Introduce `PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build()`, avoid use of ArrayData #9305

alamb · 2026-01-29T19:59:51Z

Which issue does this PR close?

Part of [Epic] Replace ArrayData with direct Array construction, when possible #9298

Note if this looks good I will file a ticket about adding build to the other array builders

Rationale for this change

While reviewing #9303 from @Dandandan I noticed that using the primitive builders to create arrays was non ideal for two reasons:

It drops/recreates a DataType (which while not super expensive is total overhead)
It uses ArrayData (which allocates a Vec unecessairly)

If this approach is accepted, I will make a ticket to track adding build to the other builders

What changes are included in this PR?

Update finish and finish_cloned to avoid using ArrayData
Introduce build which consumes the builder

This is similar to the build methods added to the other builders here

Improve docs and add build() method to {Null,Boolean,}BufferBuilder #9155

Are these changes tested?

Yes by CI and new doc tests

I will also run benchmarks

Are there any user-facing changes?

alamb · 2026-01-29T20:14:29Z

run benchmark builder

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-29T20:14:38Z

🤖 ./gh_compare_arrow.sh gh_compare_arrow.sh Running
Linux aal-dev 6.14.0-1018-gcp #19~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 24 23:23:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comparing alamb/less_array_data_primtive (a9b6504) to 2c0eba4 diff
BENCH_NAME=builder
BENCH_COMMAND=cargo bench --features=arrow,async,test_common,experimental,object_store --bench builder
BENCH_FILTER=
BENCH_BRANCH_NAME=alamb_less_array_data_primtive
Results will be posted here when complete

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-29T20:19:29Z

🤖: Benchmark completed

Details

group                                          alamb_less_array_data_primtive         main
-----                                          ------------------------------         ----
bench_bool/bench_bool                          1.45  1502.7±10.24µs   332.7 MB/sec    1.00  1035.3±33.48µs   483.0 MB/sec
bench_decimal128_builder                       1.21    102.3±1.14µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     84.9±1.61µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal256_builder                       1.22    105.9±1.39µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     87.0±3.74µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal32_builder                        1.00     51.2±0.23µs        ? ?/sec    1.11     57.1±2.58µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal64_builder                        1.26     58.2±0.32µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     46.3±0.35µs        ? ?/sec
bench_primitive/bench_primitive                1.00    176.4±4.36µs    22.1 GB/sec    1.00    175.7±4.53µs    22.2 GB/sec
bench_primitive/bench_string                   1.16      9.7±0.25ms   672.8 MB/sec    1.00      8.3±0.29ms   779.1 MB/sec
bench_primitive_nulls/bench_primitive_nulls    1.02  1230.6±20.87µs        ? ?/sec    1.00   1212.3±6.74µs        ? ?/sec

alamb · 2026-01-29T20:25:36Z

run benchmark builder

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-29T20:25:43Z

🤖 ./gh_compare_arrow.sh gh_compare_arrow.sh Running
Linux aal-dev 6.14.0-1018-gcp #19~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 24 23:23:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comparing alamb/less_array_data_primtive (fcebc95) to 2c0eba4 diff
BENCH_NAME=builder
BENCH_COMMAND=cargo bench --features=arrow,async,test_common,experimental,object_store --bench builder
BENCH_FILTER=
BENCH_BRANCH_NAME=alamb_less_array_data_primtive
Results will be posted here when complete

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-29T20:30:25Z

🤖: Benchmark completed

Details

group                                          alamb_less_array_data_primtive         main
-----                                          ------------------------------         ----
bench_bool/bench_bool                          1.46  1508.5±39.85µs   331.5 MB/sec    1.00  1032.6±10.07µs   484.2 MB/sec
bench_decimal128_builder                       1.24    101.5±1.01µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     82.1±5.90µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal256_builder                       1.27    105.7±2.87µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     83.2±3.76µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal32_builder                        1.00     51.2±0.22µs        ? ?/sec    1.09     56.0±0.49µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal64_builder                        1.26     57.9±0.20µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     45.9±0.27µs        ? ?/sec
bench_primitive/bench_primitive                1.00    174.2±4.24µs    22.4 GB/sec    1.01    176.5±3.66µs    22.1 GB/sec
bench_primitive/bench_string                   1.00      8.8±0.27ms   738.3 MB/sec    1.05      9.3±0.25ms   702.3 MB/sec
bench_primitive_nulls/bench_primitive_nulls    1.01   1226.1±6.26µs        ? ?/sec    1.00  1214.1±13.71µs        ? ?/sec

alamb · 2026-01-29T20:36:35Z

🤔 seems to get slower. Will investigate

alamb · 2026-01-29T21:54:35Z

Seems the benchmark is not super useful:

