googleapis / googleapis/google-cloud-python
feat(bigquery): Support queryResultsFormat and compressionCodec in query_and_wait()
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Description
### Determine this is the right repository
- [x] I determined this is the correct repository in which to report this feature request.
### Summary of the feature request
### Feature Description
Add support for `query_results_format` (e.g., `"ARROW"`) and `compression_codec` (e.g., `"LZ4_FRAME"`) in `Client.query_and_wait()` and related job helper functions in `google-cloud-bigquery`.
### Use Case & Problem Statement
Currently, `Client.query_and_wait()` executes a query and fetches results, but does not allow callers to request the underlying query results format as Apache Arrow streams or specify compression options directly during the fetch process.
For high-performance data processing pipelines using Apache Arrow or PyArrow, requesting query results in Arrow format with compression significantly reduces network payload size, deserialization overhead, and total query result fetch latency.
### Proposed Solution
1. Update `google.cloud.bigquery.client.Client.query_and_wait()` to accept optional parameters:
- `query_results_format`: Optional string specifying result serialization format (e.g. `"ARROW"`).
- `compression_codec`: Optional string specifying compression algorithm
2. Update underlying helper functions in `_job_helpers.py` to populate these options in the request payload sent to the BigQuery API.
3. Update `RowIterator` and Arrow parsing logic in `table.py` to seamlessly handle Arrow record batch streams when `query_results_format="ARROW"` is specified.
### Alternative Approaches Considered
- Manually constructing custom `QueryJob` instances and extracting Arrow record batches post-execution, which requires boilerplate code and loses the convenience of `query_and_wait()`.
### Additional Context
Related PR: https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-python/pull/18027
### Desired code experience
from google.cloud import bigquery
client = bigquery.Client()
query = "SELECT * FROM `bigquery-public-data.usa_names.usa_1910_2013` LIMIT 10000"
# Request query results directly in Apache Arrow format with LZ4_FRAME compression
results = client.query_and_wait(
query,
query_results_format="ARROW",
compression_codec="LZ4_FRAME",
)
# Convert directly to PyArrow Table or Pandas DataFrame
arrow_table = results.to_arrow()
df = results.to_dataframe()
### Expected results
1. Client.query_and_wait() accepts query_results_format and compression_codec parameters.
2. The BigQuery API receives these parameters in the job execution request.
3. Query results are returned and parsed efficiently via compressed Apache Arrow streams into the resulting RowIterator / Arrow table without client errors.
### API client name and version
_No response_
### Use case
_e.g. This feature would be useful in a scenario where I need to process large amounts of data efficiently._
### Additional context
https://github.com/googleapis/google-cloud-python/pull/18027
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start at Client.query_and_wait(), then trace _job_helpers.py for the BigQuery request payload and table.py for RowIterator and Arrow parsing. Compare the related PR 18027 and verify that both options are accepted, sent to the API, and that compressed Arrow results support the stated to_arrow() and to_dataframe() use cases.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- api, data
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 52/100