Data types

JSON and Avro complex types

The JSON and Avro parsers now support complex types with strong typing. This support is in addition to flexible complex types that use a VMap (LONG VARBINARY) column to hold complex types. For details, see JSON data and Avro data.

This change does not include KafkaAvroParser.

Casting complex types

Vertica now supports casting structs (the ROW type) and non-native arrays. When casting a ROW, you can change the names of the fields. When casting an array, you can change the bounds. When casting to a bounded native array, inputs that are too long are truncated. When casting to a non-native array (an array containing complex data types including other arrays), if the new bounds are too small for the data the cast fails.