Iceberg connector#

Apache Iceberg is an open table format for huge analytic datasets. The Iceberg connector allows querying data stored in files written in Iceberg format, as defined in the Iceberg Table Spec. The connector supports Apache Iceberg table spec versions 1 and 2.

The table state is maintained in metadata files. All changes to table state create a new metadata file and replace the old metadata with an atomic swap. The table metadata file tracks the table schema, partitioning configuration, custom properties, and snapshots of the table contents.

Iceberg data files are stored in either Parquet, ORC, or Avro format, as determined by the format property in the table definition.

Iceberg is designed to improve on the known scalability limitations of Hive, which stores table metadata in a metastore that is backed by a relational database such as MySQL. It tracks partition locations in the metastore, but not individual data files. Trino queries using the Hive connector must first call the metastore to get partition locations, then call the underlying file system to list all data files inside each partition, and then read metadata from each data file.

Since Iceberg stores the paths to data files in the metadata files, it only consults the underlying file system for files that must be read.

Requirements#

To use Iceberg, you need:

Network access from the Trino coordinator and workers to the distributed object storage.
Access to a Hive metastore service (HMS), an AWS Glue catalog, a JDBC catalog, a REST catalog, or a Nessie server.
Data files stored in a supported file format. These can be configured using file format configuration properties per catalog:
- ORC
- Parquet (default)

General configuration#

To configure the Iceberg connector, create a catalog properties file etc/catalog/example.properties that references the iceberg connector and defines a metastore type. The Hive metastore catalog is the default implementation. To use a Hive metastore, iceberg.catalog.type must be set to hive_metastore and hive.metastore.uri must be configured:

connector.name=iceberg
iceberg.catalog.type=hive_metastore
hive.metastore.uri=thrift://example.net:9083

Other metadata catalog types as listed in the requirements section of this topic are available. Each metastore type has specific configuration properties along with general metastore configuration properties.

The following configuration properties are independent of which catalog implementation is used:

Iceberg general configuration properties#
Property name	Description	Default
`iceberg.catalog.type`	Define the metastore type to use. Possible values are: `hive_metastore` `glue` `jdbc` `rest` `nessie`
`iceberg.file-format`	Define the data storage file format for Iceberg tables. Possible values are: `PARQUET` `ORC` `AVRO`	`PARQUET`
`iceberg.compression-codec`	The compression codec used when writing files. Possible values are: `NONE` `SNAPPY` `LZ4` `ZSTD` `GZIP`	`ZSTD`
`iceberg.use-file-size-from-metadata`	Read file sizes from metadata instead of file system. This property must only be used as a workaround for this issue. The problem was fixed in Iceberg version 0.11.0.	`true`
`iceberg.max-partitions-per-writer`	Maximum number of partitions handled per writer.	`100`
`iceberg.target-max-file-size`	Target maximum size of written files; the actual size may be larger.	`1GB`
`iceberg.unique-table-location`	Use randomized, unique table locations.	`true`
`iceberg.dynamic-filtering.wait-timeout`	Maximum duration to wait for completion of dynamic filters during split generation.	`0s`
`iceberg.delete-schema-locations-fallback`	Whether schema locations are deleted when Trino can’t determine whether they contain external files.	`false`
`iceberg.minimum-assigned-split-weight`	A decimal value in the range `(0, 1]` used as a minimum for weights assigned to each split. A low value may improve performance on tables with small files. A higher value may improve performance for queries with highly skewed aggregations or joins.	0.05
`iceberg.table-statistics-enabled`	Enable Table statistics. The equivalent catalog session property is `statistics_enabled` for session specific use. Set to `false` to disable statistics. Disabling statistics means that Cost-based optimizations cannot make better decisions about the query plan.	`true`
`iceberg.extended-statistics.enabled`	Enable statistics collection with ANALYZE and use of extended statistics. The equivalent catalog session property is `extended_statistics_enabled`.	`true`
`iceberg.extended-statistics.collect-on-write`	Enable collection of extended statistics for write operations. The equivalent catalog session property is `collect_extended_statistics_on_write`.	`true`
`iceberg.projection-pushdown-enabled`	Enable projection pushdown	`true`
`iceberg.hive-catalog-name`	Catalog to redirect to when a Hive table is referenced.
`iceberg.materialized-views.storage-schema`	Schema for creating materialized views storage tables. When this property is not configured, storage tables are created in the same schema as the materialized view definition. When the `storage_schema` materialized view property is specified, it takes precedence over this catalog property.	Empty
`iceberg.materialized-views.hide-storage-table`	Hide the information about the storage table backing the materialized view in the metastore.	`true`
`iceberg.register-table-procedure.enabled`	Enable to allow user to call `register_table` procedure.	`false`
`iceberg.query-partition-filter-required`	Set to `true` to force a query to use a partition filter. You can use the `query_partition_filter_required` catalog session property for temporary, catalog specific use.	`false`

Type mapping#

The connector reads and writes data into the supported data file formats Avro, ORC, and Parquet, following the Iceberg specification.

Because Trino and Iceberg each support types that the other does not, this connector modifies some types when reading or writing data. Data types may not map the same way in both directions between Trino and the data source. Refer to the following sections for type mapping in each direction.

