Location not empty but not a Delta table

[Distributed_Com]

I need help or insight regarding the following errors. My instructors (Brooke Wenig with Conor Murphy) ran this code successfully on our course video, but I cannot replicate what she did.

Here is the code and below it is the outcome from my Coursera course, workspace section 4.5 notebook:

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS Databricks;

USE Databricks;

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS fireCallsDelta;

CREATE TABLE fireCallsDelta

USING DELTA

PARTITIONED BY (City)

AS 

 SELECT * FROM fireCallsParquet

(3) Spark Jobs

• Job 3 View(Stages: 1/1)
• Job 4 View(Stages: 1/1, 1 skipped)
• Job 5 View(Stages: 1/1, 2 skipped)

Error in SQL statement: AnalysisException: Cannot create table ('`spark_catalog`.`databricks`.`fireCallsDelta`'). The associated location ('dbfs:/user/hive/warehouse/databricks.db/firecallsdelta') is not empty but it's not a Delta table

[dennyglee · Accepted solution]

The `fireCallsDelta` table already exists, and it appears it was created as a PARQUET table. A couple of options:

1. DELETE the original Parquet table as a separate statement (i.e., in a separate cell so it can complete itself before any other jobs executing)
2. Rename the table to something else if perhaps others are running the same demo.

[Distributed_Com]

Thanks. Renaming table as you suggested allowed the query to run successfully.

[Kaniz]

Hi @Dave French​, We haven’t heard from you since the last response from @Denny Lee​ , and I was checking back to see if you have a resolution yet.

If you have any solution, please share it with the community as it can be helpful to others. Otherwise, we will respond with more details and try to help.

Also, Please don't forget to click on the "Select As Best" button whenever the information provided helps resolve your question.

[Distributed_Com]

Done. Thanks.

[Kaniz]

Thank you @Dave French​ ! Keep Learning.

[gilo12]

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DELETE the original Parquet table as a separate statement

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How can this be done? simple query "DROP TABLE .... " still failing with "cannot be found"