Dandandan · 2026-01-30T07:33:31Z

run benchmark builder

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T07:33:41Z

🤖 ./gh_compare_arrow.sh gh_compare_arrow.sh Running
Linux aal-dev 6.14.0-1018-gcp #19~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 24 23:23:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comparing alamb/less_array_data_primtive (fcebc95) to 2c0eba4 diff
BENCH_NAME=builder
BENCH_COMMAND=cargo bench --features=arrow,async,test_common,experimental,object_store --bench builder
BENCH_FILTER=
BENCH_BRANCH_NAME=alamb_less_array_data_primtive
Results will be posted here when complete

Dandandan · 2026-01-30T07:38:21Z

arrow-array/src/array/primitive_array.rs

+        values: ScalarBuffer<T::Native>,
+        nulls: Option<NullBuffer>,
+    ) -> Self {
+        Self::assert_compatible(&data_type);


This does an extra check that wasn't there before when using build_unchecked?

Probably not relevant if we removed all build

yeah, I think I have a way to remove this

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T07:38:47Z

🤖: Benchmark completed

Details

group                                          alamb_less_array_data_primtive         main
-----                                          ------------------------------         ----
bench_bool/bench_bool                          1.00   1058.2±9.69µs   472.5 MB/sec    1.42  1505.1±11.03µs   332.2 MB/sec
bench_decimal128_builder                       1.23    102.2±3.71µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     83.0±0.51µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal256_builder                       1.26    105.2±1.78µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     83.3±1.68µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal32_builder                        1.06     51.1±0.23µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     48.1±0.75µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal64_builder                        1.25     57.3±1.19µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     46.0±0.34µs        ? ?/sec
bench_primitive/bench_primitive                1.19    187.0±4.90µs    20.9 GB/sec    1.00    156.6±5.34µs    25.0 GB/sec
bench_primitive/bench_string                   1.02     10.2±0.11ms   635.9 MB/sec    1.00     10.0±0.08ms   647.4 MB/sec
bench_primitive_nulls/bench_primitive_nulls    1.00  1242.9±16.73µs        ? ?/sec    1.04  1297.5±16.00µs        ? ?/sec

Dandandan · 2026-01-30T07:40:14Z

bench_bool/bench_bool 1.00 1058.2±9.69µs 472.5 MB/sec 1.42 1505.1±11.03µs 332.2 MB/sec

And it's the other way around (so noise confirmed)

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:05:55Z

bench_bool/bench_bool 1.00 1058.2±9.69µs 472.5 MB/sec 1.42 1505.1±11.03µs 332.2 MB/sec

And it's the other way around (so noise confirmed)

Yeah. I thought of some way to make this faster though, so working on that now

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:09:03Z

arrow-array/src/builder/primitive_builder.rs

    values_builder: Vec<T::Native>,
    null_buffer_builder: NullBufferBuilder,
-    data_type: DataType,
+    /// Optional data type override (e.g. to add timezone or precision/scale)


This time I tried switching to use Option so we only pay the extra type check when there is actually a datatype override

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:13:46Z

arrow-array/src/builder/primitive_builder.rs

+    /// not [PrimitiveArray::is_compatible] with the builder's primitive type
+    /// `T`.
    pub fn with_data_type(self, data_type: DataType) -> Self {
-        assert!(


this assert is done as part of the PrimitiveArray::with_type later on

I also updated the tests to show that

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:14:38Z

run benchmark builder

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T14:20:59Z

🤖 ./gh_compare_arrow.sh gh_compare_arrow.sh Running
Linux aal-dev 6.14.0-1018-gcp #19~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 24 23:23:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comparing alamb/less_array_data_primtive (6895106) to b3ad9a8 diff
BENCH_NAME=builder
BENCH_COMMAND=cargo bench --features=arrow,async,test_common,experimental,object_store --bench builder
BENCH_FILTER=
BENCH_BRANCH_NAME=alamb_less_array_data_primtive
Results will be posted here when complete

