Data Types¶

DataFusion uses Arrow, and thus the Arrow type system, for query execution. The SQL types from sqlparser-rs are mapped to Arrow data types according to the following table. This mapping occurs when defining the schema in a CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE command or when performing a SQL CAST operation.

You can see the corresponding Arrow type for any SQL expression using the arrow_typeof function. For example:

select arrow_typeof(interval '1 month');
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| arrow_typeof(IntervalMonthDayNano("79228162514264337593543950336")) |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Interval(MonthDayNano)                                              |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+

You can cast a SQL expression to a specific Arrow type using the arrow_cast function For example, to cast the output of now() to a Timestamp with second precision:

select arrow_cast(now(), 'Timestamp(Second, None)');
+---------------------+
| now()               |
+---------------------+
| 2023-03-03T17:19:21 |
+---------------------+

Character Types¶

SQL DataType	Arrow DataType
`CHAR`	`Utf8`
`VARCHAR`	`Utf8`
`TEXT`	`Utf8`
`STRING`	`Utf8`

Numeric Types¶

SQL DataType	Arrow DataType	Notes
`TINYINT`	`Int8`
`SMALLINT`	`Int16`
`INT` or `INTEGER`	`Int32`
`BIGINT`	`Int64`
`TINYINT UNSIGNED`	`UInt8`
`SMALLINT UNSIGNED`	`UInt16`
`INT UNSIGNED` or `INTEGER UNSIGNED`	`UInt32`
`BIGINT UNSIGNED`	`UInt64`
`FLOAT`	`Float32`
`REAL`	`Float32`
`DOUBLE`	`Float64`
`DECIMAL(precision, scale)`	`Decimal128(precision, scale)`	Decimal support is currently experimental (#3523)

Date/Time Types¶

SQL DataType	Arrow DataType
`DATE`	`Date32`
`TIME`	`Time64(Nanosecond)`
`TIMESTAMP`	`Timestamp(Nanosecond, None)`
`INTERVAL`	`Interval(IntervalMonthDayNano)`

Boolean Types¶

SQL DataType	Arrow DataType
`BOOLEAN`	`Boolean`

Binary Types¶

SQL DataType	Arrow DataType
`BYTEA`	`Binary`

You can create binary literals using a hex string literal such as X'1234 to create a Binary value of two bytes, 0x12 and 0x34.

Unsupported SQL Types¶

SQL Data Type	Arrow DataType
`UUID`	Not yet supported
`BLOB`	Not yet supported
`CLOB`	Not yet supported
`BINARY`	Not yet supported
`VARBINARY`	Not yet supported
`REGCLASS`	Not yet supported
`NVARCHAR`	Not yet supported
`CUSTOM`	Not yet supported
`ARRAY`	Not yet supported
`ENUM`	Not yet supported
`SET`	Not yet supported
`DATETIME`	Not yet supported

Supported Arrow Types¶

The following types are supported by the arrow_typeof function:

Arrow Type
`Null`
`Boolean`
`Int8`
`Int16`
`Int32`
`Int64`
`UInt8`
`UInt16`
`UInt32`
`UInt64`
`Float16`
`Float32`
`Float64`
`Utf8`
`LargeUtf8`
`Binary`
`Timestamp(Second, None)`
`Timestamp(Millisecond, None)`
`Timestamp(Microsecond, None)`
`Timestamp(Nanosecond, None)`
`Time32`
`Time64`
`Duration(Second)`
`Duration(Millisecond)`
`Duration(Microsecond)`
`Duration(Nanosecond)`
`Interval(YearMonth)`
`Interval(DayTime)`
`Interval(MonthDayNano)`
`FixedSizeBinary(<len>)` (e.g. `FixedSizeBinary(16)`)
`Decimal128(<precision>, <scale>)` e.g. `Decimal128(3, 10)`
`Decimal256(<precision>, <scale>)` e.g. `Decimal256(3, 10)`

SQL Reference

SELECT syntax