alamb commented on code in PR #3953:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/pull/3953#discussion_r1155090672
##########
arrow-array/src/array/struct_array.rs:
##########
@@ -24,6 +24,28 @@ use std::{any::Any, ops::Index};
/// A nested array type where each child (called *field*) is represented by a
separate
/// array.
+///
+///
+/// # Comparison with [RecordBatch]
+///
+/// Both [`RecordBatch`] and [`StructArray`] represent a collection of columns
/ arrays with the
+/// same length.
+///
+/// However, there are a couple of key differences:
+///
+/// * [`StructArray`] can be nested within other [`Array`], including itself
+/// * [`RecordBatch`] can contain top-level metadata on its associated
[`Schema`][arrow_schema::Schema]
+/// * [`StructArray`] can contain top-level nulls, i.e. `null`
+/// * [`RecordBatch`] can only represent nulls in its child columns, i.e.
`{"field": null}`
+///
+/// [`StructArray`] is therefore a more general data container than
[`RecordBatch`], and as such
+/// code that needs to handle both will typically share an implementation in
terms of
+/// [`StructArray`] and convert to/from [`RecordBatch`] as necessary.
+///
+/// [`From`] implementations are provided to facilitate this conversion,
however, converting
Review Comment:
👍 thank you -- this is much clearer now
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