a quick example of instantiating a hive server for simple tests.

hive_server_standalone

//create a simple server 
HiveConf conf = new HiveConf();
HiveServerHandler server = new HiveServerHandler(conf){};

//create a table
String create = "CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE InputData (code STRING, transaction STRING) ROW FORMAT DELIMTED FIELDS TERMINATED BY '\t' LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' STORED AS TEXTFILE LOCATION '/tmp/myinput.txt' ); ";
;
server.execute(create);

//load data into it
server.execute("LOAD DATA INPATH '<rawInput>' INTO TABLE hive_bigpetstore_etl".replaceAll("<rawInput>", input.toString()));

//exec a mapreduce job to query it
server.execute("select e7 from hive_bigpetstore_etl");