Reading and writing Parquet files

The Parquet format is a space-efficient columnar storage format for complex data. The Parquet C++ implementation is part of the Apache Arrow project and benefits from tight integration with the Arrow C++ classes and facilities.

Supported Parquet features

The Parquet format has many features, and Parquet C++ supports a subset of them.

Page types

Page type

Notes

DATA_PAGE

DATA_PAGE_V2

DICTIONARY_PAGE

Unsupported page type: INDEX_PAGE. When reading a Parquet file, pages of this type are ignored.

Compression

Compression codec

Notes

SNAPPY

GZIP

BROTLI

LZ4

(1)

ZSTD

  • (1) On the read side, Parquet C++ is able to decompress both the regular LZ4 block format and the ad-hoc Hadoop LZ4 format used by the reference Parquet implementation. On the write side, Parquet C++ always generates the ad-hoc Hadoop LZ4 format.

Unsupported compression codec: LZO.

Encodings

Encoding

Notes

PLAIN

PLAIN_DICTIONARY

BIT_PACKED

RLE

(1)

RLE_DICTIONARY

(2)

BYTE_STREAM_SPLIT

  • (1) Only supported for encoding definition and repetition levels, not values.

  • (2) On the write path, RLE_DICTIONARY is only enabled if Parquet format version 2.4 or greater is selected in WriterProperties::version().

Unsupported encodings: DELTA_BINARY_PACKED, DELTA_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY, DELTA_BYTE_ARRAY.

Types

Physical types

Physical type

Mapped Arrow type

Notes

BOOLEAN

Boolean

INT32

Int32 / other

(1)

INT64

Int64 / other

(1)

INT96

Timestamp (nanoseconds)

(2)

FLOAT

Float32

DOUBLE

Float64

BYTE_ARRAY

Binary / other

(1) (3)

FIXED_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY

FixedSizeBinary / other

(1)

  • (1) Can be mapped to other Arrow types, depending on the logical type (see below).

  • (2) On the write side, ArrowWriterProperties::support_deprecated_int96_timestamps() must be enabled.

  • (3) On the write side, an Arrow LargeBinary can also mapped to BYTE_ARRAY.

Logical types

Specific logical types can override the default Arrow type mapping for a given physical type.

Logical type

Physical type

Mapped Arrow type

Notes

NULL

Any

Null

(1)

INT

INT32

Int8 / UInt8 / Int16 / UInt16 / Int32 / UInt32

INT

INT64

Int64 / UInt64

DECIMAL

INT32 / INT64 / BYTE_ARRAY / FIXED_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY

Decimal128 / Decimal256

(2)

DATE

INT32

Date32

(3)

TIME

INT32

Time32 (milliseconds)

TIME

INT64

Time64 (micro- or nanoseconds)

TIMESTAMP

INT64

Timestamp (milli-, micro- or nanoseconds)

STRING

BYTE_ARRAY

Utf8

(4)

LIST

Any

List

(5)

MAP

Any

Map

(6)

  • (1) On the write side, the Parquet physical type INT32 is generated.

  • (2) On the write side, a FIXED_LENGTH_BYTE_ARRAY is always emitted.

  • (3) On the write side, an Arrow Date64 is also mapped to a Parquet DATE INT32.

  • (4) On the write side, an Arrow LargeUtf8 is also mapped to a Parquet STRING.

  • (5) On the write side, an Arrow LargeList or FixedSizedList is also mapped to a Parquet LIST.

  • (6) On the read side, a key with multiple values does not get deduplicated, in contradiction with the Parquet specification.

Unsupported logical types: JSON, BSON, UUID. If such a type is encountered when reading a Parquet file, the default physical type mapping is used (for example, a Parquet JSON column may be read as Arrow Binary or FixedSizeBinary).

Converted types

While converted types are deprecated in the Parquet format (they are superceded by logical types), they are recognized and emitted by the Parquet C++ implementation so as to maximize compatibility with other Parquet implementations.

Special cases

An Arrow Extension type is written out as its storage type. It can still be recreated at read time using Parquet metadata (see “Roundtripping Arrow types” below).

An Arrow Dictionary type is written out as its value type. It can still be recreated at read time using Parquet metadata (see “Roundtripping Arrow types” below).

Roundtripping Arrow types

While there is no bijection between Arrow types and Parquet types, it is possible to serialize the Arrow schema as part of the Parquet file metadata. This is enabled using ArrowWriterProperties::store_schema().

On the read path, the serialized schema will be automatically recognized and will recreate the original Arrow data, converting the Parquet data as required (for example, a LargeList will be recreated from the Parquet LIST type).

As an example, when serializing an Arrow LargeList to Parquet:

  • The data is written out as a Parquet LIST

  • When read back, the Parquet LIST data is decoded as an Arrow LargeList if ArrowWriterProperties::store_schema() was enabled when writing the file; otherwise, it is decoded as an Arrow List.

