Java and Vertica data types

The Vertica Java SDK converts Vertica's native data types into the appropriate Java data type. The following table lists the Vertica data types and their corresponding Java data types.

Setting BINARY, VARBINARY, and LONG VARBINARY values

The Vertica BINARY, VARBINARY, and LONG VARBINARY data types are converted as the Java UDx SDK 's VString class. You can also set the value of a column with one of these data types with a ByteBuffer object (or a byte array wrapped in a ByteBuffer) using the PartitionWriter.setStringBytes() method. See the Java API UDx entry for PartitionWriter.setStringBytes() for more information.

Timestamps and time zones

When the SDK converts a Vertica timestamp into a Java timestamp, it uses the time zone of the JVM. If the JVM is running in a different time zone than the one used by Vertica, the results can be confusing.

Vertica stores timestamps in the database in UTC. (If a database time zone is set, the conversion is done at query time.) To prevent errors from the JVM time zone, add the following code to the processing method of your UDx:

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

Strings

The Java SDK contains a class named StringUtils that assists you when manipulating string data. One of its more useful features is its getStringBytes() method. This method extracts bytes from a String in a way that prevents the creation of invalid strings. If you attempt to extract a substring that would split part of a multi-byte UTF-8 character, getStringBytes() truncates it to the nearest whole character.