The Iceberg specification includes supported data types and the mapping to the formating in the Avro, ORC, or Parquet files:

Iceberg to Trino type mapping#

The connector maps Iceberg types to the corresponding Trino types according to the following table:

Iceberg to Trino type mapping#
Iceberg type	Trino type
`BOOLEAN`	`BOOLEAN`
`INT`	`INTEGER`
`LONG`	`BIGINT`
`FLOAT`	`REAL`
`DOUBLE`	`DOUBLE`
`DECIMAL(p,s)`	`DECIMAL(p,s)`
`DATE`	`DATE`
`TIME`	`TIME(6)`
`TIMESTAMP`	`TIMESTAMP(6)`
`TIMESTAMPTZ`	`TIMESTAMP(6) WITH TIME ZONE`
`STRING`	`VARCHAR`
`UUID`	`UUID`
`BINARY`	`VARBINARY`
`FIXED (L)`	`VARBINARY`
`STRUCT(...)`	`ROW(...)`
`LIST(e)`	`ARRAY(e)`
`MAP(k,v)`	`MAP(k,v)`

No other types are supported.

Trino to Iceberg type mapping#

The connector maps Trino types to the corresponding Iceberg types according to the following table:

Trino to Iceberg type mapping#
Trino type	Iceberg type
`BOOLEAN`	`BOOLEAN`
`INTEGER`	`INT`
`BIGINT`	`LONG`
`REAL`	`FLOAT`
`DOUBLE`	`DOUBLE`
`DECIMAL(p,s)`	`DECIMAL(p,s)`
`DATE`	`DATE`
`TIME(6)`	`TIME`
`TIMESTAMP(6)`	`TIMESTAMP`
`TIMESTAMP(6) WITH TIME ZONE`	`TIMESTAMPTZ`
`VARCHAR`	`STRING`
`UUID`	`UUID`
`VARBINARY`	`BINARY`
`ROW(...)`	`STRUCT(...)`
`ARRAY(e)`	`LIST(e)`
`MAP(k,v)`	`MAP(k,v)`

No other types are supported.

Security#

Kerberos authentication#

The Iceberg connector supports Kerberos authentication for the Hive metastore and HDFS and is configured using the same parameters as the Hive connector. Find more information in the Hive connector security configuration section.

Authorization#

You can enable authorization checks for the connector by setting the iceberg.security property in the catalog properties file. This property must be one of the following values:

Iceberg security values#
Property value	Description
`ALLOW_ALL`	No authorization checks are enforced.
`SYSTEM`	The connector relies on system-level access control.
`READ_ONLY`	Operations that read data or metadata, such as SELECT are permitted. No operations that write data or metadata, such as CREATE TABLE, INSERT, or DELETE are allowed.
`FILE`	Authorization checks are enforced using a catalog-level access control configuration file whose path is specified in the `security.config-file` catalog configuration property. See Catalog-level access control files for information on the authorization configuration file.

SQL support#

This connector provides read access and write access to data and metadata in Iceberg. In addition to the globally available and read operation statements, the connector supports the following features:

Write operations:
- Schema and table management and Partitioned tables
- Data management
- View management
- Materialized view management, see also Materialized views

Basic usage examples#

The connector supports creating schemas. You can create a schema with or without a specified location.

You can create a schema with the CREATE SCHEMA statement and the location schema property. The tables in this schema, which have no explicit location set in CREATE TABLE statement, are located in a subdirectory under the directory corresponding to the schema location.

Create a schema on S3:

CREATE SCHEMA example.example_s3_schema
WITH (location = 's3://my-bucket/a/path/');

Create a schema on an S3-compatible object storage such as MinIO:

CREATE SCHEMA example.example_s3a_schema
WITH (location = 's3a://my-bucket/a/path/');

Create a schema on HDFS:

CREATE SCHEMA example.example_hdfs_schema
WITH (location='hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/a/path/');

Optionally, on HDFS, the location can be omitted:

CREATE SCHEMA example.example_hdfs_schema;

The Iceberg connector supports creating tables using the CREATE TABLE syntax. Optionally, specify the table properties supported by this connector:

CREATE TABLE example_table (
    c1 INTEGER,
    c2 DATE,
    c3 DOUBLE
)
WITH (
    format = 'PARQUET',
    partitioning = ARRAY['c1', 'c2'],
    sorted_by = ARRAY['c3'],
    location = 's3://my-bucket/a/path/'
);

When the location table property is omitted, the content of the table is stored in a subdirectory under the directory corresponding to the schema location.

The Iceberg connector supports creating tables using the CREATE TABLE AS with SELECT syntax:

CREATE TABLE tiny_nation
WITH (
    format = 'PARQUET'
)
AS
    SELECT *
    FROM nation
    WHERE nationkey < 10;

Another flavor of creating tables with CREATE TABLE AS is with VALUES syntax:

CREATE TABLE yearly_clicks (
    year,
    clicks
)
WITH (
    partitioning = ARRAY['year']
)
AS VALUES
    (2021, 10000),
    (2022, 20000);

Procedures#

Use the CALL statement to perform data manipulation or administrative tasks. Procedures are available in the system schema of each catalog. The following code snippet displays how to call the example_procedure in the examplecatalog catalog:

CALL examplecatalog.system.example_procedure()

Register table#

The connector can register existing Iceberg tables with the catalog.

