hbase shell : human readable vs binary keys/values

Question

While exploring my hbase data using hbase shell and scan 'mytable', {LIMIT => 10} , i see that some keys and values are shown in hex e.g. \x00\x00\x00&\x00\x10&\x18\x01\xECGW\x1AW_\x0A\x82.\x94\xC9\xFE>U\xCC while others are human readable strings e.g. file_xyz .

The schema has been defined identically for both tables. Since HBase only has bytes data type, how is it deciding to show the data differently?

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 27 '18 at 07:37

1

If the data contain only ASCII bytes, hbase shell displays a string. See also What are the non-hex characters in HBase Shell RowKey?

answered Aug 27 '18 at 07:37

Harold

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4
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Thanks, now it makes sense. I have been expecting that the complete value will be displayed in hex digits even if some of the digits are out of ASCII space. – Asad Iqbal Aug 27 '18 at 19:29

hbase shell : human readable vs binary keys/values

1 Answers1