Data types are used in config files to help validate data and ensure your Cortex application is functioning as expected.

Raw Column Types

These are the valid types for raw columns:

• INT_COLUMN

• FLOAT_COLUMN

• STRING_COLUMN

Transformed Column Types

These are the valid types for transformed columns (i.e. output types of transformers):

• INT_COLUMN

• FLOAT_COLUMN

• STRING_COLUMN

• INT_LIST_COLUMN

• FLOAT_LIST_COLUMN

• STRING_LIST_COLUMN

Input Column Types

Some resources specify the types of columns that are to be used as inputs (e.g. transformer.inputs.columns and aggregator.inputs.columns). For these types, any of the column types may be used:

• INT_COLUMN

• FLOAT_COLUMN

• STRING_COLUMN

• INT_LIST_COLUMN

• FLOAT_LIST_COLUMN

• STRING_LIST_COLUMN

Ambiguous input types are also supported, and are represented by joining column types with |. For example, INT_COLUMN|FLOAT_COLUMN indicates that either a column of type INT_COLUMN or a column of type FLOAT_COLUMN may be used an the input. Any two or more column types may be combined in this way (e.g. INT_COLUMN|FLOAT_COLUMN|STRING_COLUMN is supported). All permutations of ambiguous types are valid (e.g. INT_COLUMN|FLOAT_COLUMN and FLOAT_COLUMN|INT_COLUMN are equivalent).

In addition, an input type may be a list of columns. To denote this, use any of the supported input column types in a length-one list. For example, [INT_COLUMN] represents a list of integer columns; [INT_COLUMN|FLOAT_COLUMN] represents a list of integer or float columns.

Note: [INT_COLUMN] is not equivalent to INT_LIST_COLUMN: the former denotes a list of integer columns, whereas the latter denotes a single column which contains a list of integers.

Value types

These are valid types for all values (e.g. aggregator args, aggregator output types, transformer args, constants).

• INT

• FLOAT

• STRING

• BOOL

As with column input types, ambiguous types are supported (e.g. INT|FLOAT), length-one lists of types are valid (e.g. [STRING]), and all permutations of ambiguous types are valid (e.g. INT|FLOAT is equivalent to FLOAT|INT).

In addition, maps are valid value types. There are two types of maps: maps with a single data type key, and maps with any number of arbitrary keys:

Maps with a single data type key

This represents a map which, at runtime, may have any number of items. The types of the keys and values must match the declared types.

Example: {STRING: INT}

Example value: {"San Francisco": -7, "Toronto": -4}

Maps with arbitrary keys

This represents a map which, at runtime, must define values for each of the pre-defined keys.

Example: {"value1": INT, "value2": FLOAT}

Example value: {"value1": 17, "value2": 8.8}

Nested maps

The values in either of the map types may be arbitrarily nested data types.

Examples

• INT

• [FLOAT|STRING]

• {STRING: INT}

• {"value1": INT, "value2": FLOAT}

• {"value1": {STRING: BOOL|INT}, "value2": [FLOAT], "value2": STRING}