The procedure system.register_table allows the caller to register an existing Iceberg table in the metastore, using its existing metadata and data files:

CALL example.system.register_table(schema_name => 'testdb', table_name => 'customer_orders', table_location => 'hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/customer_orders-581fad8517934af6be1857a903559d44')

In addition, you can provide a file name to register a table with specific metadata. This may be used to register the table with some specific table state, or may be necessary if the connector cannot automatically figure out the metadata version to use:

CALL example.system.register_table(schema_name => 'testdb', table_name => 'customer_orders', table_location => 'hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/customer_orders-581fad8517934af6be1857a903559d44', metadata_file_name => '00003-409702ba-4735-4645-8f14-09537cc0b2c8.metadata.json')

To prevent unauthorized users from accessing data, this procedure is disabled by default. The procedure is enabled only when iceberg.register-table-procedure.enabled is set to true.

Unregister table#

The connector can unregister existing Iceberg tables from the catalog.

The procedure system.unregister_table allows the caller to unregister an existing Iceberg table from the metastores without deleting the data:

CALL example.system.unregister_table(schema_name => 'testdb', table_name => 'customer_orders')

Migrate table#

The connector can read from or write to Hive tables that have been migrated to Iceberg.

Use the procedure system.migrate to move a table from the Hive format to the Iceberg format, loaded with the source’s data files. Table schema, partitioning, properties, and location are copied from the source table. A bucketed Hive table will be migrated as a non-bucketed Iceberg table. The data files in the Hive table must use the Parquet, ORC, or Avro file format.

The procedure must be called for a specific catalog example with the relevant schema and table names supplied with the required parameters schema_name and table_name:

CALL example.system.migrate(
    schema_name => 'testdb',
    table_name => 'customer_orders')

Migrate fails if any table partition uses an unsupported file format.

In addition, you can provide a recursive_directory argument to migrate a Hive table that contains subdirectories:

CALL example.system.migrate(
    schema_name => 'testdb',
    table_name => 'customer_orders',
    recursive_directory => 'true')

The default value is fail, which causes the migrate procedure to throw an exception if subdirectories are found. Set the value to true to migrate nested directories, or false to ignore them.

Data management#

The Data management functionality includes support for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE statements.

Deletion by partition#

For partitioned tables, the Iceberg connector supports the deletion of entire partitions if the WHERE clause specifies filters only on the identity-transformed partitioning columns, that can match entire partitions. Given the table definition from Partitioned Tables section, the following SQL statement deletes all partitions for which country is US:

DELETE FROM example.testdb.customer_orders
WHERE country = 'US'

A partition delete is performed if the WHERE clause meets these conditions.

Row level deletion#

Tables using v2 of the Iceberg specification support deletion of individual rows by writing position delete files.

Schema and table management#

The Schema and table management functionality includes support for:

Schema evolution#

Iceberg supports schema evolution, with safe column add, drop, reorder, and rename operations, including in nested structures.

Iceberg supports updating column types only for widening operations:

INTEGER to BIGINT
REAL to DOUBLE
DECIMAL(p,s) to DECIMAL(p2,s) when p2 > p (scale cannot change)

Partitioning can also be changed and the connector can still query data created before the partitioning change.

ALTER TABLE EXECUTE#

The connector supports the following commands for use with ALTER TABLE EXECUTE.

optimize#

The optimize command is used for rewriting the content of the specified table so that it is merged into fewer but larger files. If the table is partitioned, the data compaction acts separately on each partition selected for optimization. This operation improves read performance.

All files with a size below the optional file_size_threshold parameter (default value for the threshold is 100MB) are merged:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE optimize

The following statement merges files in a table that are under 128 megabytes in size:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE optimize(file_size_threshold => '128MB')

You can use a WHERE clause with the columns used to partition the table to filter which partitions are optimized:

ALTER TABLE test_partitioned_table EXECUTE optimize
WHERE partition_key = 1

You can use a more complex WHERE clause to narrow down the scope of the optimize procedure. The following example casts the timestamp values to dates, and uses a comparison to only optimize partitions with data from the year 2022 or newer:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE optimize
WHERE CAST(timestamp_tz AS DATE) > DATE '2021-12-31'

expire_snapshots#

The expire_snapshots command removes all snapshots and all related metadata and data files. Regularly expiring snapshots is recommended to delete data files that are no longer needed, and to keep the size of table metadata small. The procedure affects all snapshots that are older than the time period configured with the retention_threshold parameter.

expire_snapshots can be run as follows:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE expire_snapshots(retention_threshold => '7d')

The value for retention_threshold must be higher than or equal to iceberg.expire_snapshots.min-retention in the catalog, otherwise the procedure fails with a similar message: Retention specified (1.00d) is shorter than the minimum retention configured in the system (7.00d). The default value for this property is 7d.

remove_orphan_files#

The remove_orphan_files command removes all files from a table’s data directory that are not linked from metadata files and that are older than the value of retention_threshold parameter. Deleting orphan files from time to time is recommended to keep size of a table’s data directory under control.

remove_orphan_files can be run as follows:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE remove_orphan_files(retention_threshold => '7d')

The value for retention_threshold must be higher than or equal to iceberg.remove_orphan_files.min-retention in the catalog otherwise the procedure fails with a similar message: Retention specified (1.00d) is shorter than the minimum retention configured in the system (7.00d). The default value for this property is 7d.

drop_extended_stats#

The drop_extended_stats command removes all extended statistics information from the table.

drop_extended_stats can be run as follows:

ALTER TABLE test_table EXECUTE drop_extended_stats

ALTER TABLE SET PROPERTIES#

The connector supports modifying the properties on existing tables using ALTER TABLE SET PROPERTIES.

