apache / apache/parquet-java

Improve logic when to write column indexes

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Component: Parquet Priority: Minor Type: enhancement
Dominant language
Java
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Description

Currently, we always write column indexes. In case of the data is ordered (ASCENDING or DESCENDING) the filtering would highly benefit from column indexes. While, if the data is UNORDERED it is not obvious if ordering based on column indexes would make sense. For example if the data is random then the min/max values of the different pages might be close to each other so in most cases filtering based on these values would not drop any of the pages. In the other hand UNORDERED values does not mean that the values are random. It can happen that the values are clustered or semi-ordered. We shall discover these cases somehow before writing the column indexes and write only if the min/max values for the pages do not overlap too much.

Another simple case if we have only one page. In this case writing column indexes is useless. 

**Reporter**: [Gabor Szadovszky](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=gszadovszky) / @gszadovszky
**Assignee**: [Gabor Szadovszky](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=gszadovszky) / @gszadovszky
#### Related issues:
- [Column indexes](https://github.com/apache/parquet-java/issues/2123) (depends upon)
- [Benchmark filtering column-indexes](https://github.com/apache/parquet-java/issues/2235) (depends upon)

**Note**: *This issue was originally created as [PARQUET-1415](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PARQUET-1415). Please see the [migration documentation](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PARQUET-2502) for further details.*

Contributor guide

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Research direction

Start by tracing the column-index writing path and how it handles ordered versus unordered data. Compare behavior for single-page data and page min/max overlap; done means indexes are omitted when they cannot improve filtering, with coverage for ordered, unordered, clustered, and single-page cases.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
data-engineering, performance
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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