https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex
An extensible, state of the art columnar file format
https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex
array arrow compression python rust
Last synced: 10 days ago
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An extensible, state of the art columnar file format
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex
- Owner: vortex-data
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2024-02-27T10:40:00.000Z (almost 2 years ago)
- Default Branch: develop
- Last Pushed: 2025-05-09T10:16:59.000Z (8 months ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-05-09T10:24:01.777Z (8 months ago)
- Topics: array, arrow, compression, python, rust
- Language: Rust
- Homepage: https://vortex.dev
- Size: 14.6 MB
- Stars: 1,234
- Watchers: 16
- Forks: 41
- Open Issues: 127
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- stars - vortex-data/vortex
- awesome-parquet - Vortex - A columnar file format designed for high-performance data processing. (Related formats / Tests)
- awesome-repositories - vortex-data/vortex - An extensible, state of the art columnar file format. Formerly at @spiraldb, now an Incubation Stage project at LFAI&Data, part of the Linux Foundation. (Rust)
README
# 🌪️ Vortex
[](https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex/actions)
[](https://www.bestpractices.dev/projects/10567)
[](https://docs.vortex.dev)
[](https://codspeed.io/vortex-data/vortex)
[](https://crates.io/crates/vortex)
[](https://pypi.org/project/vortex-data/)
[](https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/dev.vortex/vortex-spark)
[](https://codecov.io/github/vortex-data/vortex)
[Join the community on Slack!](https://vortex.dev/slack) | [Documentation](https://docs.vortex.dev/) | [Performance Benchmarks](https://bench.vortex.dev)
## Overview
Vortex is a next-generation columnar file format and toolkit designed for high-performance data processing.
It is the fastest and most extensible format for building data systems backed by object storage. It provides:
- **Blazing Fast Performance**
- 100x faster random access reads (vs. modern Apache Parquet)
- 10-20x faster scans
- 5x faster writes
- Similar compression ratios
- Efficient support for wide tables with zero-copy/zero-parse metadata
- **Extensible Architecture**
- Modeled after Apache DataFusion's extensible approach
- Pluggable encoding system, type system, compression strategy, & layout strategy
- Zero-copy compatibility with Apache Arrow
- **Open Source, Neutral Governance**
- A Linux Foundation (LF AI & Data) Project
- Apache-2.0 Licensed
- **Integrations**
- Arrow, DataFusion, DuckDB, Spark, Pandas, Polars, & more
- Apache Iceberg (coming soon)
> 🟢 **Development Status**: Library APIs may change from version to version, but we now consider
> the file format _stable_. From release 0.36.0, all future releases of Vortex should
> maintain backwards compatibility of the file format (i.e., be able to read files written by
> any earlier version >= 0.36.0).
## Key Features
### Core Capabilities
- **Logical Types** - Clean separation between logical schema and physical layout
- **Zero-Copy Arrow Integration** - Seamless conversion to/from Apache Arrow arrays
- **Extensible Encodings** - Pluggable physical layouts with built-in optimizations
- **Cascading Compression** - Support for nested encoding schemes
- **High-Performance Computing** - Optimized compute kernels for encoded data
- **Rich Statistics** - Lazy-loaded summary statistics for optimization
### Technical Architecture
#### Logical vs Physical Design
Vortex strictly separates logical and physical concerns:
- **Logical Layer**: Defines data types and schema
- **Physical Layer**: Handles encoding and storage implementation
- **Built-in Encodings**: Compatible with Apache Arrow's memory format
- **Extension Encodings**: Optimized compression schemes (RLE, dictionary, etc.)
## Quick Start
### Installation
#### Rust Crate
All features are exported through the main `vortex` crate.
```bash
cargo add vortex
```
#### Python Package
```bash
uv add vortex-data
```
#### Command Line UI (vx)
For browsing the structure of Vortex files, you can use the `vx` command-line tool.
```bash
# Install latest release
cargo install vortex-tui --locked
# Or build from source
cargo install --path vortex-tui --locked
# Usage
vx browse
```
### Development Setup
#### Prerequisites (macOS)
```bash
# Optional but recommended dependencies
brew install flatbuffers protobuf # For .fbs and .proto files
brew install duckdb # For benchmarks
# Install Rust toolchain
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
# or
brew install rustup
# Initialize submodules
git submodule update --init --recursive
# Setup dependencies with uv
uv sync --all-packages
```
### Performance Optimization
For optimal performance, we suggest using [MiMalloc](https://github.com/microsoft/mimalloc):
```rust,ignore
#[global_allocator]
static GLOBAL_ALLOC: MiMalloc = MiMalloc;
```
## Project Information
### License
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
### Governance
Vortex is an independent open-source project and not controlled by any single company. The Vortex Project is a
sub-project of the Linux Foundation Projects. The governance model is documented in
[CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) and is subject to the terms of
the [Technical Charter](https://vortex.dev/charter.pdf).
### Contributing
Please **do** read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) before you contribute.
### Reporting Vulnerabilities
If you discover a security vulnerability, please email .
### Trademarks
Copyright © Vortex a Series of LF Projects, LLC.
For terms of use, trademark policy, and other project policies please see
## Acknowledgments
The Vortex project benefits enormously from groundbreaking work from the academic & open-source communities.
### Research in Vortex
- [BtrBlocks](https://www.cs.cit.tum.de/fileadmin/w00cfj/dis/papers/btrblocks.pdf) - Efficient columnar compression
- [FastLanes](https://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol16/p2132-afroozeh.pdf) & [FastLanes on GPU](https://dbdbd2023.ugent.be/abstracts/felius_fastlanes.pdf) - High-performance integer compression
- [FSST](https://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol13/p2649-boncz.pdf) - Fast random access string compression
- [ALP](https://ir.cwi.nl/pub/33334/33334.pdf) & [G-ALP](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3736227.3736242) - Adaptive lossless floating-point compression
- [Procella](https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3360438) - YouTube's unified data system
- [Anyblob](https://www.durner.dev/app/media/papers/anyblob-vldb23.pdf) - High-performance access to object storage
- [ClickHouse](https://www.vldb.org/pvldb/vol17/p3731-schulze.pdf) - Fast analytics for everyone
- [MonetDB/X100](https://www.cidrdb.org/cidr2005/papers/P19.pdf) - Hyper-Pipelining Query Execution
- [Morsel-Driven Parallelism](https://db.in.tum.de/~leis/papers/morsels.pdf): A NUMA-Aware Query Evaluation Format for the Many-Core Age
- [The FastLanes File Format](https://github.com/cwida/FastLanes/blob/dev/docs/specification.pdf) - Expression Operators
### Vortex in Research
- [Anyblox](https://gienieczko.com/anyblox-paper) - A Framework for Self-Decoding Datasets
- [F3](https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3749163) - Open-Source Data File Format for the Future
### Open Source Inspiration
- [Apache Arrow](https://arrow.apache.org)
- [Apache DataFusion](https://github.com/apache/datafusion)
- [parquet2](https://github.com/jorgecarleitao/parquet2) by Jorge Leitao
- [DuckDB](https://github.com/duckdb/duckdb)
- [Velox](https://github.com/facebookincubator/velox) & [Nimble](https://github.com/facebookincubator/nimble)
#### Thanks to all contributors who have shared their knowledge and code with the community! 🚀