Schema inference feature

From Impala, you can base a new Iceberg table on a schema in a Parquet file.

From Impala, you must omit FILE in the CREATE TABLE LIKE … statement. The column definitions in the Iceberg table are inferred from the Parquet data file when you create a table like Parquet. Set the following table property for creating the table:

hive.parquet.infer.binary.as = <value>

Where <value> is binary (the default) or string.

This property determines the interpretation of the unannotated Parquet binary type. Some systems expect binary to be interpreted as string.

Impala syntax

CREATE TABLE [IF NOT EXISTS] [db_name.]table_name LIKE PARQUET 'object_storage_path_of_parquet_file' 	  
[PARTITIONED BY [SPEC]([col_name][, spec(value)][, spec(value)]...)]]
STORED (AS | BY) ICEBERG
[TBLPROPERTIES (property_name=property_value, ...)]

Impala example

CREATE TABLE ctlf_table LIKE PARQUET 'hdfs://files/schema.parq'
                STORED BY ICEBERG;