docs/source/format/Other.rst

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Other Data Structures
=====================

Our Flatbuffers protocol files have metadata for some other data
structures defined to allow other kinds of applications to take
advantage of common interprocess communication machinery. These data
structures are not considered to be part of the columnar format.

An Arrow columnar implementation is not required to implement these
types.

Tensor (Multi-dimensional Array)
--------------------------------

The ``Tensor`` message types provides a way to write a
multidimensional array of fixed-size values (such as a NumPy ndarray).

When writing a standalone encapsulated tensor message, we use the
encapsulated IPC format defined in the :ref:`Columnar Specification
<format_columnar>`, but additionally align the starting offset of the
tensor body to be a multiple of 64 bytes: ::

    <metadata prefix and metadata>
    <PADDING>
    <tensor body>

Sparse Tensor
-------------

``SparseTensor`` represents a multidimensional array whose elements
are generally almost all zeros.

When writing a standalone encapsulated sparse tensor message, we use
the encapsulated IPC format defined in the :ref:`Columnar Specification
<format_columnar>`, but additionally align the starting offsets of the
sparse index and the sparse tensor body (if writing to a shared memory
region) to be multiples of 64 bytes: ::

    <metadata prefix and metadata>
    <PADDING>
    <sparse index>
    <PADDING>
    <sparse tensor body>

The contents of the sparse tensor index depends on what kind of sparse
format is used.