apache / apache/datafusion-python
Expose SessionContext.create_physical_expr for logical-to-physical Expr conversion
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
- 604
- Forks
- 174
- Avg merge
- 1d 7h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 4
Description
## Background
`SessionContext::create_physical_expr` converts a logical `Expr` against a `DFSchema` into a `PhysicalExpr` that can be evaluated directly against Arrow record batches. The Python bindings do not expose this.
## Upstream signature
```rust
pub fn create_physical_expr(
&self,
expr: Expr,
input_dfschema: &DFSchema,
) -> Result>
```
## User value
Useful when callers want to evaluate an Expr against an in-memory RecordBatch without going through DataFrame execution -- for example to score / filter individual batches in a custom processing loop, to debug optimization rewrites, or to feed an expression into a custom physical operator. Niche but irreplaceable for that audience.
## Why deferred
Effort is small (~180-280 LOC) but requires a new `PyPhysicalExpr` wrapper exposing the opaque `Arc` trait object plus an `evaluate(batch) -> ColumnarValue` method to make it useful from Python. Zero open user requests at the time of audit. Filed for tracking; revisit when a user surfaces a concrete need or when adjacent FFI work pulls `PhysicalExpr` into the binding surface.
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