The following table properties can be updated after a table is created:

format
format_version
partitioning
sorted_by

For example, to update a table from v1 of the Iceberg specification to v2:

ALTER TABLE table_name SET PROPERTIES format_version = 2;

Or to set the column my_new_partition_column as a partition column on a table:

ALTER TABLE table_name SET PROPERTIES partitioning = ARRAY[<existing partition columns>, 'my_new_partition_column'];

The current values of a table’s properties can be shown using SHOW CREATE TABLE.

Table properties#

Table properties supply or set metadata for the underlying tables. This is key for CREATE TABLE AS statements. Table properties are passed to the connector using a WITH clause.

Iceberg table properties#
Property name	Description
`format`	Optionally specifies the format of table data files; either `PARQUET`, `ORC`, or `AVRO`. Defaults to the value of the `iceberg.file-format` catalog configuration property, which defaults to `PARQUET`.
`partitioning`	Optionally specifies table partitioning. If a table is partitioned by columns `c1` and `c2`, the partitioning property is `partitioning = ARRAY['c1', 'c2']`.
`location`	Optionally specifies the file system location URI for the table.
`format_version`	Optionally specifies the format version of the Iceberg specification to use for new tables; either `1` or `2`. Defaults to `2`. Version `2` is required for row level deletes.
`orc_bloom_filter_columns`	Comma-separated list of columns to use for ORC bloom filter. It improves the performance of queries using Equality and IN predicates when reading ORC files. Requires ORC format. Defaults to `[]`.
`orc_bloom_filter_fpp`	The ORC bloom filters false positive probability. Requires ORC format. Defaults to `0.05`.

The table definition below specifies to use Parquet files, partitioning by columns c1 and c2, and a file system location of /var/example_tables/test_table:

CREATE TABLE test_table (
    c1 INTEGER,
    c2 DATE,
    c3 DOUBLE)
WITH (
    format = 'PARQUET',
    partitioning = ARRAY['c1', 'c2'],
    location = '/var/example_tables/test_table')

The table definition below specifies to use ORC files, bloom filter index by columns c1 and c2, fpp is 0.05, and a file system location of /var/example_tables/test_table:

CREATE TABLE test_table (
    c1 INTEGER,
    c2 DATE,
    c3 DOUBLE)
WITH (
    format = 'ORC',
    location = '/var/example_tables/test_table',
    orc_bloom_filter_columns = ARRAY['c1', 'c2'],
    orc_bloom_filter_fpp = 0.05)

Metadata tables#

The connector exposes several metadata tables for each Iceberg table. These metadata tables contain information about the internal structure of the Iceberg table. You can query each metadata table by appending the metadata table name to the table name:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$properties"

`$properties` table#

The $properties table provides access to general information about Iceberg table configuration and any additional metadata key/value pairs that the table is tagged with.

You can retrieve the properties of the current snapshot of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$properties"

 key                   | value    |
-----------------------+----------+
write.format.default   | PARQUET  |

`$history` table#

The $history table provides a log of the metadata changes performed on the Iceberg table.

You can retrieve the changelog of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$history"

 made_current_at                  | snapshot_id          | parent_id            | is_current_ancestor
----------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------
2022-01-10 08:11:20 Europe/Vienna | 8667764846443717831  |  <null>              |  true
2022-01-10 08:11:34 Europe/Vienna | 7860805980949777961  | 8667764846443717831  |  true

The output of the query has the following columns:

History columns#
Name	Type	Description
`made_current_at`	`TIMESTAMP(3) WITH TIME ZONE`	The time when the snapshot became active.
`snapshot_id`	`BIGINT`	The identifier of the snapshot.
`parent_id`	`BIGINT`	The identifier of the parent snapshot.
`is_current_ancestor`	`BOOLEAN`	Whether or not this snapshot is an ancestor of the current snapshot.

`$snapshots` table#

The $snapshots table provides a detailed view of snapshots of the Iceberg table. A snapshot consists of one or more file manifests, and the complete table contents are represented by the union of all the data files in those manifests.

