pg_parquet is a new extension by Crunchy Data that allows a PostgreSQL instance to work with Parquet files. With pg_duckdb, pg_analytics and pg_mooncake all of which can access Parquet files, is there need for yet another extension?

Well actually if you don't need the full strength of duck_db behind the covers, but just want to import a Parquet file as a Postgres table and work with it, then this is the appropriate extension for you. In other words, pg_parquet is the lightweight counterpart to the other mentioned extensions that does not summon a duck_db instance. Instead it does just a few things, but does them right:

• Exporting tables or queries from Postgres to Parquet files
• Ingesting data from Parquet files to Postgres
• Inspecting the schema and metadata of existing Parquet files

That goes for any Parquet files residing on S3 silos or the local file system.

The mechanism employed to ingest a Parquet file into Postgres happens simply via the familiar COPY TO/FROM commands.

-- Copy a query result into Parquet in S3
COPY (SELECT * FROM table) TO 's3://mybucket/data.Parquet' WITH (format 'Parquet');

-- Load data from Parquet in S3
COPY table FROM 's3://mybucket/data.Parquet' WITH (format 'Parquet');

That aside, pg_parquet can also handle complex table types, to and from Parquet files:

plus you can also inspect Parquet metadata and schemas.

After installing a Postgres instance, you need to set up
rustup and cargo-pgrx to build the extension; full instructions on its Github repo.

In conclusion, pg_parquet offers yet another convenience that again confirms the 'use PostgreSQL for everything' motto; a tool to rule them all.

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pg_parquet

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