[jira] [Created] (DRILL-6046) Define semantics of vector metadata

["Paul Rogers (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

Paul Rogers created DRILL-6046:
----------------------------------

             Summary: Define semantics of vector metadata
                 Key: DRILL-6046
                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DRILL-6046
             Project: Apache Drill
          Issue Type: Improvement
    Affects Versions: 1.10.0
            Reporter: Paul Rogers
            Priority: Minor


Vectors provide metadata in the form of the {{MaterializedField}}. This class has evolved in an ad-hoc fashion over time, resulting in inconsistent behavior across vectors. The inconsistent behavior causes bugs and slow development because each vector follows different rules. Consistent behavior would, by contrast, lead to faster development and fewer bugs by reducing the number of variations that code must handle.

Issues include:

* Map vectors, but not lists, can create contents given a list of children in the {{MaterializedField}} passed to the constructor.
* {{MaterializedField}} appears to want to be immutable, but it does allow changing of children. Unions also want to change the list of subtypes, but that is in the immutable {{MajorType}}, causing unions to rebuild and replace its {{MaterializedField}} on addition of a new type. By contrast, maps do not replace the field, they just add children.
* Container vectors (maps, unions, lists) hold references to child {{MaterializedFields}}. But, because unions replace their fields, parents become out of sync since they point to the old, version before the update, causing inconsistent metadata, so that code cannot trust the metadata.
* Lists and maps, but not unions, list their children in the field.
* Nullable types, but not repeated types, include internal vectors in their list of children. 



--
This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA
(v6.4.14#64029)