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============
Format Table
============

.. _cpp-api-format-table:

Table
=====

.. doxygenclass:: paimon::FormatTable
   :members:
   :undoc-members:

Reading and writing a format table go through the generic entry points every other table uses:
:cpp:class:`paimon::TableScan`, :cpp:class:`paimon::TableRead`, :cpp:class:`paimon::FileStoreWrite`
and :cpp:class:`paimon::FileStoreCommit`. See :doc:`../user_guide/format_table`.

Contexts
========

Each of those entry points builds its context from a table path, and the schema under that path
says what kind of table it is. A caller that already holds a ``FormatTable`` hands it over instead,
through the constructor each context builder has for one:

* :cpp:class:`paimon::ScanContextBuilder`\ ``(const std::shared_ptr<FormatTable>&)``
* :cpp:class:`paimon::ReadContextBuilder`\ ``(const std::shared_ptr<FormatTable>&)``
* :cpp:class:`paimon::WriteContextBuilder`\ ``(const std::shared_ptr<FormatTable>&)``
* :cpp:class:`paimon::CommitContextBuilder`\ ``(const std::shared_ptr<FormatTable>&)``

This is the only way to reach a format table whose schema does not live under its own location,
such as one a REST catalog serves: nothing under the location says that it is a format table, nor
that what sits below it is data rather than metadata. The table knows both, so a setting that would
answer either question again - ``SetTableSchema()``, ``WithFileSystem()`` and a branch among them -
is refused by these builders rather than quietly ignored. Options given at the call still win over
the ones the table carries, as they do everywhere else.