Parquet

Ingesting Parquet files into SQream is generally useful when you want to store the data permanently and perform frequent queries on it. Ingesting the data can also make it easier to join with other tables in your database. However, if you wish to retain your data on external Parquet files instead of ingesting it into SQream due to it being an open-source column-oriented data storage format, you may also execute FOREIGN TABLE queries.

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.

Preparing Your Parquet Files

Prepare your source Parquet files according to the requirements described in the following table:

SQream Type →

Parquet Source ↓

BOOL

TINYINT

SMALLINT

INT

BIGINT

REAL

DOUBLE

TEXT [1]

DATE

DATETIME

BOOLEAN

Supported

INT16

Supported

INT32

Supported

INT64

Supported

FLOAT

Supported

DOUBLE

Supported

BYTE_ARRAY / FIXED_LEN_BYTE_ARRAY [2]

Supported

INT96 [3]

Supported [4]

Your statements will succeed even if your Parquet file contains unsupported types, such as enum, uuid, time, json, bson, lists, maps, but the data is not referenced in the table (it does not appear in the SELECT query). If the column containing the unsupported type is referenced, an error message is displayed explaining that the type is not supported and that the column may be ommitted. For solutions to this error message, see more information in Managing Unsupported Column Types example in the Example section.

Footnotes

Making Parquet Files Accessible to Workers

To give workers access to files, every node must have the same view of the storage being used.

  • For files hosted on NFS, ensure that the mount is accessible from all servers.

  • For HDFS, ensure that SQream servers have access to the HDFS name node with the correct user-id. For more information, see Using SQream in an HDFS Environment guide.

  • For S3, ensure network access to the S3 endpoint. For more information, see Inserting Data Using Amazon S3 guide.

Creating a Table

Before loading data, you must create a table that corresponds to the file structure of the table you wish to insert.

The example in this section is based on the source nba.parquet table shown below:

nba.parquet

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 following example shows the correct file structure used for creating a FOREIGN TABLE based on the nba.parquet table:

CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ext_nba
(
     Name       TEXT(40),
     Team       TEXT(40),
     Number     BIGINT,
     Position   TEXT(2),
     Age        BIGINT,
     Height     TEXT(4),
     Weight     BIGINT,
     College    TEXT(40),
     Salary     FLOAT
 )
 WRAPPER parquet_fdw
 OPTIONS
 (
   LOCATION =  's3://sqream-demo-data/nba.parquet'
 );

Tip

An exact match must exist between the SQream and Parquet types. For unsupported column types, you can set the type to any type and exclude it from subsequent queries.

Note

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

Ingesting Data into SQream

Syntax

You can use the CREATE TABLE AS statement to load the data into SQream, as shown below:

CREATE TABLE nba AS
   SELECT * FROM ext_nba;

Examples

Omitting Unsupported Column Types

When loading data, you can omit columns using the NULL as argument. You can use this argument to omit unsupported columns from queries that access external tables. By omitting them, these columns will not be called and will avoid generating a “type mismatch” error.

In the example below, the Position column is not supported due its type.

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

Modifying Data Before Loading

One of the main reasons for staging data using the EXTERNAL TABLE argument is to examine and modify table contents before loading it into SQream.

For example, we can replace pounds with kilograms using the CREATE TABLE AS statement.

In the example below, the Position column is set to the default NULL.

CREATE TABLE nba AS
   SELECT name, team, number, NULL as position, age, height, (weight / 2.205) as weight, college, salary
           FROM ext_nba
           ORDER BY weight;

Loading a Table from a Directory of Parquet Files on HDFS

The following is an example of loading a table from a directory of Parquet files on HDFS:

CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ext_users
  (id INT NOT NULL, name TEXT(30) NOT NULL, email TEXT(50) NOT NULL)
WRAPPER parquet_fdw
OPTIONS
  (
     LOCATION =  'hdfs://hadoop-nn.piedpiper.com/rhendricks/users/*.parquet'
  );

CREATE TABLE users AS SELECT * FROM ext_users;

Loading a Table from a Directory of Parquet Files on S3

The following is an example of loading a table from a directory of Parquet files on S3:

CREATE FOREIGN TABLE ext_users
  (id INT NOT NULL, name TEXT(30) NOT NULL, email TEXT(50) NOT NULL)
WRAPPER parquet_fdw
OPTIONS
  ( LOCATION = 's3://pp-secret-bucket/users/*.parquet',
    AWS_ID = 'our_aws_id',
    AWS_SECRET = 'our_aws_secret'
   );

CREATE TABLE users AS SELECT * FROM ext_users;

For more configuration option examples, navigate to the CREATE FOREIGN TABLE page and see the Parameters table.

Best Practices

Because external tables do not automatically verify the file integrity or structure, SQream recommends manually verifying your table output when ingesting Parquet files into SQream. This lets you determine if your table output is identical to your originally inserted table.

The following is an example of the output based on the nba.parquet table:

t=> 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

Note

If your table output has errors, verify that the structure of the Parquet files correctly corresponds to the external table structure that you created.