Cloudera Docs

Query metadata tables feature

From Hive and Impala, you can query Iceberg metadata tables as you would query a Hive table. For example, you can use projections, joins, filters, and so on.

The following Iceberg metadata tables are available from Hive and Impala:
  • entries
  • files
  • manifests
  • partitions
  • snapshots
The following additional Iceberg metadata tables are available from Impala:
  • history
  • all_data_files
  • all_entries
  • all_manifests

For more information about querying Iceberg metadata, see the Apache Iceberg Spark documentation.

Hive and Impala Syntax

To reference a metadata table, use the full name of the table as shown in the following syntax: 
<DATABASE_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME>.<METADATA_TABLE_NAME>

Hive and Impala Example

SELECT * FROM default.table_a.files;

Limitations

  • The following types are not supported: ARRAY, MAP, BINARY
  • Nested types are not expanded by default when the you execute a SELECT *.
  • You cannot explore the tables. For example, you cannot list the available metadata tables or describe the tables.