Check, if columns have the same data type

[#1]

Hi All,

I am trying to automatise the testing of the data in Impala. Is there a way to check, if two columns from the different tables have the same data type? Currently we are doing this check manually, by

describe formatted a;

describe formatted b;

but I would like to see result in the way:

select 
case 
when a.type = b.type
then "TRUE"
else "FALSE"
end
from 
(describe formatted x.column1 as type) a,
(describe formatted y.column1 as type) b;

Can you please advise, if there is a way to implement second example? 

Thanks,

Anastasia

[#2]

@laanajar

Just a thought...

For your use case, instead of try that in impala, you login to your metadata database (ex: mysql, postgresql, etc) where all your table name, column name, datatypes are stored 

Ex:

>mysql –u root –p

>use hive;

>show tables; 

Get the Metadata for your table and compare the datatype easily

[#3]

There's no easy way to do this right now unfortunately. I agree it would be great if we exposed table metadata as system tables so you could use SQL to query metadata.