jnturton opened a new pull request, #2638: URL: https://github.com/apache/drill/pull/2638
# [DRILL-8136](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/DRILL-8136): Overhaul implict type casting logic ## Description The existing implicit casting system is built on simplistic total ordering of data types[1] that yields oddities such as TINYINT being regarded as the closest numeric type to VARCHAR or DATE the closest type to FLOAT8. This, in turn, hurts the range of data types with which SQL functions can be used. E.g. `select sqrt('3.1415926')` works in many RDBMSes but not in Drill while, confusingly, `select '123' + 456` does work in Drill. In addition the limitations of the existing type precedence list mean that it has been supplmented with ad hoc secondary casting rules that go in the opposite direction. This PR introduces a new, more flexible definition of casting distance based on a weighted directed graph built over the Drill data types. ## Documentation Update [the description of implcit casting precedence](https://drill.apache.org/docs/supported-data-types/#implicit-casting-precedence-of-data-types). ## Testing Existing implcit cast unit tests plus new additions. -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@drill.apache.org For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: us...@infra.apache.org
