apache / apache/arrow-rs

[Variant] Allow configurable JSON format for specialized types

Open
#8,605 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement
Dominant language
Rust
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Forks
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Avg merge
2d 14h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

**Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge? Please describe what you are trying to do.**

Currently, the JSON read/write methods enforce a fixed mapping for specialized variant types. For instance, timestamps are always serialized as JSON strings.

**Describe the solution you'd like**

To make this more flexible, it should be possible to pass an optional format configuration that allows users to control how specialized types (like timestamps or UUIDs) are serialized/deserialized.

**Additional context**

This feature is motivated by [datafusion-variant](https://github.com/datafusion-contrib/datafusion-variant), a higher-level library that integrates with Datafusion through a series of udfs

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by tracing the JSON read/write methods for specialized variant types and review the datafusion-variant context linked in the issue. Define how an optional format configuration should control serialization and deserialization for timestamps and UUIDs, then verify that both directions honor the chosen formats.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
json, rust
Domain
data
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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