TimelyDataflow / TimelyDataflow/differential-dataflow

Allow containers on half-join's stream input

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#621 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Rust
Stars
3k
Forks
211
Avg merge
10h 42m
Merged PRs (30d)
34

Description

The half-join operator consumes a stream of updates and joins it with an arrangement. It needs updates in the form of vectors of data, currently it cannot handle any other format.

However, it should support containers on its input to avoid forcing data into an owned representation. This involves:

  • The data needs to be sorted, and consolidated.
    • We could arrange the input data, and drop the trace to form batches of ready proposals.
    • We could work on chunks of sorted and consolidated data. This amortizes the work of traversing the lookup arrangement, at the expense of not guaranteeing that the inputs are consolidated.
    • We could use a merge batcher (without an arrangement) to force the stream inputs to be sorted and consolidated.

Since #619, we can push outputs into a container builder, which allows arbitrary containers (and transformations).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at the half-join operator and inspect how its stream input currently requires vectors, then read the container-builder changes from #619. Compare the proposed arrangement, chunk, and merge-batcher approaches for sorting and consolidation. Done means half-join accepts container inputs without forcing an owned representation while preserving the required input processing.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
data-engineering, stream-processing
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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