You can retrieve the information about the snapshots of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$snapshots"

 committed_at                      | snapshot_id          | parent_id            | operation          |  manifest_list                                                                                                                           |   summary
----------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+--------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022-01-10 08:11:20 Europe/Vienna | 8667764846443717831  |  <null>              |  append            |   hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/test_table/metadata/snap-8667764846443717831-1-100cf97e-6d56-446e-8961-afdaded63bc4.avro | {changed-partition-count=0, total-equality-deletes=0, total-position-deletes=0, total-delete-files=0, total-files-size=0, total-records=0, total-data-files=0}
2022-01-10 08:11:34 Europe/Vienna | 7860805980949777961  | 8667764846443717831  |  append            |   hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/test_table/metadata/snap-7860805980949777961-1-faa19903-1455-4bb8-855a-61a1bbafbaa7.avro | {changed-partition-count=1, added-data-files=1, total-equality-deletes=0, added-records=1, total-position-deletes=0, added-files-size=442, total-delete-files=0, total-files-size=442, total-records=1, total-data-files=1}

The output of the query has the following columns:

Snapshots columns#
Name	Type	Description
`committed_at`	`TIMESTAMP(3) WITH TIME ZONE`	The time when the snapshot became active.
`snapshot_id`	`BIGINT`	The identifier for the snapshot.
`parent_id`	`BIGINT`	The identifier for the parent snapshot.
`operation`	`VARCHAR`	The type of operation performed on the Iceberg table. The supported operation types in Iceberg are: `append` when new data is appended. `replace` when files are removed and replaced without changing the data in the table. `overwrite` when new data is added to overwrite existing data. `delete` when data is deleted from the table and no new data is added.
`manifest_list`	`VARCHAR`	The list of Avro manifest files containing the detailed information about the snapshot changes.
`summary`	`map(VARCHAR, VARCHAR)`	A summary of the changes made from the previous snapshot to the current snapshot.

`$manifests` table#

The $manifests table provides a detailed overview of the manifests corresponding to the snapshots performed in the log of the Iceberg table.

You can retrieve the information about the manifests of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$manifests"

 path                                                                                                           | length          | partition_spec_id    | added_snapshot_id     | added_data_files_count  | added_rows_count | existing_data_files_count   | existing_rows_count | deleted_data_files_count    | deleted_rows_count | partitions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+----------------------+-----------------------+-------------------------+------------------+-----------------------------+---------------------+-----------------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/test_table/metadata/faa19903-1455-4bb8-855a-61a1bbafbaa7-m0.avro |  6277           |   0                  | 7860805980949777961   | 1                       | 100              | 0                           | 0                   | 0                           | 0                  | {{contains_null=false, contains_nan= false, lower_bound=1, upper_bound=1},{contains_null=false, contains_nan= false, lower_bound=2021-01-12, upper_bound=2021-01-12}}

The output of the query has the following columns:

Manifests columns#
Name	Type	Description
`path`	`VARCHAR`	The manifest file location.
`length`	`BIGINT`	The manifest file length.
`partition_spec_id`	`INTEGER`	The identifier for the partition specification used to write the manifest file.
`added_snapshot_id`	`BIGINT`	The identifier of the snapshot during which this manifest entry has been added.
`added_data_files_count`	`INTEGER`	The number of data files with status `ADDED` in the manifest file.
`added_rows_count`	`BIGINT`	The total number of rows in all data files with status `ADDED` in the manifest file.
`existing_data_files_count`	`INTEGER`	The number of data files with status `EXISTING` in the manifest file.
`existing_rows_count`	`BIGINT`	The total number of rows in all data files with status `EXISTING` in the manifest file.
`deleted_data_files_count`	`INTEGER`	The number of data files with status `DELETED` in the manifest file.
`deleted_rows_count`	`BIGINT`	The total number of rows in all data files with status `DELETED` in the manifest file.
`partitions`	`ARRAY(row(contains_null BOOLEAN, contains_nan BOOLEAN, lower_bound VARCHAR, upper_bound VARCHAR))`	Partition range metadata.

`$partitions` table#

The $partitions table provides a detailed overview of the partitions of the Iceberg table.

You can retrieve the information about the partitions of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$partitions"

 partition             | record_count  | file_count    | total_size    |  data
-----------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------+------------------------------------------------------
{c1=1, c2=2021-01-12}  |  2            | 2             |  884          | {c3={min=1.0, max=2.0, null_count=0, nan_count=NULL}}
{c1=1, c2=2021-01-13}  |  1            | 1             |  442          | {c3={min=1.0, max=1.0, null_count=0, nan_count=NULL}}

The output of the query has the following columns:

Partitions columns#
Name	Type	Description
`partition`	`ROW(...)`	A row that contains the mapping of the partition column names to the partition column values.
`record_count`	`BIGINT`	The number of records in the partition.
`file_count`	`BIGINT`	The number of files mapped in the partition.
`total_size`	`BIGINT`	The size of all the files in the partition.
`data`	`ROW(... ROW (min ..., max ... , null_count BIGINT, nan_count BIGINT))`	Partition range metadata.

`$files` table#

The $files table provides a detailed overview of the data files in current snapshot of the Iceberg table.