Serialization details

The Arrow schema is serialized as a Arrow IPC schema message, then base64-encoded and stored under the ARROW:schema metadata key in the Parquet file metadata.

Limitations

Writing or reading back FixedSizedList data with null entries is not supported.

Encryption

Parquet C++ implements all features specified in the encryption specification, except for encryption of column index and bloom filter modules.

More specifically, Parquet C++ supports:

  • AES_GCM_V1 and AES_GCM_CTR_V1 encryption algorithms.

  • AAD suffix for Footer, ColumnMetaData, Data Page, Dictionary Page, Data PageHeader, Dictionary PageHeader module types. Other module types (ColumnIndex, OffsetIndex, BloomFilter Header, BloomFilter Bitset) are not supported.

  • EncryptionWithFooterKey and EncryptionWithColumnKey modes.

  • Encrypted Footer and Plaintext Footer modes.

Reading Parquet files

The arrow::FileReader class reads data for an entire file or row group into an ::arrow::Table.

The StreamReader and StreamWriter classes allow for data to be written using a C++ input/output streams approach to read/write fields column by column and row by row. This approach is offered for ease of use and type-safety. It is of course also useful when data must be streamed as files are read and written incrementally.

Please note that the performance of the StreamReader and StreamWriter classes will not be as good due to the type checking and the fact that column values are processed one at a time.

FileReader

The Parquet arrow::FileReader requires a ::arrow::io::RandomAccessFile instance representing the input file.

#include "arrow/parquet/arrow/reader.h"

{
   // ...
   arrow::Status st;
   arrow::MemoryPool* pool = default_memory_pool();
   std::shared_ptr<arrow::io::RandomAccessFile> input = ...;

   // Open Parquet file reader
   std::unique_ptr<parquet::arrow::FileReader> arrow_reader;
   st = parquet::arrow::OpenFile(input, pool, &arrow_reader);
   if (!st.ok()) {
      // Handle error instantiating file reader...
   }

   // Read entire file as a single Arrow table
   std::shared_ptr<arrow::Table> table;
   st = arrow_reader->ReadTable(&table);
   if (!st.ok()) {
      // Handle error reading Parquet data...
   }
}

Finer-grained options are available through the arrow::FileReaderBuilder helper class.

StreamReader

The StreamReader allows for Parquet files to be read using standard C++ input operators which ensures type-safety.

Please note that types must match the schema exactly i.e. if the schema field is an unsigned 16-bit integer then you must supply a uint16_t type.

Exceptions are used to signal errors. A ParquetException is thrown in the following circumstances:

  • Attempt to read field by supplying the incorrect type.

  • Attempt to read beyond end of row.

  • Attempt to read beyond end of file.

#include "arrow/io/file.h"
#include "parquet/stream_reader.h"

{
   std::shared_ptr<arrow::io::ReadableFile> infile;

   PARQUET_ASSIGN_OR_THROW(
      infile,
      arrow::io::ReadableFile::Open("test.parquet"));

   parquet::StreamReader os{parquet::ParquetFileReader::Open(infile)};

   std::string article;
   float price;
   uint32_t quantity;

   while ( !os.eof() )
   {
      os >> article >> price >> quantity >> parquet::EndRow;
      // ...
   }
}

Writing Parquet files

WriteTable

The arrow::WriteTable() function writes an entire ::arrow::Table to an output file.

#include "parquet/arrow/writer.h"

{
   std::shared_ptr<arrow::io::FileOutputStream> outfile;
   PARQUET_ASSIGN_OR_THROW(
      outfile,
      arrow::io::FileOutputStream::Open("test.parquet"));

   PARQUET_THROW_NOT_OK(
      parquet::arrow::WriteTable(table, arrow::default_memory_pool(), outfile, 3));
}

StreamWriter

The StreamWriter allows for Parquet files to be written using standard C++ output operators. This type-safe approach also ensures that rows are written without omitting fields and allows for new row groups to be created automatically (after certain volume of data) or explicitly by using the EndRowGroup stream modifier.

Exceptions are used to signal errors. A ParquetException is thrown in the following circumstances:

  • Attempt to write a field using an incorrect type.

  • Attempt to write too many fields in a row.

  • Attempt to skip a required field.

#include "arrow/io/file.h"
#include "parquet/stream_writer.h"

{
   std::shared_ptr<arrow::io::FileOutputStream> outfile;

   PARQUET_ASSIGN_OR_THROW(
      outfile,
      arrow::io::FileOutputStream::Open("test.parquet"));

   parquet::WriterProperties::Builder builder;
   std::shared_ptr<parquet::schema::GroupNode> schema;

   // Set up builder with required compression type etc.
   // Define schema.
   // ...

   parquet::StreamWriter os{
      parquet::ParquetFileWriter::Open(outfile, schema, builder.build())};

   // Loop over some data structure which provides the required
   // fields to be written and write each row.
   for (const auto& a : getArticles())
   {
      os << a.name() << a.price() << a.quantity() << parquet::EndRow;
   }
}