Literals

A literal (also known as a constant) represents a fixed data value. Spark SQL supports the following literals:

String Literal
Binary Literal
Null Literal
Boolean Literal
Numeric Literal
Datetime Literal
Interval Literal

String Literal

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

Syntax

[ r ] { '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 👍).
r

Case insensitive, indicates RAW. If a string literal starts with r prefix, neither special characters nor unicode characters are escaped by \.

The following escape sequences are recognized in regular string literals (without the r prefix), and replaced according to the following rules:

\0 -> \u0000, unicode character with the code 0;
\b -> \u0008, backspace;
\n -> \u000a, linefeed;
\r -> \u000d, carriage return;
\t -> \u0009, horizontal tab;
\Z -> \u001A, substitute;
\% -> \%;
\_ -> \_;
\<other char> -> <other char>, skip the slash and leave the character as is.

The unescaping rules above can be turned off by setting the SQL config spark.sql.parser.escapedStringLiterals to true.

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.|
+---------+

SELECT r"'\n' represents newline character." AS col;
+----------------------------------+
|                               col|
+----------------------------------+
|'\n' represents newline character.|
+----------------------------------+

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 Literal

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. 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 }

While 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.
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, TYPEOF(12.578) AS type;
+------+------------+
|   col|        type|
+------+------------+
|12.578|decimal(5,3)|
+------+------------+

SELECT 12.578E0 AS col, TYPEOF(12.578E0) AS type;
+------+------+
|   col|  type|
+------+------+
|12.578|double|
+------+------+

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 date or timestamp value.

Date 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.

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: 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.

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
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
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|
+-----------------------------------------------------------+

Spark SQL Guide

Literals

String Literal

Syntax

Parameters

Examples

Binary Literal

Syntax

Parameters

Examples

Null Literal

Syntax

Examples

Boolean Literal

Syntax

Examples

Numeric Literal

Integral Literal Syntax

Integral Literal Parameters

Integral Literal Examples

Fractional Literals Syntax

Fractional Literals Parameters

Fractional Literals Examples

Datetime Literal

Date Syntax

Date Examples

Timestamp Syntax

Timestamp Examples

Interval Literal

ANSI Syntax

ANSI Examples

Multi-units Syntax

Multi-units Parameters

Multi-units Examples