alamb opened a new issue, #4840: URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/issues/4840
**Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge? Please describe what you are trying to do.** The arrow-rs library (now) makes a distinction between physical nulls and logical nulls as the same distinction is made in the Arrow specification (though the terms physical and logical nulls are not used, to my knoweldge) The issue is that for certain array types computing if an element is very fast (consult a pre-existing bitmap) but for others can be quite slow (e.g. a dictionary where both the keys and values must be consulted for nullness) The method named `Array::is_null` returns the (fast) physical nullness, but is deeply confusing for for certain types -- see https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/issues/4835 and https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/pull/4838#discussion_r1330002357 from @crepererum. We have tried to clarify the difference in https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/pull/4838 but it is still confusing **Describe the solution you'd like** I am not sure -- @crepererum suggests in https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/pull/4838#discussion_r1330002357 > I would argue that at least this method should be called is_physical_null to force users to think about what kind of null they want, instead of tricking them into using the wrong implicit default for their use case. However, there are downsides to this too **Describe alternatives you've considered** The documentation changes may be enough, but I think the issue is important enough to track here **Additional context** <!-- Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here. --> -- This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service. To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the URL above to go to the specific comment. To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at: [email protected]
