Basic Data Types

Data types are configured within the datatype object using the object type.

"settings": {
   "output_columns": [
        {
            "name": "a_string_column",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "string",
                .........

Basic Types

The following are supported.

TypeIndexedNullableDescriptionStored as
booleanYes (Default)YesConverted to a uint8 prior to storage. The case-insensitive strings "false" or "0" get converted to 0. Any other non-0 value gets converted to 1.uint8
doubleNo (can not be indexed).YesA 64-bit floating-point number.float64
int8Yes (Default)YesA signed 8-bit integer (-128 : 127).int8
int32Yes (Default)YesA signed 32-bit integer (-2147483648 : 2147483647).int32
int64Yes (Default)YesA signed 64-bit integer (-9223372036854775808 : 9223372036854775807).int64
stringYes (Default)YesA variable-length string. Equivalent to VARCHAR or CLOB in other data systems.string
uint8Yes (Default)YesAn unsigned 8-bit integer (0 : 255).uint8
uint32Yes (Default)YesAn unsigned 32-bit integer (0 : 4294967295).uint32
uint64Yes (Default)YesAn unsigned 64-bit integer (0 : 18446744073709551615).uint64

Nullables

Nullables in Hydrolix are not directly defined in the type and instead are defined by the default setting within the datatype object. By default all columns (except primary columns) are nullable, to make a field non-nullable a default is set forcing a value if one is not provided.

It should be noted that the default setting should be appropriate to the type, e.g. setting "" (empty string) for the type uint64 will cause unexpected and likely unwanted behaviours.

📘

Performance, Nulls and Strings

Hydrolix has seen performance improvements in query times if nulls are not required. For example setting a string default set as "" (empty string).

"settings": {
   "output_columns": [
     {
            "name": "nullable_string",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "string",
                "default": null
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "non_nullable_string",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "string",
                "default": ""
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "nullable_uint64",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "uint64",
                "default": null
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "non_nullable_string",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "uint64",
                "default": 0
            }
        },
     ..................

Indexing

Hydrolix has been specifically designed to index by default, without the traditional penalties found in older data platforms. It is therefore strongly suggested that the user should only turn off indexing of a column when absolutely necessary. By default Hydrolix indexes all data types except doubles.

Indexing is turned (on and) off within the data type descriptor in Output Columns.

"settings": {
   "output_columns": [
        {
            "name": "indexed_string_column",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "string",
                "index": true
            }
        },
        {
            "name": "not_indexed_string_column",
            "datatype": {
                "type": "string",
                "index": false
            }
        }
    ]
}