UDF functions not supported error in Unity Catalog

Rewrite UDFs in Python or SQL, otherwise use single user clusters where Java UDFs are supported.

Last published at: September 20th, 2024

Problem

While working in Unity Catalog, you receive an error message indicating that UDF functions are not supported.

UC_COMMAND_NOT_SUPPORTED.WITHOUT_RECOMMENDATION] The command(s): UDF/UDAF functions are not supported in Unity Catalog. SQLSTATE: 0AKUC;

This is expected behavior. Unity Catalog shared clusters do not support Java UDF functions by design.

This limitation is due to architectural differences between Unity Catalog and the standard Hive catalog implementation.

If possible, rewrite the Java UDFs in Python or SQL, as these are supported in Unity Catalog.

If rewriting the UDFs is not feasible, use single-user clusters where Java UDFs are supported.