[ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-81?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15429507#comment-15429507 ]
Julien Le Dem commented on ARROW-81: ------------------------------------ ints can also be dictionary encoded (benefits compactness or speed if performing aggregation for example as the ids are contiguous). So the exception would be only if it's ints and all the values between 0 and n ? is this a common use case? [~wesmckinn] [~hadley] ? > [Format] Add a Category logical type (distinct from dictionary-encoding) > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Key: ARROW-81 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-81 > Project: Apache Arrow > Issue Type: New Feature > Components: C++ > Reporter: Wes McKinney > Assignee: Wes McKinney > > A Category (or "factor") is a dictionary-encoded array whose dictionary has > semantic meaning. The data consists of > - An array of integer "codes" > - A child array of some other type, known as the "categories" or "levels" of > the array. Typically there is an "ordered" boolean flag indicating whether > the order of the categories is meaningful. > Category/factor types are used in a number of common statistical analyses. > See, for example, > http://www.voteview.com/R_Ordered_Logistic_or_Probit_Regression.htm. It is a > basic requirement for Python and R, at least, as Arrow C++ consumers, to have > this type. Separately, we should consider what is necessary to be able to > transmit category data in IPCs -- possible an expansion of the Arrow format. -- This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA (v6.3.4#6332)