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T14:25:49Z

🤖: Benchmark completed

Details

group                                          alamb_less_array_data_primtive         main
-----                                          ------------------------------         ----
bench_bool/bench_bool                          1.00  1367.1±19.01µs   365.7 MB/sec    1.10  1505.9±33.52µs   332.0 MB/sec
bench_decimal128_builder                       1.29    106.9±2.04µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     83.1±1.96µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal256_builder                       1.33    110.3±0.47µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     82.7±0.62µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal32_builder                        1.13     53.9±0.33µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     47.9±0.14µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal64_builder                        1.30     59.9±1.28µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     46.0±0.54µs        ? ?/sec
bench_primitive/bench_primitive                1.14    177.2±5.11µs    22.0 GB/sec    1.00    155.9±6.20µs    25.1 GB/sec
bench_primitive/bench_string                   1.00      9.2±0.33ms   703.4 MB/sec    1.00      9.2±0.23ms   706.6 MB/sec
bench_primitive_nulls/bench_primitive_nulls    1.09  1398.6±15.07µs        ? ?/sec    1.00  1280.6±13.34µs        ? ?/sec

This reverts commit 6895106.

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:32:23Z

run benchmark builder

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T14:32:30Z

🤖 ./gh_compare_arrow.sh gh_compare_arrow.sh Running
Linux aal-dev 6.14.0-1018-gcp #19~24.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 24 23:23:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Comparing alamb/less_array_data_primtive (63fc146) to b3ad9a8 diff
BENCH_NAME=builder
BENCH_COMMAND=cargo bench --features=arrow,async,test_common,experimental,object_store --bench builder
BENCH_FILTER=
BENCH_BRANCH_NAME=alamb_less_array_data_primtive
Results will be posted here when complete

alamb · 2026-01-30T14:32:33Z

(testing without changes to the benchmark)

alamb-ghbot · 2026-01-30T14:37:16Z

🤖: Benchmark completed

Details

group                                          alamb_less_array_data_primtive         main
-----                                          ------------------------------         ----
bench_bool/bench_bool                          1.00   1060.9±9.21µs   471.3 MB/sec    1.42   1501.3±9.63µs   333.0 MB/sec
bench_decimal128_builder                       1.49    124.0±4.67µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     83.3±2.52µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal256_builder                       1.58    130.9±4.41µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     82.7±0.64µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal32_builder                        1.37    65.7±18.60µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     47.9±0.33µs        ? ?/sec
bench_decimal64_builder                        1.38     63.0±6.86µs        ? ?/sec    1.00     45.8±0.11µs        ? ?/sec
bench_primitive/bench_primitive                1.00    172.0±5.30µs    22.7 GB/sec    1.01    174.0±6.24µs    22.5 GB/sec
bench_primitive/bench_string                   1.04      9.3±0.37ms   695.6 MB/sec    1.00      9.0±0.24ms   720.0 MB/sec
bench_primitive_nulls/bench_primitive_nulls    1.22  1562.6±14.67µs        ? ?/sec    1.00   1279.0±6.08µs        ? ?/sec

github-actions bot added parquet Changes to the parquet crate arrow Changes to the arrow crate labels Jan 29, 2026

alamb force-pushed the alamb/less_array_data_primtive branch from b3bbc1c to 12525b3 Compare January 29, 2026 20:00

github-actions bot removed the parquet Changes to the parquet crate label Jan 29, 2026

alamb changed the title ~~Alamb/less array data primtive~~ Introduce PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build(), avoid use of ArrayData Jan 29, 2026

github-actions bot added parquet Changes to the parquet crate arrow-flight Changes to the arrow-flight crate parquet-variant parquet-variant* crates labels Jan 29, 2026

alamb mentioned this pull request Jan 29, 2026

Optimize data page statistics conversion (up to 4x) #9303

Merged

Dandandan reviewed Jan 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

Introduce PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build(), avoid use of ArrayData

b7491c9

alamb force-pushed the alamb/less_array_data_primtive branch from fcebc95 to 11d7c80 Compare January 30, 2026 14:06

alamb added 2 commits January 30, 2026 09:14

Avoid checking DataType when unecessary

f5b0391

Update references to use build

6895106

alamb force-pushed the alamb/less_array_data_primtive branch from 6b8125c to 6895106 Compare January 30, 2026 14:14

alamb commented Jan 30, 2026

View reviewed changes

apache deleted a comment from alamb-ghbot Jan 30, 2026

Revert "Update references to use build"

63fc146

This reverts commit 6895106.

github-actions bot removed parquet Changes to the parquet crate arrow-flight Changes to the arrow-flight crate parquet-variant parquet-variant* crates labels Jan 30, 2026

Introduce PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build(), avoid use of ArrayData #9305

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Introduce PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build(), avoid use of ArrayData #9305

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Introduce `PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build()`, avoid use of ArrayData #9305

Introduce `PrimitiveArrayBuilder::build()`, avoid use of ArrayData #9305

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