Windowing in Hive

Windowing in Hive allows an analyst to create a window of data to operate aggregation and other analytical functions, such as LEAD and LAG.

The windowing specification in HiveQL comprises:

  • Partition
  • Order by
  • Window frame
  • Source name for window definition

Let's look into each of these specifications in detail:

  • Partition specification: It includes a column reference from the table. It could not be any aggregation or other window specification.
  • Order specification: It comprises a combination of one or more columns. The ordering could be ASC or DESC, which by default is ASC.

    Handling NULLs: There is no support for Nulls first or last specification. In Hive, Nulls are returned first.

  • Window frame: A frame has a start boundary and an optional ...

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