rdblue commented on code in PR #14117: URL: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/14117#discussion_r2445360929
########## format/udf-spec.md: ########## @@ -0,0 +1,285 @@ +--- +title: "SQL UDF Spec" +--- +<!-- + - Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more + - contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with + - this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. + - The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 + - (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with + - the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at + - + - http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 + - + - Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software + - distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, + - WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. + - See the License for the specific language governing permissions and + - limitations under the License. + --> + +# Iceberg SQL UDF Spec + +## Background and Motivation + +A SQL user-defined function (UDF or UDTF) is a callable routine that accepts input parameters and executes a function body. +Depending on the function type, the result can be: + +- **Scalar functions (UDFs)** – return a scalar value, which may be a primitive type (e.g., `int`, `string`) or a non-primitive type (e.g., `struct`, `list`). +- **Table functions (UDTFs)** – return a table, i.e., a table with zero or more rows and columns with a uniform schema. + +Many compute engines (e.g., Spark, Trino) already support UDFs, but in different and incompatible ways. Without a common +standard, UDFs cannot be reliably shared across engines or reused in multi-engine environments. + +This specification introduces a standardized metadata format for UDFs in Iceberg. + +## Goals + +* Define a portable metadata format for both scalar and table SQL UDFs. The metadata is self-contained and can be moved across catalogs. +* Support function evolution through versioning and rollback. +* Provide consistent semantics for representing UDFs across engines. Review Comment: > semantics for representing Is this talking about semantics or representation? I think it is probably more representation than semantics. -- 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] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