To retrieve the information about the data files of the Iceberg table test_table, use the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$files"

 content  | file_path                                                                                                                     | record_count    | file_format   | file_size_in_bytes   |  column_sizes        |  value_counts     |  null_value_counts | nan_value_counts  | lower_bounds                |  upper_bounds               |  key_metadata  | split_offsets  |  equality_ids
----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------+---------------+----------------------+----------------------+-------------------+--------------------+-------------------+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+----------------+----------------+---------------
 0        | hdfs://hadoop-master:9000/user/hive/warehouse/test_table/data/c1=3/c2=2021-01-14/af9872b2-40f3-428f-9c87-186d2750d84e.parquet |  1              |  PARQUET      |  442                 | {1=40, 2=40, 3=44}   |  {1=1, 2=1, 3=1}  |  {1=0, 2=0, 3=0}   | <null>            |  {1=3, 2=2021-01-14, 3=1.3} |  {1=3, 2=2021-01-14, 3=1.3} |  <null>        | <null>         |   <null>

The output of the query has the following columns:

Files columns#
Name	Type	Description
`content`	`INTEGER`	Type of content stored in the file. The supported content types in Iceberg are: `DATA(0)` `POSITION_DELETES(1)` `EQUALITY_DELETES(2)`
`file_path`	`VARCHAR`	The data file location.
`file_format`	`VARCHAR`	The format of the data file.
`record_count`	`BIGINT`	The number of entries contained in the data file.
`file_size_in_bytes`	`BIGINT`	The data file size
`column_sizes`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding size in the file.
`value_counts`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding count of entries in the file.
`null_value_counts`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding count of `NULL` values in the file.
`nan_value_counts`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding count of non- numerical values in the file.
`lower_bounds`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding lower bound in the file.
`upper_bounds`	`map(INTEGER, BIGINT)`	Mapping between the Iceberg column ID and its corresponding upper bound in the file.
`key_metadata`	`VARBINARY`	Metadata about the encryption key used to encrypt this file, if applicable.
`split_offsets`	`array(BIGINT)`	List of recommended split locations.
`equality_ids`	`array(INTEGER)`	The set of field IDs used for equality comparison in equality delete files.

`$refs` table#

The $refs table provides information about Iceberg references including branches and tags.

You can retrieve the references of the Iceberg table test_table by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM "test_table$refs"

name            | type   | snapshot_id | max_reference_age_in_ms | min_snapshots_to_keep | max_snapshot_age_in_ms |
----------------+--------+-------------+-------------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+
example_tag     | TAG    | 10000000000 | 10000                   | null                  | null                   |
example_branch  | BRANCH | 20000000000 | 20000                   | 2                     | 30000                  |

The output of the query has the following columns:

Refs columns#
Name	Type	Description
`name`	`VARCHAR`	Name of the reference.
`type`	`VARCHAR`	Type of the reference, either `BRANCH` or `TAG`.
`snapshot_id`	`BIGINT`	The snapshot ID of the reference.
`max_reference_age_in_ms`	`BIGINT`	The maximum age of the reference before it could be expired.
`min_snapshots_to_keep`	`INTEGER`	For branch only, the minimum number of snapshots to keep in a branch.
`max_snapshot_age_in_ms`	`BIGINT`	For branch only, the max snapshot age allowed in a branch. Older snapshots in the branch will be expired.

Metadata columns#

In addition to the defined columns, the Iceberg connector automatically exposes path metadata as a hidden column in each table:

$path: Full file system path name of the file for this row
$file_modified_time: Timestamp of the last modification of the file for this row

You can use these columns in your SQL statements like any other column. This can be selected directly, or used in conditional statements. For example, you can inspect the file path for each record:

SELECT *, "$path", "$file_modified_time"
FROM example.web.page_views;

Retrieve all records that belong to a specific file using "$path" filter:

SELECT *
FROM example.web.page_views
WHERE "$path" = '/usr/iceberg/table/web.page_views/data/file_01.parquet'

Retrieve all records that belong to a specific file using "$file_modified_time" filter:

SELECT *
FROM example.web.page_views
WHERE "$file_modified_time" = CAST('2022-07-01 01:02:03.456 UTC' AS TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE)

DROP TABLE#

The Iceberg connector supports dropping a table by using the DROP TABLE syntax. When the command succeeds, both the data of the Iceberg table and also the information related to the table in the metastore service are removed. Dropping tables that have their data/metadata stored in a different location than the table’s corresponding base directory on the object store is not supported.

COMMENT#

The Iceberg connector supports setting comments on the following objects:

tables
views
table columns
materialized view columns

The COMMENT option is supported on both the table and the table columns for the CREATE TABLE operation.

The COMMENT option is supported for adding table columns through the ALTER TABLE operations.

The connector supports the command COMMENT for setting comments on existing entities.

Partitioned tables#

Iceberg supports partitioning by specifying transforms over the table columns. A partition is created for each unique tuple value produced by the transforms. Identity transforms are simply the column name. Other transforms are:

Iceberg column transforms#
Transform	Description
`year(ts)`	A partition is created for each year. The partition value is the integer difference in years between `ts` and January 1 1970.
`month(ts)`	A partition is created for each month of each year. The partition value is the integer difference in months between `ts` and January 1 1970.
`day(ts)`	A partition is created for each day of each year. The partition value is the integer difference in days between `ts` and January 1 1970.
`hour(ts)`	A partition is created hour of each day. The partition value is a timestamp with the minutes and seconds set to zero.
`bucket(x, nbuckets)`	The data is hashed into the specified number of buckets. The partition value is an integer hash of `x`, with a value between 0 and `nbuckets - 1` inclusive.
`truncate(s, nchars)`	The partition value is the first `nchars` characters of `s`.

