[SPARK-23525] [SQL] Support ALTER TABLE CHANGE COLUMN COMMENT for external hive table

sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/ddl.scala

@@ -314,8 +314,8 @@ case class AlterTableChangeColumnCommand(
     val resolver = sparkSession.sessionState.conf.resolver
     DDLUtils.verifyAlterTableType(catalog, table, isView = false)
 
-    // Find the origin column from schema by column name.
-    val originColumn = findColumnByName(table.schema, columnName, resolver)
+    // Find the origin column from dataSchema by column name.
+    val originColumn = findColumnByName(table.dataSchema, columnName, resolver)
     // Throw an AnalysisException if the column name/dataType is changed.
     if (!columnEqual(originColumn, newColumn, resolver)) {
       throw new AnalysisException(
@@ -324,16 +324,15 @@ case class AlterTableChangeColumnCommand(
           s"'${newColumn.name}' with type '${newColumn.dataType}'")
     }
 
-    val newSchema = table.schema.fields.map { field =>
+    val newDataSchema = table.dataSchema.fields.map { field =>
       if (field.name == originColumn.name) {
         // Create a new column from the origin column with the new comment.
         addComment(field, newColumn.getComment)
       } else {
         field
       }
     }
-    val newTable = table.copy(schema = StructType(newSchema))
-    catalog.alterTable(newTable)
+    catalog.alterTableDataSchema(tableName, StructType(newDataSchema))
 
     Seq.empty[Row]
   }
@@ -345,7 +344,8 @@ case class AlterTableChangeColumnCommand(
     schema.fields.collectFirst {
       case field if resolver(field.name, name) => field
     }.getOrElse(throw new AnalysisException(
-      s"Invalid column reference '$name', table schema is '${schema}'"))
+      s"Can't find column `$name` given table data columns " +
+        s"${schema.fieldNames.mkString("[`", "`, `", "`]")}"))
   }
 
   // Add the comment to a column, if comment is empty, return the original column.

sql/core/src/test/resources/sql-tests/inputs/change-column.sql

@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ ALTER TABLE global_temp.global_temp_view CHANGE a a INT COMMENT 'this is column
 -- Change column in partition spec (not supported yet)
 CREATE TABLE partition_table(a INT, b STRING, c INT, d STRING) USING parquet PARTITIONED BY (c, d);
 ALTER TABLE partition_table PARTITION (c = 1) CHANGE COLUMN a new_a INT;
+ALTER TABLE partition_table CHANGE COLUMN c c INT COMMENT 'this is column C';
 
 -- DROP TEST TABLE
 DROP TABLE test_change;

sql/core/src/test/resources/sql-tests/results/change-column.sql.out

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 -- Automatically generated by SQLQueryTestSuite
--- Number of queries: 32
+-- Number of queries: 33
 
 
 -- !query 0
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ ALTER TABLE test_change CHANGE invalid_col invalid_col INT
 struct<>
 -- !query 15 output
 org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException
-Invalid column reference 'invalid_col', table schema is 'StructType(StructField(a,IntegerType,true), StructField(b,StringType,true), StructField(c,IntegerType,true))';
+Can't find column `invalid_col` given table data columns [`a`, `b`, `c`];
 
 
 -- !query 16
@@ -291,16 +291,25 @@ ALTER TABLE partition_table PARTITION (c = 1) CHANGE COLUMN a new_a INT
 
 
 -- !query 30
-DROP TABLE test_change
+ALTER TABLE partition_table CHANGE COLUMN c c INT COMMENT 'this is column C'
 -- !query 30 schema
 struct<>
 -- !query 30 output
-
+org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException
+Can't find column `c` given table data columns [`a`, `b`];
 
 
 -- !query 31
-DROP TABLE partition_table
+DROP TABLE test_change
 -- !query 31 schema
 struct<>
 -- !query 31 output
 
+
+
+-- !query 32
+DROP TABLE partition_table
+-- !query 32 schema
+struct<>
+-- !query 32 output
+

sql/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/command/DDLSuite.scala

@@ -1597,6 +1597,7 @@ abstract class DDLSuite extends QueryTest with SQLTestUtils {
     // Ensure that change column will preserve other metadata fields.
     sql("ALTER TABLE dbx.tab1 CHANGE COLUMN col1 col1 INT COMMENT 'this is col1'")
     assert(getMetadata("col1").getString("key") == "value")
+    assert(getMetadata("col1").getString("comment") == "this is col1")
   }
 
   test("drop build-in function") {