apache / apache/pinot

Proper support for Array/List type

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Description

Pinot currently has a multi-value column type: which essentially is a ordered, bag-of-elements, set data structure.

However, many requirement comes in to ask for proper array support (see https://github.com/apache/pinot/issues/6083)

This proposal is for proper array/list type as a separate DataType.
- [x] conversion between MV and Array/List type should be supported (`CAST`)
- NOTE: as @Jackie-Jiang mentioned, we can directly operate on MV columns since they are ordered arrays
- [ ] array operations should be done on array type, including
- [ ] predicates (`match_all`, `match_none`, `match_any` or `contains`)
- https://github.com/apache/pinot/pull/9323
- [x] whole array operations producing a single value (`sum`/`min`/`max`/`cardinality`)
- cardinality supported in: https://github.com/apache/pinot/pull/9300; sum/min/max already supported in https://github.com/apache/pinot/pull/6084
- [ ] element-wise operations (such as `filter`, `transform`)
- [ ] indexed access (`arr[1]` or `element_at`)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start with Pinot's DataType handling and the linked issue and pull requests referenced in this proposal. Review the remaining unchecked work for array predicates, element-wise operations, and indexed access, along with the completed CAST and whole-array operations. Done would require an agreed implementation scope and support for the remaining array/list behaviors.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
databases
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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