In this example, the table is partitioned by the month of order_date, a hash of account_number (with 10 buckets), and country:

CREATE TABLE example.testdb.customer_orders (
    order_id BIGINT,
    order_date DATE,
    account_number BIGINT,
    customer VARCHAR,
    country VARCHAR)
WITH (partitioning = ARRAY['month(order_date)', 'bucket(account_number, 10)', 'country'])

Sorted tables#

The connector supports sorted files as a performance improvement. Data is sorted during writes within each file based on the specified array of one or more columns.

Sorting is particularly beneficial when the sorted columns show a high cardinality and are used as a filter for selective reads.

The sort order is configured with the sorted_by table property. Specify an array of one or more columns to use for sorting when creating the table. The following example configures the order_date column of the orders table in the customers schema in the example catalog:

CREATE TABLE example.customers.orders (
    order_id BIGINT,
    order_date DATE,
    account_number BIGINT,
    customer VARCHAR,
    country VARCHAR)
WITH (sorted_by = ARRAY['order_date'])

Sorting can be combined with partitioning on the same column. For example:

CREATE TABLE example.customers.orders (
    order_id BIGINT,
    order_date DATE,
    account_number BIGINT,
    customer VARCHAR,
    country VARCHAR)
WITH (
    partitioning = ARRAY['month(order_date)'],
    sorted_by = ARRAY['order_date']
)

You can disable sorted writing with the session property sorted_writing_enabled set to false.

Using snapshots#

Iceberg supports a snapshot model of data, where table snapshots are identified by a snapshot ID.

The connector provides a system table exposing snapshot information for every Iceberg table. Snapshots are identified by BIGINT snapshot IDs. For example, you can find the snapshot IDs for the customer_orders table by running the following query:

SELECT snapshot_id
FROM example.testdb."customer_orders$snapshots"
ORDER BY committed_at DESC

Replacing tables#

The connector supports replacing a table as an atomic operation. Atomic table replacement creates a new snapshot with the new table definition (see CREATE TABLE and CREATE TABLE AS), but keeps table history.

The new table after replacement is completely new and separate from the old table. Only the name of the table remains identical. Earlier snapshots can be retrieved through Iceberg’s time travel.

For example a partitioned table my_table can be replaced by completely new definition.

CREATE TABLE my_table (
    a BIGINT,
    b DATE,
    c BIGINT)
WITH (partitioning = ARRAY['a']);

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE my_table
WITH (sorted_by = ARRAY['a'])
AS SELECT * from another_table;

Earlier snapshots can be retrieved through Iceberg’s time travel.

Time travel queries#

The connector offers the ability to query historical data. This allows you to query the table as it was when a previous snapshot of the table was taken, even if the data has since been modified or deleted.

The historical data of the table can be retrieved by specifying the snapshot identifier corresponding to the version of the table to be retrieved:

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR VERSION AS OF 8954597067493422955

A different approach of retrieving historical data is to specify a point in time in the past, such as a day or week ago. The latest snapshot of the table taken before or at the specified timestamp in the query is internally used for providing the previous state of the table:

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF TIMESTAMP '2022-03-23 09:59:29.803 Europe/Vienna'

The connector allows to create a new snapshot through Iceberg’s replace table.

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE example.testdb.customer_orders AS 
SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF TIMESTAMP '2022-03-23 09:59:29.803 Europe/Vienna'

You can use a date to specify a point a time in the past for using a snapshot of a table in a query. Assuming that the session time zone is Europe/Vienna the following queries are equivalent:

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF DATE '2022-03-23'

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF TIMESTAMP '2022-03-23 00:00:00'

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR TIMESTAMP AS OF TIMESTAMP '2022-03-23 00:00:00.000 Europe/Vienna'

Iceberg supports named references of snapshots via branches and tags. Time travel can be performed to branches and tags in the table.

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR VERSION AS OF 'historical-tag'

SELECT *
FROM example.testdb.customer_orders FOR VERSION AS OF 'test-branch'

Rolling back to a previous snapshot#

Use the $snapshots metadata table to determine the latest snapshot ID of the table like in the following query:

SELECT snapshot_id
FROM example.testdb."customer_orders$snapshots"
ORDER BY committed_at DESC LIMIT 1

The procedure system.rollback_to_snapshot allows the caller to roll back the state of the table to a previous snapshot id:

CALL example.system.rollback_to_snapshot('testdb', 'customer_orders', 8954597067493422955)

`NOT NULL` column constraint#

The Iceberg connector supports setting NOT NULL constraints on the table columns.

The NOT NULL constraint can be set on the columns, while creating tables by using the CREATE TABLE syntax:

CREATE TABLE example_table (
    year INTEGER NOT NULL,
    name VARCHAR NOT NULL,
    age INTEGER,
    address VARCHAR
);

When trying to insert/update data in the table, the query fails if trying to set NULL value on a column having the NOT NULL constraint.

