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Apache Arrow VS Apache ORC

Compare Apache Arrow VS Apache ORC and see what are their differences

Apache Arrow logo Apache Arrow

Apache Arrow is a cross-language development platform for in-memory data.

Apache ORC logo Apache ORC

Apache ORC is a columnar storage for Hadoop workloads.
  • Apache Arrow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-03
  • Apache ORC Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-18

Apache Arrow features and specs

  • In-Memory Columnar Format
    Apache Arrow stores data in a columnar format in memory which allows for efficient data processing and analytics by enabling operations on entire columns at a time.
  • Language Agnostic
    Arrow provides libraries in multiple languages such as C++, Java, Python, R, and more, facilitating cross-language development and enabling data interchange between ecosystems.
  • Interoperability
    Arrow's ability to act as a data transfer protocol allows easy interoperability between different systems or applications without the need for serialization or deserialization.
  • Performance
    Designed for high performance, Arrow can handle large data volumes efficiently due to its zero-copy reads and SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) operations.
  • Ecosystem Integration
    Arrow integrates well with various data processing systems like Apache Spark, Pandas, and more, making it a versatile choice for data applications.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Arrow

  • Complexity
    The use of Apache Arrow can introduce additional complexity, especially for smaller projects or those which do not require high-performance data interchange.
  • Learning Curve
    Getting accustomed to Apache Arrow can take time due to its unique in-memory format and APIs, especially for developers who are new to columnar data processing.
  • Memory Usage
    While Arrow excels in speed and performance, the memory consumption can be higher compared to row-based storage formats, potentially becoming a bottleneck.
  • Maturity
    Although rapidly evolving, some Arrow components or language implementations may not be as mature or feature-complete, potentially leading to limitations in certain use cases.
  • Integration Challenges
    While Arrow aims for broad compatibility, integrating it into existing systems may require substantial effort, affecting development timelines.

Apache ORC features and specs

  • Efficient Compression
    ORC provides highly efficient compression, which reduces the storage footprint of data and enhances performance by decreasing I/O operations.
  • Columnar Storage
    The columnar storage format significantly improves read performance by allowing for selective access to necessary columns while ignoring others.
  • Predicate Pushdown
    ORC supports predicate pushdown, enabling the query engine to skip over non-relevant data, thus enhancing query performance.
  • Type Richness
    ORC supports complex types (like structs and maps), making it suitable for diverse data storage and query needs.
  • Schema Evolution
    It facilitates seamless schema evolution, allowing easier adjustments to the dataset over time without breaking existing queries.
  • Built-in Indexes
    Indexes such as bloom filters and min/max values are built-in, accelerating query processing by enabling quicker data lookup.

Possible disadvantages of Apache ORC

  • Complexity
    The intricacies of its features may introduce additional complexity in implementation and maintenance, potentially increasing the learning curve.
  • Write Performance
    While ORC is optimized for read-heavy workloads, its write performance can be less efficient compared to other formats like Parquet.
  • Compatibility
    ORC may not be as widely supported as other formats, limiting the choice of tools and environments that can leverage its full capabilities.
  • Compression Overhead
    The process of compressing and decompressing data can introduce a computational overhead, affecting performance in some scenarios.

Apache Arrow videos

Wes McKinney - Apache Arrow: Leveling Up the Data Science Stack

More videos:

  • Review - "Apache Arrow and the Future of Data Frames" with Wes McKinney
  • Review - Apache Arrow Flight: Accelerating Columnar Dataset Transport (Wes McKinney, Ursa Labs)

Apache ORC videos

No Apache ORC videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Arrow and Apache ORC)
Databases
88 88%
12% 12
Big Data
71 71%
29% 29
Data Dashboard
0 0%
100% 100
NoSQL Databases
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Arrow seems to be a lot more popular than Apache ORC. While we know about 40 links to Apache Arrow, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Apache ORC. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Arrow mentions (40)

  • Show HN: Typed-arrow โ€“ compileโ€‘time Arrow schemas for Rust
    I had no idea what Arrow is: https://arrow.apache.org or arrow-rs: https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Pontoon, an open-source data export platform
    - Open source: Pontoon is free to use by anyone Under the hood, we use Apache Arrow (https://arrow.apache.org/) to move data between sources and destinations. Arrow is very performant - we wanted to use a library that could handle the scale of moving millions of records per minute. In the shorter-term, there are several improvements we want to make, like:. - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Unlocking DuckDB from Anywhere - A Guide to Remote Access with Apache Arrow and Flight RPC (gRPC)
    Apache Arrow : It contains a set of technologies that enable big data systems to process and move data fast. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Using Polars in Rust for high-performance data analysis
    One of the main selling points of Polars over similar solutions such as Pandas is performance. Polars is written in highly optimized Rust and uses the Apache Arrow container format. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Kotlin DataFrame โค๏ธ Arrow
    Kotlin DataFrame v0.14 comes with improvements for reading Apache Arrow format, especially loading a DataFrame from any ArrowReader. This improvement can be used to easily load results from analytical databases (such as DuckDB, ClickHouse) directly into Kotlin DataFrame. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Apache ORC mentions (3)

  • Java Serialization with Protocol Buffers
    The information can be stored in a database or as files, serialized in a standard format and with a schema agreed with your Data Engineering team. Depending on your information and requirements, it can be as simple as CSV, XML or JSON, or Big Data formats such as Parquet, Avro, ORC, Arrow, or message serialization formats like Protocol Buffers, FlatBuffers, MessagePack, Thrift, or Cap'n Proto. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • AWS EMR Cost Optimization Guide
    Data formatting is another place to make gains. When dealing with huge amounts of data, finding the data you need can take up a significant amount of your compute time. Apache Parquet and Apache ORC are columnar data formats optimized for analytics that pre-aggregate metadata about columns. If your EMR queries column intensive data like sum, max, or count, you can see significant speed improvements by reformatting... - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • Apache Hudi - The Streaming Data Lake Platform
    The following stack captures layers of software components that make up Hudi, with each layer depending on and drawing strength from the layer below. Typically, data lake users write data out once using an open file format like Apache Parquet/ORC stored on top of extremely scalable cloud storage or distributed file systems. Hudi provides a self-managing data plane to ingest, transform and manage this data, in a... - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Arrow and Apache ORC, you can also consider the following products

Redis - Redis is an open source in-memory data structure project implementing a distributed, in-memory key-value database with optional durability.

Apache Parquet - Apache Parquet is a columnar storage format available to any project in the Hadoop ecosystem.

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

DuckDB - DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system

BlueData - BlueData's software platform makes it easier, faster and more cost-effective for organizations to deploy Big Data infrastructure on-premises.

Apache Spark - Apache Spark is an engine for big data processing, with built-in modules for streaming, SQL, machine learning and graph processing.