how to use Sqoop to export data from Hive to a flat file to be picked up by Hive again?

[#1]

Can anyone let me know how to use Sqoop to export data from Hive to a flat file to be picked up by Hive again?

I understand that Sqoop can export data to tables, however I have a scenario where I want to export data into flat files

[#2]

unless you're using orc, the files you use for Hive are in their raw form. You can just browse to /apps/hive/warehouse dir and look at them. No need to use sqoop.

[#3]

Thanks for reply. I'm using orc format

[#4]

@vijaya inturi you can also read orc and output to flat file using pig

A = load ‘student.orc’ using OrcStorage();

Store A into 'file' using PigStorage([options]);

[#5]

@vijaya inturi

You can use this to write into HDFS from existing table

INSERT OVERWRITE DIRECTORY '/path/to/output/dir' SELECT * FROM table

[#6]

Thanks Neeraj. Is there any command to export all the data from the hive database into a flat file?

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks Artem and Neeraj. I just copied the data from /apps/hive/warehouse to a local directory.

Note: Hive data is not necessary located in the folder mentioned above. i.e. external table can be defined anywhere within the HDFS. hive –e “DESCRIBE FORMATTED <tablename>” > <tablename_descformat>.txt;

This command is to collect detail information of tables. The detail information for a table includes column, partition, database it belongs, owner, create time, last access time, protect mode, location, table type, storage information and etc.

[#8]

yes correct, but if table is already external, then I don't see a point in need to sqoop data out of Hive as you can just work with those files directly.

[#9]

also as a good practice, since you achieved the intended result, please accept one of the answers you see fit to close out the thread.