Materialized views#

The Iceberg connector supports Materialized view management. In the underlying system, each materialized view consists of a view definition and an Iceberg storage table. The storage table name is stored as a materialized view property. The data is stored in that storage table.

You can use the Table properties to control the created storage table and therefore the layout and performance. For example, you can use the following clause with CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW to use the ORC format for the data files and partition the storage per day using the column event_date:

WITH ( format = 'ORC', partitioning = ARRAY['event_date'] )

By default, the storage table is created in the same schema as the materialized view definition. The iceberg.materialized-views.storage-schema catalog configuration property or storage_schema materialized view property can be used to specify the schema where the storage table is created.

Creating a materialized view does not automatically populate it with data. You must run REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW to populate data in the materialized view.

Updating the data in the materialized view with REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW deletes the data from the storage table, and inserts the data that is the result of executing the materialized view query into the existing table. Data is replaced atomically, so users can continue to query the materialized view while it is being refreshed. Refreshing a materialized view also stores the snapshot-ids of all Iceberg tables that are part of the materialized view’s query in the materialized view metadata. When the materialized view is queried, the snapshot-ids are used to check if the data in the storage table is up to date.

Materialized views that use non-Iceberg tables in the query show the default behavior around grace periods. If all tables are Iceberg tables, the connector can determine if the data has not changed and continue to use the data from the storage tables, even after the grace period expired.

Dropping a materialized view with DROP MATERIALIZED VIEW removes the definition and the storage table.

Fault-tolerant execution support#

The connector supports Fault-tolerant execution of query processing. Read and write operations are both supported with any retry policy.

Performance#

The connector includes a number of performance improvements, detailed in the following sections.

Table statistics#

The Iceberg connector can collect column statistics using ANALYZE statement. This can be disabled using iceberg.extended-statistics.enabled catalog configuration property, or the corresponding extended_statistics_enabled session property.

Updating table statistics#

If your queries are complex and include joining large data sets, running ANALYZE on tables may improve query performance by collecting statistical information about the data:

ANALYZE table_name

This query collects statistics for all columns.

On wide tables, collecting statistics for all columns can be expensive. It is also typically unnecessary - statistics are only useful on specific columns, like join keys, predicates, or grouping keys. You can specify a subset of columns to analyzed with the optional columns property:

ANALYZE table_name WITH (columns = ARRAY['col_1', 'col_2'])

This query collects statistics for columns col_1 and col_2.

Note that if statistics were previously collected for all columns, they must be dropped using the drop_extended_stats command before re-analyzing.

Table redirection#

Trino offers the possibility to transparently redirect operations on an existing table to the appropriate catalog based on the format of the table and catalog configuration.

In the context of connectors which depend on a metastore service (for example, Hive connector, Iceberg connector and Delta Lake connector), the metastore (Hive metastore service, AWS Glue Data Catalog) can be used to accustom tables with different table formats. Therefore, a metastore database can hold a variety of tables with different table formats.

As a concrete example, let’s use the following simple scenario which makes use of table redirection:

USE example.example_schema;

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM example_table;

                               Query Plan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragment 0 [SOURCE]
     ...
     Output[columnNames = [...]]
     │   ...
     └─ TableScan[table = another_catalog:example_schema:example_table]
            ...

The output of the EXPLAIN statement points out the actual catalog which is handling the SELECT query over the table example_table.

The table redirection functionality works also when using fully qualified names for the tables:

EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM example.example_schema.example_table;

                               Query Plan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fragment 0 [SOURCE]
     ...
     Output[columnNames = [...]]
     │   ...
     └─ TableScan[table = another_catalog:example_schema:example_table]
            ...

Trino offers table redirection support for the following operations:

Table read operations
Table write operations
- INSERT
- UPDATE
- MERGE
- DELETE
Table management operations

Trino does not offer view redirection support.

The connector supports redirection from Iceberg tables to Hive tables with the iceberg.hive-catalog-name catalog configuration property.

File system cache#

The connector supports configuring and using file system caching.

Iceberg connector#

Requirements#

General configuration#

Type mapping#

Iceberg to Trino type mapping#

Trino to Iceberg type mapping#

Security#

Kerberos authentication#

Authorization#

SQL support#

Basic usage examples#

Procedures#

Register table#

Unregister table#

Migrate table#

Data management#

Deletion by partition#

Row level deletion#

Schema and table management#

Schema evolution#

ALTER TABLE EXECUTE#

optimize#

expire_snapshots#

remove_orphan_files#

drop_extended_stats#

ALTER TABLE SET PROPERTIES#

Table properties#

Metadata tables#

$properties table#

$history table#

$snapshots table#

$manifests table#

$partitions table#

$files table#

$refs table#

Metadata columns#

DROP TABLE#

COMMENT#

Partitioned tables#

Sorted tables#

Using snapshots#

Replacing tables#

Time travel queries#

Rolling back to a previous snapshot#

NOT NULL column constraint#

Materialized views#

Fault-tolerant execution support#

Performance#

Table statistics#

Updating table statistics#

Table redirection#

File system cache#

`$properties` table#

`$history` table#

`$snapshots` table#

`$manifests` table#

`$partitions` table#

`$files` table#

`$refs` table#

`NOT NULL` column constraint#