alamb opened a new issue, #6528: URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow-rs/issues/6528
**Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge? Please describe what you are trying to do.** While implementing https://github.com/apache/datafusion/pull/12792 and various other things in DataFusion I find myself often wanting to combine a filter and a null mask The relevant code is like ```rust // combine existing nulls, if any, and a filter: let nulls = filtered_null_mask(opt_filter, input); // make a new array with a new null buffer let output: ArrayRef = match input.data_type() { // TODO it would be nice to have safe apis in arrow-rs to update the null buffers in the arrays DataType::Utf8 => { let input = input.as_string::<i32>(); // safety: values / offsets came from a valid string array, so are valid utf8 // and we checked nulls has the same length as values unsafe { Arc::new(StringArray::new_unchecked( input.offsets().clone(), input.values().clone(), nulls, )) } } ``` **Describe the solution you'd like** I would like an API like `with_nulls` that returns a new array with the same data but a new null mask so my code would look like ```rust // combine existing nulls, if any, and a filter: let nulls = filtered_null_mask(opt_filter, input); // make a new array, with the same data but a new null buffer // panics if the nulls length doesn't match the array's length let output = input.with_nulls(nulls); ``` **Describe alternatives you've considered** I can keep using the unsafe APIs **Additional context** -- 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]
