C++ API. When the row I seek to is in the same row-group as the current row, why don't use the skip function directly, but instead seek to the row-group again and then skip?

[hrbeuyz24]

We use orc as the storage format for our real-time data warehouse, our online query will have a lot of random reads and frequent seeks. We found that a lot of time is consumed in SeekToRowGroup and Skip.
Many of our target rows in multiple seeks are in the same row group, This leads to the problem in my title.
For example, there is an online query, we need to read the data of row 100 and row 130,
The current behavior is

1. SeekToRowGroup
2. Skip(100)
3. Next(1)
4. SeekToRowGroup
5. Skip(130)
6. Next(1)

Why not

1. SeekToRowGroup
2. Skip(100)
3. Next(1)
4. Skip(29)
5. Next(1)
   We simply modified the code and found that in our scenario it can bring at least 50% read performance benefits.

[wgtmac]

Could you provide more context? How did you tell the C++ reader to read only row 100 and 130 out of an ORC file?

[hrbeuyz24]

Could you provide more context? How did you tell the C++ reader to read only row 100 and 130 out of an ORC file?

Through the index we built ourselves, we know that a certain query needs to read the data of row 100 and 130, then we will SeekToRow(100) and Next(1), SeekToRow(130) and Next(1).

[ffacs]

An error will occur if a user attempts to read line 129 after reading line 130 without performing SeekToRowGroup again.

[hrbeuyz24]

An error will occur if a user attempts to read line 129 after reading line 130 without performing SeekToRowGroup again.

We will ensure that we seek and read in order and will not read back.But I think how it is used externally has nothing to do with the internal implementation of orc.
When the reader finds that the target row to seek is in the same row-group as the current row and the target row is larger than the current row, why not call the skip function directly? Of course, when the target row is smaller than the current row, reader have to SeekToRowGroup again.

[hrbeuyz24]

like this in SeekToRow function

auto targetRowInStripe = rowNumber - firstRowOfStripe_[seekToStripe];
if (currentStripe_ == seekToStripe &&
     isCurrentStripeInited() &&
     currentRowInStripe_ < targetRowInStrip &&
     currentRowInStripe_ / rowIndexStride == targetRowInStripe / rowIndexStride) {
  reader_->skip(targetRowInStripe - currentRowInStripe_);
  currentRowInStripe = targetRowInStripe;
  return;
}

[hrbeuyz24]

This may be rare in offline batch processing scenarios.
However, it may be common to use orc as the storage format for real-time data warehouses to provide online query services. The data warehouse uses the index to the orc row and then reads it.

[dongjoon-hyun]

Thank you for reporting. Could you provide a real sample file to speed up our discussion, @hrbeuyz24 ?

[dongjoon-hyun]

In addition, IIUC, it's an improvement idea which you want to propose, right? In that case, please make a PR to us. We are software engineers. :)