public static byte parseByte(byte[] bytes, int start, int length) {
    return parseByte(bytes, start, length, 10);
  }
Parses the string argument as if it was a byte value and returns the
result. Throws NumberFormatException if the string does not represent a
single byte quantity.

@param bytes
@param start
@param length
         a UTF-8 encoded string representation of a single byte quantity.
@return byte the value represented by the argument
@throws NumberFormatException
          if the argument could not be parsed as a byte quantity.
serde/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hive/serde2/lazy/LazyByte.java