Redshift Python UDFs Varchar limits

Question

I have successfully created a Python UDF that accepts a varchar value from a table and extracts a substring of that value based on a regex.

The max size of that varchar column in the DDL is set to be 20000 bytes, and in some occasions the UDF outputs an error when I try to call it:

ERROR: Value too long for character type

Detail: 
  -----------------------------------------------
  error:  Value too long for character type
  code:      8001
  context:   Value too long for type character varying(256)
  query:     1127608
  location:  funcs_string.hpp:390
  process:   query0_73 [pid=25345]
  -----------------------------------------------

Is the case that the max varchar limit for a UDF input variable is set to 256 bytes? If yes, is this something that I can change in my code?

Thanks,

Answer 1

Turns out that you have to specify the length in your function's parameter if it is more than 256, which is the default value.. So I fixed this using something similar to :

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION f_xxxxxx(val VARCHAR(20000)) RETURNS VARCHAR(20000) 
IMMUTABLE AS $$
<python function here>
$$ LANGUAGE plpythonu;

Answer 2

Are you using Text or nvarchar? Redshift internally does not support these data types and converts them to varchar(256).

More details can be found here