Older versions of
Impala did not support complex types in the select list, and therefore a SELECT
* statement only expanded to primitive types even when the table contained complex-typed
columns. Support for complex types in the select list has since been added, but for backward
compatibility the behaviour that "*" expressions skip complex types has been kept as the
default. If the EXPAND_COMPLEX_TYPES query option is set to true, "*" expressions will
include complex types as well.
Note: even if EXPAND_COMPLEX_TYPES is false, complex-typed columns that are listed explicitly in the select list (i.e. not as a "*" expression) will be included in the result.
Type:BOOLEAN
Default:FALSE
Added in:Impala 4.2
Related information: