---
layout: global
title: CREATE HIVEFORMAT TABLE
displayTitle: CREATE HIVEFORMAT TABLE
license: |
  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 
     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 
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  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  limitations under the License.
---
### Description

The `CREATE TABLE` statement defines a new table using Hive format.

### Syntax
{% highlight sql %}
CREATE [ EXTERNAL ] TABLE [ IF NOT EXISTS ] table_identifier
  [ ( col_name1[:] col_type1 [ COMMENT col_comment1 ], ... ) ]
  [ COMMENT table_comment ]
  [ PARTITIONED BY ( col_name2[:] col_type2 [ COMMENT col_comment2 ], ... ) 
      | ( col_name1, col_name2, ... ) ]
  [ ROW FORMAT row_format ]
  [ STORED AS file_format ]
  [ LOCATION path ]
  [ TBLPROPERTIES ( key1=val1, key2=val2, ... ) ]
  [ AS select_statement ]

{% endhighlight %}

### Parameters

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>table_identifier</em></code></dt>
  <dd>
    Specifies a table name, which may be optionally qualified with a database name.<br><br>
    <b>Syntax:</b>
      <code>
        [ database_name. ] table_name
      </code>
  </dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>EXTERNAL</em></code></dt>
  <dd>Table is defined using the path provided as LOCATION, does not use default location for this table.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>PARTITIONED BY</em></code></dt>
  <dd>Partitions are created on the table, based on the columns specified.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>ROW FORMAT</em></code></dt>
  <dd>SERDE is used to specify a custom SerDe or the DELIMITED clause in order to use the native SerDe.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>STORED AS</em></code></dt>
    <dd>File format for table storage, could be TEXTFILE, ORC, PARQUET,etc.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>LOCATION</em></code></dt>
  <dd>Path to the directory where table data is stored, Path to the directory where table data is stored, which could be a path on distributed storage like HDFS, etc.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>COMMENT</em></code></dt>
  <dd>Table comments are added.</dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>TBLPROPERTIES</em></code></dt>
  <dd>
	Table properties that have to be set are specified, such as `created.by.user`, `owner`, etc.
  </dd>
</dl>

<dl>
  <dt><code><em>AS select_statement</em></code></dt>
  <dd>The table is populated using the data from the select statement.</dd>
</dl>


### Examples
{% highlight sql %}

--Using Comment and loading data from another table into the created table
CREATE TABLE StudentInfo
  COMMENT 'Table is created using existing data'
  AS SELECT * FROM Student;

--Partitioned table
CREATE TABLE Student (Id INT,name STRING)
  PARTITIONED BY (age INT)
  TBLPROPERTIES ('owner'='xxxx');

CREATE TABLE Student (Id INT,name STRING,age INT)
  PARTITIONED BY (name,age);

--Using Row Format and file format
CREATE TABLE Student (Id INT,name STRING)
  ROW FORMAT DELIMITED FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
  STORED AS TEXTFILE;

{% endhighlight %}


### Related Statements
* [CREATE TABLE USING DATASOURCE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-create-table-datasource.html)
* [CREATE TABLE LIKE](sql-ref-syntax-ddl-create-table-like.html)