[hbase] VOTE: should row keys be less restrictive than hadoop.io.Text?
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Key: HADOOP-2334
URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-2334
Project: Hadoop
Issue Type: Wish
Components: contrib/hbase
Affects Versions: 0.16.0
Reporter: Jim Kellerman
Assignee: Jim Kellerman
Priority: Minor
Fix For: 0.16.0
I have heard from several people that row keys in HBase should be less
restricted than hadoop.io.Text.
What do you think?
At the very least, a row key has to be a WritableComparable. This would lead to
the most general case being either hadoop.io.BytesWritable or
hbase.io.ImmutableBytesWritable. The primary difference between these two
classes is that hadoop.io.BytesWritable by default allocates 100 bytes and if
you do not pay attention to the length, (BytesWritable.getSize()), converting a
String to a BytesWritable and vice versa can become problematic.
hbase.io.ImmutableBytesWritable, in contrast only allocates as many bytes as
you pass in and then does not allow the size to be changed.
If we were to change from Text to a non-text key, my preference would be for
ImmutableBytesWritable, because it has a fixed size once set, and operations
like get, etc do not have to something like System.arrayCopy where you specify
the number of bytes to copy.
Your comments, questions are welcome on this issue. If we receive enough
feedback that Text is too restrictive, we are willing to change it, but we need
to hear what would be the most useful thing to change it to as well.
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