Big Data Management User Guide

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Complex Functions

A complex function is a type of pre-defined function in which the value of the input or the return type is of a complex data type. The transformation language includes complex functions for array and struct data types. Use complex functions to generate and process hierarchical data.

The following table describes the complex functions for array complex data type:

Complex Function	Description
ARRAY (`element1` [,`element2`] ... )	Generates an array with the specified elements. The data type of the argument determines the data type of the array.
COLLECT_LIST (`value`)	Returns an array with elements in the specified port. The data type of the argument determines the data type of the array. COLLECT_LIST is an aggregate function.
CONCAT_ARRAY (' ', `array_of_strings`)	Concatenates string elements in an array based on a separator that you specify and returns a string.
SIZE (`array`)	Returns the size of the array.

The following table describes the complex functions for struct complex data type:

Complex Function	Description
STRUCT_AS (`type_definition`, `struct`)	Generates a struct with a schema based on the specified complex data type definition and the values you pass as argument.
STRUCT (`element_name1`, `value1`)	Generates a struct with the specified names and values for the elements. The data type of the value is based on the specified value argument.
RESPEC (`type_definition`, `struct`)	Renames each element of the given struct value based on the names of the elements in the specified complex data type definition.
CAST (`type_definition`, `struct`)	Changes the data type and the name of each element for the given struct value based on the corresponding data type and name of the element in the specified complex data type definition.