IMPALA float vs double fraction part usage

[#1]

Hi All,

   When I use datatype float VS double I see that when data is ingested with n digit precision in fraction part ex (2.57) , subsequent query output returns 2.5 59999942779541  for float whereas it result exact 2 digit precision for float as shown in example below.  Is there a way we can achieve similar behavior of double for float.

 Problem with float is we need to roundoff the output value explicitly when using in different applications.

[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] > create table parquet_table_name (x float, y float) STORED AS PARQUET;

[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] > insert into TABLE test values(2.56,2.57);
Query: insert into TABLE test values(2.56,2.57)
Query submitted at: 2019-04-08 09:56:00 (Coordinator: https://hadoop-data-0:25000)
Query progress can be monitored at: https://hadoop-data-0:25000/query_plan?query_id=634a267b54e95cc1:2f111d6300000000
Modified 1 row(s) in 17.34s
[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] >
[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] >
[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] > select * from test;
Query: select * from test
Query submitted at: 2019-04-08 09:56:25 (Coordinator: https://hadoop-data-0:25000)
Query progress can be monitored at: https://hadoop-data-0:25000/query_plan?query_id=cf4731ca88960669:972a651a00000000
+-------------------+------+
| x | y |
+-------------------+------+
|2.5 59999942779541 | 2.57 |

+-------------------+------+
Fetched 1 row(s) in 2.52s
[hadoop-data.default.svc.cluster.local:21000] >

Thanks,

Raju

[#2]

If you want exact precision to a number of decimal digits, I'd recommend using the DECIMAL data type. Floating point can't exactly represent decimal numbers.

If you're returning a floating point type from a query, then you don't have any real control over the display because it's basically a client-side formatting decision.E.g. your Java code that uses the JDBC drive could take the value and format it however it wants. You *might* be able to get the desired behaviour in impala-shell by using the round() function but that depends on some undocumented behaviour. I'd recommend looking at decimal.