A MAP type can be created using the syntax MAP<type, type>. For example MAP<VARCHAR, INT> is a map from strings to integers.

In CREATE TABLE and CREATE TYPE declarations there is no way to specify the nullability of the values of a MAP. The compiler will always assume that map keys are not nullable, while values elements are nullable:

CREATE TABLE T(m MAP<VARCHAR, INT>);

Table T will have a single column m whose values are nullable maps, the map's keys are non-nullable VARCHAR values, while the maps's values are nullable INT values.

Map literals have the syntax MAP[key , value ( , key , value )* ]. Here is an example: SELECT MAP['hi',2].

Comparison operations (=, <>, !=, >, <, >=, <=) can be applied to maps and work as follows:

1. The keys are first sorted lexicographically.
2. If the keys are not equal, the result is determined by their lexicographical order.
3. If the keys are equal, their corresponding values are compared next.
4. If the values are also equal, the comparison moves to the next key-value pair until a difference is found.

1. Given a table T with columns c1 = MAP['v', 11, 'q', 66] and c2 = MAP['v': 22]:

   • SELECT c1 FROM T WHERE c1 < c2; returns:
     • MAP['q', 66, 'v', 11]

2. Given two maps where previously compared key-value pairs are equal, such as:

   • MAP['f', 1, 'v', 0] and MAP['f': 1]
   • The map with more elements, MAP['f', 1, 'v', 0], is considered larger.