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docs: add type mapping tables between PyIceberg and PyArrow #3098

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docs: type mapping between pyiceberg and pyarrow
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Expand Up @@ -2039,3 +2039,82 @@ DataFrame()
| 3 | 6 |
+---+---+
```

## Type mapping

### PyArrow

The Iceberg specification only specifies type mapping for Avro, Parquet, and ORC:

- [Iceberg to Avro](https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/#avro)

- [Iceberg to Parquet](https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/#parquet)

- [Iceberg to ORC](https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/#orc)

The following tables describe the type mappings between PyIceberg and PyArrow. In the tables below, `pa` refers to the `pyarrow` module:

```python
import pyarrow as pa
```

#### PyIceberg to PyArrow type mapping

| PyIceberg type class | PyArrow type | Notes |
|---------------------------------|-------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
| `BooleanType` | `pa.bool_()` | |
| `IntegerType` | `pa.int32()` | |
| `LongType` | `pa.int64()` | |
| `FloatType` | `pa.float32()` | |
| `DoubleType` | `pa.float64()` | |
| `DecimalType(p, s)` | `pa.decimal128(p, s)` | |
| `DateType` | `pa.date32()` | |
| `TimeType` | `pa.time64("us")` | |
| `TimestampType` | `pa.timestamp("us")` | |
| `TimestampNanoType` | `pa.timestamp("ns")` | |
| `TimestamptzType` | `pa.timestamp("us", tz="UTC")` | |
| `TimestamptzNanoType` | `pa.timestamp("ns", tz="UTC")` | |
| `StringType` | `pa.large_string()` | |
| `UUIDType` | `pa.uuid()` | |
| `BinaryType` | `pa.large_binary()` | |
| `FixedType(L)` | `pa.binary(L)` | |
| `StructType` | `pa.struct()` | |
| `ListType(e)` | `pa.large_list(e)` | |
| `MapType(k, v)` | `pa.map_(k, v)` | |
| `UnknownType` | `pa.null()` | |

---

#### PyArrow to PyIceberg type mapping

| PyArrow type | PyIceberg type class | Notes |
|------------------------------------|-----------------------------|--------------------------------|
| `pa.bool_()` | `BooleanType` | |
| `pa.int32()` | `IntegerType` | |
| `pa.int64()` | `LongType` | |
| `pa.float32()` | `FloatType` | |
| `pa.float64()` | `DoubleType` | |
| `pa.decimal128(p, s)` | `DecimalType(p, s)` | |
| `pa.decimal256(p, s)` | Unsupported | |
| `pa.date32()` | `DateType` | |
| `pa.date64()` | Unsupported | |
| `pa.time64("us")` | `TimeType` | |
| `pa.timestamp("us")` | `TimestampType` | |
| `pa.timestamp("ns")` | `TimestampNanoType` | |
| `pa.timestamp("us", tz="UTC")` | `TimestamptzType` | |
| `pa.timestamp("ns", tz="UTC")` | `TimestamptzNanoType` | |
| `pa.string()` / `pa.large_string()`| `StringType` | |
| `pa.uuid()` | `UUIDType` | |
| `pa.binary()` / `pa.large_binary()`| `BinaryType` | |
| `pa.binary(L)` | `FixedType(L)` | Fixed-length byte arrays |
| `pa.struct([...])` | `StructType` | |
| `pa.list_(e)` / `pa.large_list(e)` | `ListType(e)` | |
| `pa.map_(k, v)` | `MapType(k, v)` | |
| `pa.null()` | `UnknownType` | |

---

***Notes***

- PyIceberg `GeometryType` and `GeographyType` types are mapped to a GeoArrow WKB extension type.
Otherwise, falls back to `pa.large_binary()` which stores WKB bytes.