Naming Conventions for Impala

For general information, see SAS Names and Support for DBMS Names.

Most SAS names can be up to 32 characters long. The Impala interface supports table names and column names that contain up to 32 characters. If column names are longer than 32 characters, they are truncated to 32 characters. If truncating a column name would result in identical column names, SAS generates a unique name by replacing the last character with a number. DBMS table names must be 32 characters or less. SAS does not truncate a name longer than 32 characters. If you have a table name that is greater than 32 characters, it is recommended that you create a table view.

Although the PRESERVE_COL_NAMES= and PRESERVE_TAB_NAMES= options are supported for SAS/ACCESS Interface to Impala, you should not need to use them. (For information about these options, see LIBNAME Statement for Relational Databases.) Impala is not case sensitive, so all names default to lowercase.

SAS and Impala objects include tables, views, table references, and columns. They follow these naming conventions.

• A SAS name must be from 1 to 32 characters long. When Impala column names and table names are 32 characters or less, SAS handles them seamlessly. When SAS reads Impala column names that are longer than 32 characters, a generated SAS variable name is truncated to 32 characters. Impala table names should be 32 characters or less because SAS cannot truncate a table reference. If you already have a table name that is greater than 32 characters, create an Impala table view or use the explicit SQL feature of PROC SQL to access the table.
• If truncating would result in identical names, SAS generates a unique name.
• Even when it is enclosed in single or double quotation marks, an Impala name does not retain case sensitivity. Impala table and column names can contain uppercase letters A through Z (A–Z), lowercase letters A through Z (a–z), numbers from 0 to 9, and the underscore (_). Impala converts uppercase characters to lowercase. Therefore, such SAS table references as MYTAB and mytab are synonyms that refer to the same table.
• A name can begin with a letter but not an underscore or a number.
• A name cannot be an Impala reserved word. If a name generates an Impala error, try to append a number or underscore in an appropriate place. For example, if shipped results in an error, try shipped1 or ship_date.

Although the PRESERVE_COL_NAMES= and PRESERVE_TAB_NAMES= options are supported for SAS/ACCESS Interface to Impala, you should not need to use them. (For information about these options, see LIBNAME Option for Relational Databases.)