 8-byte double-precision floating point number.
  • F: Case insensitive, indicates FLOAT, which is a 4-byte single-precision floating point number.
  • F: Case insensitive, indicates FLOAT, which is a 4-byte single-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.

Fractional Literals 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 literals

A datetime literal is used to specify a datetime or timestamp value.

Date Syntax

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

Note

If you don’t specify month or day, defaults to 01.

Date 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 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

If you don’t specify hour, minute, or second, defaults to 00.

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>, for example, Europe/Paris.

Note

If you don’t specify zone_id, defaults to the session local timezone (set using spark.sql.session.timeZone).

Timestamp 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. The interval literal supports two syntaxes: ANSI syntax and multi-units syntax.

ANSI Syntax

The ANSI SQL standard defines interval literals in the form:

INTERVAL [ <sign> ] <interval string> <interval qualifier>

where <interval qualifier> can be a single field or in the field-to-field form:

<interval qualifier> ::= <start field> TO <end field> | <single field>

The field name is case-insensitive, and can be one of YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND. An interval literal can have either year-month or day-time interval type. The interval sub-type defines format of <interval string>:

<interval string> ::= <quote> [ <sign> ] { <year-month literal> | <day-time literal> } <quote>

<year-month literal> ::= <years value> [ <minus sign> <months value> ] | <months value>

<day-time literal> ::= <day-time interval> | <time interval>

<day-time interval> ::= <days value> [ <space> <hours value> [ <colon> <minutes value> [ <colon> <seconds value> ] ] ]

<time interval> ::= <hours value> [ <colon> <minutes value> [ <colon> <seconds value> ] ] | <minutes value> [ <colon> <seconds value> ] | <seconds value>

Supported year-month interval literals and theirs formats:

|<interval qualifier>|Interval string pattern|An instance of the literal| |β€”β€”β€”|β€”β€”-|β€”β€”β€”β€”| |YEAR|[+|-]'[+|-]y'|INTERVAL -'2021' YEAR| |YEAR TO MONTH|[+|-]'[+|-]y-m'|INTERVAL '-2021-07' YEAR TO MONTH| |MONTH|[+|-]'[+|-]m'|interval '10' month| Formats of supported day-time interval literals: |<interval qualifier>|Interval string pattern|An instance of the literal| |β€”β€”β€”|β€”-|β€”β€”β€”β€”β€”β€”-| |DAY|[+|-]'[+|-]d'|INTERVAL -'100' DAY| |DAY TO HOUR|[+|-]'[+|-]d h'|INTERVAL '-100 10' DAY TO HOUR| |DAY TO MINUTE|[+|-]'[+|-]d h:m'|INTERVAL '100 10:30' DAY TO MINUTE| |DAY TO SECOND|[+|-]'[+|-]d h:m:s.n'|INTERVAL '100 10:30:40.999999' DAY TO SECOND| |HOUR|[+|-]'[+|-]h'|INTERVAL '123' HOUR| |HOUR TO MINUTE|[+|-]'[+|-]h:m'|INTERVAL -'-123:10' HOUR TO MINUTE| |HOUR TO SECOND|[+|-]'[+|-]h:m:s.n'|INTERVAL '123:10:59' HOUR TO SECOND| |MINUTE|[+|-]'[+|-]m'|interval '1000' minute| |MINUTE TO SECOND|[+|-]'[+|-]m:s.n'|INTERVAL '1000:01.001' MINUTE TO SECOND| |SECOND|[+|-]'[+|-]s.n'|INTERVAL '1000.000001' SECOND|

ANSI Examples

SELECT INTERVAL '2-3' YEAR TO MONTH AS col;
+----------------------------+
|col                         |
+----------------------------+
|INTERVAL '2-3' YEAR TO MONTH|
+----------------------------+
SELECT INTERVAL -'20 15:40:32.99899999' DAY TO SECOND AS col;
+--------------------------------------------+
|col                                         |
+--------------------------------------------+
|INTERVAL '-20 15:40:32.998999' DAY TO SECOND|
+--------------------------------------------+

Multi-units Syntax

INTERVAL interval_value interval_unit [ interval_value interval_unit ... ] |

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

Multi-units Parameters

  • interval_value

    Syntax:

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

  • interval_unit

    Syntax:

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

Mix of the YEAR[S] or MONTH[S] interval units with other units is not allowed.

Multi-units 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|
+-----------------------------------------------------------+