Type class

Type represents the type of data that is written to, read from, or stored in Bigtable.

It is heavily based on the GoogleSQL standard to help maintain familiarity and consistency across products and features. For compatibility with Bigtable's existing untyped APIs, each Type includes an Encoding which describes how to convert to/from the underlying data. This might involve composing a series of steps into an "encoding chain," for example to convert from INT64 -> STRING -> raw bytes. In most cases, a "link" in the encoding chain will be based an on existing GoogleSQL conversion function like CAST. Each link in the encoding chain also defines the following properties: * Natural sort: Does the encoded value sort consistently with the original typed value? Note that Bigtable will always sort data based on the raw encoded value, not the decoded type. - Example: BYTES values sort in the same order as their raw encodings. - Counterexample: Encoding INT64 to a fixed-width STRING does not preserve sort order when dealing with negative numbers. INT64(1) > INT64(-1), but STRING("-00001") > STRING("00001). - The overall encoding chain has this property if every link does. * Self-delimiting: If we concatenate two encoded values, can we always tell where the first one ends and the second one begins? - Example: If we encode INT64s to fixed-width STRINGs, the first value will always contain exactly N digits, possibly preceded by a sign. - Counterexample: If we concatenate two UTF-8 encoded STRINGs, we have no way to tell where the first one ends. - The overall encoding chain has this property if any link does. * Compatibility: Which other systems have matching encoding schemes? For example, does this encoding have a GoogleSQL equivalent? HBase? Java?

Constructors

Properties

Methods

Operators

v2 library