Difference between sqoop arguments: hive-import and create-hive-table

[#1]

Hi,

The sqoop arguments hive-import and create-hive-table, both creates the table as well as imports data. so when to use hive-import and create-hive-table argument ? Is there specific purpose for these arguments ?

[#2]

Hey @heta desai !
The create-hive-table will fail if the table exists, and as the name says it doesn't import any data.
And the hive-import does both (create DDL and import data).
By default the create-hive-table is set to false

If we look into the github apache sqoop:
https://github.com/apache/sqoop/blob/3233db8e1c481e38c538f4caaf55bcbc0c11f208/src/java/org/apache/sq...

  /**
   * @param explicitHiveImport true if the user has an explicit --hive-import
   * available, or false if this is implied by the tool.
   * @return options governing interaction with Hive
   */
  protected RelatedOptions getHiveOptions(boolean explicitHiveImport) {
    RelatedOptions hiveOpts = new RelatedOptions("Hive arguments");
    if (explicitHiveImport) {
      hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
          .withDescription("Import tables into Hive "
          + "(Uses Hive's default delimiters if none are set.)")
          .withLongOpt(HIVE_IMPORT_ARG)
          .create());
    }


    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("dir")
        .hasArg().withDescription("Override $HIVE_HOME")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_HOME_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .withDescription("Overwrite existing data in the Hive table")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_OVERWRITE_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .withDescription("Fail if the target hive table exists")
        .withLongOpt(CREATE_HIVE_TABLE_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("table-name")
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Sets the table name to use when importing to hive")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_TABLE_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("database-name")
      .hasArg()
      .withDescription("Sets the database name to use when importing to hive")
      .withLongOpt(HIVE_DATABASE_ARG)
      .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .withDescription("Drop Hive record \\0x01 and row delimiters "
          + "(\\n\\r) from imported string fields")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_DROP_DELIMS_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Replace Hive record \\0x01 and row delimiters "
            + "(\\n\\r) from imported string fields with user-defined string")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_DELIMS_REPLACEMENT_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("partition-key")
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Sets the partition key to use when importing to hive")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_PARTITION_KEY_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("partition-value")
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Sets the partition value to use when importing "
            + "to hive")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_PARTITION_VALUE_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder.withArgName("hdfs path")
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Sets where the external table is in HDFS")
        .withLongOpt(HIVE_EXTERNAL_TABLE_LOCATION_ARG)
        .create());


    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("Override mapping for specific column to hive"
          + " types.")
        .withLongOpt(MAP_COLUMN_HIVE)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("The URL to the HiveServer2.")
        .withLongOpt(HS2_URL_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("The user/principal for HiveServer2.")
        .withLongOpt(HS2_USER_ARG)
        .create());
    hiveOpts.addOption(OptionBuilder
        .hasArg()
        .withDescription("The location of the keytab of the HiveServer2 user.")
        .withLongOpt(HS2_KEYTAB_ARG)
        .create());


    return hiveOpts;
  }

    return hiveOpts;  }

or in the sqoop user guide:
https://sqoop.apache.org/docs/1.4.2/SqoopUserGuide.html#_importing_data_into_hive

PS: I usually use more the hive-import parameter in my sqoop jobs 🙂

Hope this helps!

[#3]

@Vinicius Higa Murakami

So we can use create-hive-table and hive-import as an alternatives right ?

[#4]

@heta desai

For creating tables yes, but to import data it's hive-import.
Hope this helps! 🙂