Hive: Add columns to existing table

Syntax

ALTER TABLE name ADD COLUMNS (col_spec[, col_spec ...])

Example

ALTER TABLE employee ADD COLUMNS ( 
organization STRING COMMENT 'Organization name in the compay',
age INT COMMENT 'employee age');

Above snippet add two columns to employee table.

a.   organization

b.   age

 

Let’s experiment it with an example.

 

Step 1: Create employee table by executing below command.

CREATE TABLE employee (id INT, name STRING);

hive> CREATE TABLE employee (id INT, name STRING);
OK
Time taken: 0.061 seconds
hive> ;
hive> ;
hive> DESC employee;
OK
id                  	int                 	                    
name                	string              	                    
Time taken: 0.06 seconds, Fetched: 2 row(s)

Let’s add couple of columns to employee table.

 

ALTER TABLE employee ADD COLUMNS ( 
organization STRING COMMENT 'Organization name in the compay',
age INT COMMENT 'employee age');

 

hive> ALTER TABLE employee ADD COLUMNS ( 
    > organization STRING COMMENT 'Organization name in the compay',
    > age INT COMMENT 'employee age');
OK
Time taken: 0.132 seconds
hive> ;
hive> ;
hive> DESC employee;
OK
id                  	int                 	                    
name                	string              	                    
organization        	string              	Organization name in the compay
age                 	int                 	employee age        
Time taken: 0.057 seconds, Fetched: 4 row(s)

 

 

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