Complex types

Complex types such as structures (also known as rows), arrays, and maps are composed of primitive types and sometimes other complex types.

Complex types such as structures (also known as rows), arrays, and maps are composed of primitive types and sometimes other complex types. Complex types can be used in the following ways:

  • Arrays and rows (in any combination) can be used as column data types in both native and external tables.

  • Sets of primitive element types can be used as column data types in native and external tables.

  • Arrays and rows, but not combinations of them, can be created as literals, for example to use in query expressions.

The MAP type is a legacy type. To represent maps, use ARRAY[ROW].

If a flex table has a real column that uses a complex type, the values from that column are not included in the __raw__ column. For more information, see Loading Data into Flex Table Real Columns.

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