Whats the difference between managed and external table?

Question

The main difference between a managed and external table is that when you drop an external table, the underlying data files stay intact. This is because the user is expected to manage the data files and directories. With a managed table, the underlying directories and data get wiped out when the table is dropped.

What is the difference between an external table and a managed table in Hive?

Managed tables are Hive owned tables where the entire lifecycle of the tables' data are managed and controlled by Hive. External tables are tables where Hive has loose coupling with the data. All the write operations to the Managed tables are performed using Hive SQL commands.

How do you know if a table is managed table or external table?

Managed or external tables can be identified using the DESCRIBE FORMATTED table_name command, which will display either MANAGED_TABLE or EXTERNAL_TABLE depending on table type.

What is the benefit of external table in Hive?

External tables are an excellent way to manage data on the Hive since Hive does not have ownership of the data stored inside External tables. In case, if the user drops the External tables then only the metadata of tables will be removed and the data will be safe.

What is external table?

An external table is a table whose data come from flat files stored outside of the database.

Expert · Answer