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anjel
anjel
Gold ⭐️
December 15, 2022
Solved

HIVE table/column description does not display in Power BI

Hi Community,

 

I'd like to know if it's possible to display a table or column description from Power BI that is connected to Hive using ODBC driver?

 

Issue is following: I set a comment in a Hive table and on its columns and I would expect that these are loaded and visible as "Description" fields from external tools (like Power BI).

 

For example:

create table mytable1(mycol1 string comment 'column description') stored as ORC TBLPROPERTIES('comment' = 'table description');

 

I would expect that when Power BI accesses this table, it would retrieve these comments as descriptions of the table/column, but the "Description" fields are all 'null'.

 

Note that these table/column descriptions are visible from HUE.

 

Thanks in advance for your anwsers.

anjel
anjelAnswer
Gold ⭐️
March 11, 2023

Hi and sorry for the late update,

A correction has officially been delivered within version 2.6.15 of the Cloudera ODBC Hive Driver; excerpt from the Release Notes :

[00416069] [HAR-1323] The REMARKS column of the tables metadata does not
populate with comments.

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10 replies

smruti
Gold ⭐️⭐️⭐️
smruti
Gold ⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 19, 2022

@anjel could you share the query you are running from Hue or powerbi that you expect to return column/table comments?

 

Does describe <table> not return the column comments in powerBI? What's the JDBC/ODBC driver version you are using and is it shared by Cloudera?

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anjel
anjelAuthor
Gold ⭐️
January 3, 2023

Hi @smruti,

And thanks for your reply. Sorry for my late answer but I was out of office.

I don't know precisely how Power BI (i.e. the driver) is supposed to extract the column or table description, either from a "describe" or from sys.columns_v2 table (for example); this is an internal mechanism not a request that I'm executing.

I tried the ClouderaHive_ODBC_2.6.13.1013 driver version as well as the "Hive LLAP" driver included within Power BI.

On Hue, I'm using the "Table Browser" that displays the table/column descriptions correctly and here is a screenshot:

 

HueTableDescription.jpg

And here is a Power BI Query editor screenshot, where the table Description field is "null":

 

PowerBI.jpg

 

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smruti
Gold ⭐️⭐️⭐️
smruti
Gold ⭐️⭐️⭐️
January 3, 2023

@anjel Power BI does not have a native Hive connector. I guess you could only connect using an ODBC connector. I just tried listing a table using DbVisualizer, and and it shows the column comments as REMARKS. 

Screenshot 2023-01-03 at 4.52.05 PM.png

So, I would say it is specific to the Hive client(Power BI)

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VidyaSargur
Community Manager
VidyaSargur
Community Manager
January 2, 2023

@anjel, Has the reply helped resolve your issue? If so, please mark the appropriate reply as the solution, as it will make it easier for others to find the answer in the future.  

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Regards, Vidya Sargur, Community Manager Was your question answered? Make sure to mark the answer as the accepted solution. If you find a reply useful, say thanks by clicking on the thumbs up button.
anjel
anjelAuthor
Gold ⭐️
January 3, 2023

Hi Vidya, no solution yet.

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anjel
anjelAuthorAnswer
Gold ⭐️
March 11, 2023

Hi and sorry for the late update,

A correction has officially been delivered within version 2.6.15 of the Cloudera ODBC Hive Driver; excerpt from the Release Notes :

[00416069] [HAR-1323] The REMARKS column of the tables metadata does not
populate with comments.

Translate
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