[Feature] Support shared-shredding storage layout for MAP columns
- Dominant language
- C++
- Stars
- 65
- Forks
- 25
- Avg merge
- 2d 12h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 80
Description
### Search before asking
- [x] I searched in the [issues](https://github.com/apache/paimon-cpp/issues) and found nothing similar.
### Motivation
In time-series / IoT / observability workloads, a common pattern is storing free-schema fields in a `MAP` column (e.g. `metrics MAP`). The default MAP storage (two KV arrays) provides:
- No per-key columnar access
- No per-key statistics
- No predicate pushdown on individual keys
This makes queries like `SELECT ext_map['usage'] FROM metrics WHERE ext_map['usage'] > 30` scan the entire MAP column — extremely inefficient when only 1–3 keys out of thousands are needed per query.
The [PIP-43: Columnar Storage Optimization for MAP Type in Paimon](https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/PAIMON/PIP-43%3A+Columnar+Storage+Optimization+for+MAP+Type+in+Paimon) proposes a new `shared-shredding` storage layout that stores MAP values in `K` reusable physical columns within a Struct, achieving near-full columnar access with per-key statistics and predicate pushdown — without changing the logical type (`MAP`).
### Solution
#### Physical Layout
Each `MAP` column configured with `fields..map.storage-layout = shared-shredding` is physically stored as:
```
STRUCT<
__field_mapping: FixedSizeList, -- per-row: which field_id each col holds
__col_0: T, __col_1: T, ..., __col_{K-1}: T, -- reusable typed columns
__overflow: MAP -- rare fallback for rows with > K fields
>
```
`fields..map.shared-shredding.max-columns` controls K_max, and `fields..map.shared-shredding.column-placement-policy` controls column placement.
File metadata (footer) stores: field name↔id dictionary, field_id→physical column set S, overflow set O, K, and max row width.
#### Write Path
1. **Schema conversion utilities** — Logical MAP → physical Struct schema rewriting; metadata serialization/deserialization; shared-shredding column detection via field metadata marker.
2. **`FormatWriter::AddMetadata`** — New virtual method (default no-op) for writing key-value metadata to file footer before `Finish()`. Parquet implementation calls `AddKeyValueMetadata`.
3. **Column allocator** — Per-row slot allocator that maps field IDs to up to `K` physical columns and sends the rest to overflow. Placement policy is configurable (`plain`, `sequential`, `lru`; default `plain`). Accumulates file-level statistics (S, O, max row width).
4. **Logical→physical batch converter** — Parses logical MAP, encodes field names to integer IDs (file-level dictionary), invokes allocator per row, assembles physical Struct array.
5. **Writer integration** — Extended DataFileWriter that performs conversion before writing + injects metadata on close. AppendOnlyWriter detects shared-shredding columns and routes accordingly. Cross-file K adaptation (P99 of recent max row widths, capped by K_max).
#### Read Path
1. **File metadata parsing** — Parse shared-shredding metadata from file footer (dictionary, S, O, K). New `GetFileKeyValueMetadata()` method on `FileBatchReader` with Parquet implementation.
2. **Predicate translation** — Translate logical predicates on MAP keys into conservative OR predicates over physical sub-columns. Requires extending `LeafPredicate` to support nested field paths and updating `PredicateConverter` to emit nested `FieldRef`.
3. **Read planning** — At `SetReadSchema` time: look up which physical columns to read (from S), decide whether `__overflow` is needed (from O), translate predicates, and pass the physical schema + physical predicate down to the inner `FileBatchReader` unchanged.
4. **Batch reconstruction** — After `NextBatch`: read `__field_mapping` per row to identify which column holds which field (fine-grained filter), gather values into logical `MAP`. Merge overflow when needed. Correctness relies on per-row `__field_mapping`, not on pushdown precision.
5. **Reader integration** — A wrapper reader (implements `FileBatchReader`) sits between the upper layer and the format-level reader. Per-file instance. Compatible with varying K across files. Orthogonal to `DataEvolutionFileReader` (schema evolution).
### Anything else?
_No response_
### Are you willing to submit a PR?
- [x] I'm willing to submit a PR!
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start with PIP-43 and trace the existing FormatWriter, FileBatchReader, AppendOnlyWriter, LeafPredicate, and PredicateConverter interfaces. Map the write and read paths before implementing the schema conversion, metadata, allocation, predicate translation, and reconstruction pieces. Done means shared-shredding MAP columns work across writing, reading, filtering, overflow, and varying K values across files.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- databases
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100