RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypesAndDefaults

Input	Output	Alias
✔	✗

Description

Similar to the RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypes format, but with an extra byte before each cell that indicates whether the column's DEFAULT value should be used — exactly like in the RowBinaryWithDefaults format. This combination supports schema-evolving INSERTs: the writer can omit columns from the header (they receive the target column's DEFAULT) and, for any column it does send, it can mark individual cells as "use the column's DEFAULT" without conflating that with NULL.

This format is input only.

Wire format

The header is identical to RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypes:

1. A VarUInt with the number of columns N.
2. N length-prefixed Strings with column names.
3. N column types — either textual names or compact binary encoding, controlled by the output_format_binary_encode_types_in_binary_format / input_format_binary_decode_types_in_binary_format settings.

After the header, each row consists of N cells. For each cell:

• A single UInt8 marker byte.
  • 0x01 — use the target column's DEFAULT expression. No value bytes follow.
  • 0x00 — a value follows, serialized via the column type's RowBinary serializer. For Nullable(T) the value bytes start with the Nullable null byte (0 for non-null, 1 for NULL), then the inner value if non-null.

Defaults vs NULL

The per-cell default marker and Nullable's built-in null byte are independent. A Nullable(UInt32) DEFAULT 42 column can be sent three different ways per row:

Bytes	Meaning
01	Use DEFAULT 42.
00 01	Value path, then NULL via the Nullable type.
00 00 …	Value path, then a non-null inner value.

Schema evolution

Case	Behavior
Column missing from the file's header entirely	Filled in the target via insertDefaultsForNotSeenColumns; gated by defaults_for_omitted_fields.
Column present in the header, cell marker 0x01	insertDefault per row.
Column present in the header, cell marker 0x00	Value is parsed normally.
Extra column in the header, not in the target table	Silently dropped when input_format_skip_unknown_fields = 1 (the marker is consumed first; if 0x01, nothing else; if 0x00, the typed value is parsed and discarded).

Example usage

SELECT * FROM format(
    'RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypesAndDefaults',
    'x Nullable(UInt32) DEFAULT 42',
    unhex('01' || '0178' || '10' || hex('Nullable(UInt32)') || '01')
);

┌──x─┐
│ 42 │
└────┘

• The header carries one column named x of type Nullable(UInt32).
• The single cell uses marker 0x01, meaning "use DEFAULT 42".

Format settings

The following settings are common to all RowBinary type formats.

Setting	Description	Default
format_binary_max_string_size	The maximum allowed size for String in RowBinary format.	1GiB
output_format_binary_encode_types_in_binary_format	Allows to write types in header using binary encoding instead of strings with type names in RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypes output format.	false
input_format_binary_decode_types_in_binary_format	Allows to read types in header using binary encoding instead of strings with type names in RowBinaryWithNamesAndTypes input format.	false
output_format_binary_write_json_as_string	Allows to write values of the JSON data type as JSON String values in RowBinary output format.	false
input_format_binary_read_json_as_string	Allows to read values of the JSON data type as JSON String values in RowBinary input format.	false