Expand PartialSort usage in more queries to reduce memory usage
- Dominant language
- Rust
- Stars
- 9.3k
- Forks
- 2.4k
- Avg merge
- 3d 7h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 344
Description
### Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge?
PartialSort proposed in https://github.com/apache/arrow-datafusion/pull/9125 can also be used on bounded input which will help reducing memory usage for the sorts when the input is already partially sorted (input plan ordering and plan required ordering has a common prefix)
### Describe the solution you'd like
We might need to consider incorporating `ExternalSorter` in `PartialSortExec` plan as it is used in `SortExec`. Then it should be completely safe to replace `SortExec` with `PartialSortExec` in `EnforceSorting` without checking for unboundedness of input.
### Describe alternatives you've considered
Implementing partial sort logic inside `SortExec` and making `SortExec` choose which sorting logic to run might be an option.
It can also be argued that it is easier to understand the intention when `PartialSortExec` and `SortExec` are kept as separate plans.
### Additional context
https://github.com/apache/arrow-datafusion/issues/7456
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reading the PartialSort proposal in PR 9125 and compare PartialSortExec with SortExec, especially ExternalSorter and the EnforceSorting path. Review issue 7456 for context. Done means bounded inputs with partially matching orderings can use PartialSortExec safely without the current unboundedness check, while preserving sorting behavior.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- rust
- Domain
- data-engineering, performance
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 30/100