A hive table consists the following: 1. metadata info (all table and column definitions and HDFS location) 2. actual HDFS data stored in HDFS If you delete a managed table, both 1 and 2 will be deleted. However, if you delete an external table, then only 1 will be deleted, meaning, the table reference will be removed in Hive's backend database (show tables will not return the table and you can't query the table any more). The underlining HDFS file will remain on HDFS path untouched. To confirm this, you can check where the backend database is stored. If it is mysql, simply login and check the table under TBLS and check if you can query the table (mysql table, not hive table): SELECT * FROM TBLS WHERE TBL_NAME = "{your_table_name}"; Hope above helps.
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