{"id":13130,"date":"2024-03-15T01:57:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T01:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/how-to-view-the-file-format-of-a-table-in-hive\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T11:51:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T11:51:47","slug":"how-to-view-the-file-format-of-a-table-in-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.silicloud.com\/blog\/how-to-view-the-file-format-of-a-table-in-hive\/","title":{"rendered":"Hive Table File Format Check: DESCRIBE FORMATTED"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Hive, you can use the command “DESCRIBE FORMATTED ” to view the file format of a table. The specific steps are as follows:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open the Hive command line terminal or connect to the Hive server using the Hive client.<\/li>\n
  2. Use the following command to view the file format of the table:<\/li>\n
  3. Can you provide a description for the formatted table named ?<\/li>\n
  4. For example, to view the file format of a table named “employees”, you can execute the following command:<\/li>\n
  5. Can you provide a description of the formatted employees?<\/li>\n
  6. After executing the command, detailed information about the table will be displayed, including the file format. Look for the “InputFormat” and “OutputFormat” fields in the output, as they will indicate the table’s file format.<\/li>\n
  7. For example, if the file format is a text file, the “InputFormat” field will display a value like “org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat”. Similarly, the “OutputFormat” field will indicate the output file format.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Please note that by using the DESCRIBE FORMATTED command, you can also obtain additional information about the table, such as column information and storage location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In Hive, you can use the command “DESCRIBE FORMATTED ” to view the file format of a table. The specific steps are as follows: Open the Hive command line terminal or connect to the Hive server using the Hive client. Use the following command to view the file format of the table: Can you provide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1407,9560,17405,6414,17404],"class_list":["post-13130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apache-hive","tag-describe-formatted","tag-hadoop-data-formats","tag-hive-commands","tag-hive-table-format"],"yoast_head":"\nHive Table File Format Check: DESCRIBE FORMATTED - Blog - Silicon Cloud<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Quickly check Hive table file formats using DESCRIBE FORMATTED. 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