Request of !stablehlo.string type

[qingyunqu]

Request description

Is it possible to add !stablehlo.string type to undertake type like !tf_type.string in tensorflow dialect?

[qingyunqu]

We will lowering !tf_type.string to !stablehlo.string in our custom pipeline. But I need serialization support on this type.
We may also need stablehlo.constant to support DenseStringElements, like:

%0 = stablehlo.constant dense<"abc"> : tensor<3x!stablehlo.string>

[GleasonK]

Can you say more on what happens to these types? Do you intend for there to be stablehlo op support for strings? add / concatenate / etc? Or only need for there to be some serialization support?

If the latter, I'm working on a VHLO interop mode which may satisfy the requirement, allow VHLO and other dialects/types to co-exist.

[qingyunqu]

Can you say more on what happens to these types? Do you intend for there to be stablehlo op support for strings? add / concatenate / etc? Or only need for there to be some serialization support?

If the latter, I'm working on a VHLO interop mode which may satisfy the requirement, allow VHLO and other dialects/types to co-exist.

In our usage, it maybe like:

func.func @main(%arg0: tensor<512x!stablehlo.string>) -> tensor<512xi1> {
    %0 = stablehlo.constant dense<"aaa"> : tensor<512x!stablehlo.string>
    %1 = stablehlo.custom_call @tf.Equal(%arg0, %0) : (tensor<512x!stablehlo.string>, tensor<512x!stablehlo.string>) -> tensor<512xi1>
    return %1 : tensor<512xi1> 
}

We don't need add/concatenate support. Only need serialization support for stablehlo.constant with string type.
For stablehlo.custom_call, it's backward compatibility maintained by oursevles.