ORC¶

This guide covers ingesting data from ORC files into BLUE using FOREIGN TABLE.

Foreign Data Wrapper Prerequisites¶

Before proceeding, ensure the following Foreign Data Wrapper (FDW) prerequisites:

File Existence: Verify that the file you are ingesting data from exists at the specified path.
Path Accuracy: Confirm that all path elements are present and correctly spelled. Any inaccuracies may lead to data retrieval issues.
Bucket Access Permissions: Ensure that you have the necessary access permissions to the bucket from which you are ingesting data. Lack of permissions can hinder the data retrieval process.
Wildcard Accuracy: If using wildcards, double-check their spelling and configuration. Misconfigured wildcards may result in unintended data ingestion.

Prepare The Files¶

Prepare the source ORC files, with the following requirements:

BLUE type → ORC source	`BOOL`	`TINYINT`	`SMALLINT`	`INT`	`BIGINT`	`REAL`	`DOUBLE`	`TEXT` [1]	`DATE`	`DATETIME`
`boolean`	Supported	Supported [2]	Supported [2]	Supported [2]	Supported [2]
`tinyint`	○ [3]	Supported	Supported	Supported	Supported
`smallint`	○ [3]	○ [4]	Supported	Supported	Supported
`int`	○ [3]	○ [4]	○ [4]	Supported	Supported
`bigint`	○ [3]	○ [4]	○ [4]	○ [4]	Supported
`float`						Supported	Supported
`double`						Supported	Supported
`string` / `char` / `text`								Supported
`date`									Supported	Supported
`timestamp`, `timestamp` with timezone										Supported

If an ORC file has an unsupported type like binary, list, map, and union, but the data is not referenced in the table (it does not appear in the SELECT query), the statement will succeed. If the column is referenced, an error will be thrown to the user, explaining that the type is not supported, but the column may be ommited. This can be worked around. See more information in the examples.

Footnotes

Figure Out The Table Structure¶

Prior to loading data, you will need to write out the table structure, so that it matches the file structure.

For example, to import the data from nba.orc, we will first look at the source table:

nba.orc¶
Name	Team	Number	Position	Age	Height	Weight	College	Salary
Avery Bradley	Boston Celtics	0	PG	25	44714	180	Texas	7730337
Jae Crowder	Boston Celtics	99	SF	25	44718	235	Marquette	6796117
John Holland	Boston Celtics	30	SG	27	44717	205	Boston University
R.J. Hunter	Boston Celtics	28	SG	22	44717	185	Georgia State	1148640
Jonas Jerebko	Boston Celtics	8	PF	29	44722	231		5000000
Amir Johnson	Boston Celtics	90	PF	29	44721	240		12000000
Jordan Mickey	Boston Celtics	55	PF	21	44720	235	LSU	1170960
Kelly Olynyk	Boston Celtics	41	C	25	36708	238	Gonzaga	2165160
Terry Rozier	Boston Celtics	12	PG	22	44714	190	Louisville	1824360

The file is stored on S3, at s3://sqream-demo-data/nba.orc.

We will make note of the file structure to create a matching CREATE FOREIGN TABLE statement.

CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ext_nba (
  Name TEXT,
  Team TEXT,
  Number BIGINT,
  Position TEXT,
  Age BIGINT,
  Height TEXT,
  Weight BIGINT,
  College TEXT,
  Salary FLOAT
)
WRAPPER
  orc_fdw
OPTIONS
  (LOCATION = 's3://sqream-docs/nba.orc');

Tip

Types in BLUE must match ORC types according to the table above.

If the column type isn’t supported, a possible workaround is to set it to any arbitrary type and then exclude it from subsequent queries.

Verify Table Contents¶

External tables do not verify file integrity or structure, so verify that the table definition matches up and contains the correct data.

SELECT * FROM ext_nba LIMIT 10;

Name          | Team           | Number | Position | Age | Height | Weight | College           | Salary
--------------+----------------+--------+----------+-----+--------+--------+-------------------+---------
Avery Bradley | Boston Celtics |      0 | PG       |  25 | 6-2    |    180 | Texas             |  7730337
Jae Crowder   | Boston Celtics |     99 | SF       |  25 | 6-6    |    235 | Marquette         |  6796117
John Holland  | Boston Celtics |     30 | SG       |  27 | 6-5    |    205 | Boston University |
R.J. Hunter   | Boston Celtics |     28 | SG       |  22 | 6-5    |    185 | Georgia State     |  1148640
Jonas Jerebko | Boston Celtics |      8 | PF       |  29 | 6-10   |    231 |                   |  5000000
Amir Johnson  | Boston Celtics |     90 | PF       |  29 | 6-9    |    240 |                   | 12000000
Jordan Mickey | Boston Celtics |     55 | PF       |  21 | 6-8    |    235 | LSU               |  1170960
Kelly Olynyk  | Boston Celtics |     41 | C        |  25 | 7-0    |    238 | Gonzaga           |  2165160
Terry Rozier  | Boston Celtics |     12 | PG       |  22 | 6-2    |    190 | Louisville        |  1824360
Marcus Smart  | Boston Celtics |     36 | PG       |  22 | 6-4    |    220 | Oklahoma State    |  3431040

If any errors show up at this stage, verify the structure of the ORC files and match them to the external table structure you created.

Working Around Unsupported Column Types¶

Suppose you only want to load some of the columns - for example, if one of the columns isn’t supported.

By ommitting unsupported columns from queries that access the EXTERNAL TABLE, they will never be called, and will not cause a “type mismatch” error.

For this example, assume that the Position column isn’t supported because of its type.

CREATE TABLE
  nba AS
SELECT
  Name,
  Team,
  Number,
  NULL as Position,
  Age,
  Height,
  Weight,
  College,
  Salary
FROM
  ext_nba;

-- Removed the unsupported Position column and substituted it with a default NULL value to preserve table structure.