aid: table-format
name: Table Format
description: >-
  Open Table Format is a category of open standards for organizing and managing
  data in data lakehouses. The three dominant formats are Apache Iceberg (the
  emerging industry standard with snapshot-based metadata and broad engine
  support), Delta Lake (Databricks-originated, transaction-log-based), and
  Apache Hudi (upsert-optimized with Copy-on-Write and Merge-on-Read modes).
  These formats bring ACID transactions, schema evolution, time travel, and
  efficient query planning to data lake storage. Apache Iceberg defines a REST
  Catalog API (OpenAPI spec) that enables standardized catalog operations across
  implementations like Polaris, Nessie, AWS Glue, and Google BigLake.
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
  - Data Lakehouse
  - Open Table Format
  - Apache Iceberg
  - Delta Lake
  - Apache Hudi
  - Data Lake
  - ACID Transactions
  - Schema Evolution
  - Time Travel
url: >-
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/table-format/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2025'
modified: '2026-05-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
  - aid: table-format:apache-iceberg-rest-catalog
    name: Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API
    description: >-
      The Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API is an open OpenAPI specification that
      defines a standard interface for interacting with Apache Iceberg table
      catalogs. It enables catalog operations including namespace management,
      table creation, schema updates, and metadata retrieval across any
      compliant catalog implementation (Polaris, Nessie, AWS Glue, Google BigLake).
    humanURL: https://iceberg.apache.org/rest-catalog-spec/
    baseURL: https://catalog-service/
    tags:
      - Apache Iceberg
      - Data Catalog
      - REST Catalog
      - Data Lakehouse
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://iceberg.apache.org/rest-catalog-spec/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/blob/main/open-api/rest-catalog-open-api.yaml
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/apache/iceberg
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: >-
          https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/table-format/refs/heads/main/openapi/apache-iceberg-rest-catalog-openapi.yml

  - aid: table-format:delta-lake
    name: Delta Lake
    description: >-
      Delta Lake is an open-source storage framework developed by Databricks
      that adds reliability, performance, and ACID compliance to data lakes. It
      uses a transaction log (delta log) to record all changes to data. Delta
      Lake is deeply integrated with Apache Spark and supports batch and
      streaming workloads, schema enforcement, time travel, and MERGE operations.
    humanURL: https://delta.io/
    tags:
      - Delta Lake
      - Data Lake
      - ACID Transactions
      - Apache Spark
      - Databricks
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://docs.delta.io/
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/delta-io/delta

  - aid: table-format:apache-hudi
    name: Apache Hudi
    description: >-
      Apache Hudi (Hadoop Upserts Deletes and Incrementals) is an open-source
      data lakehouse platform optimized for upserts, deletes, and incremental
      data processing. It supports Copy-on-Write (COW) and Merge-on-Read (MOR)
      table types and is used for CDC-based data pipelines and streaming analytics.
    humanURL: https://hudi.apache.org/
    tags:
      - Apache Hudi
      - Data Lake
      - CDC
      - Incremental Processing
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://hudi.apache.org/docs/overview/
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/apache/hudi

  - aid: table-format:unity-catalog
    name: Unity Catalog
    description: >-
      Unity Catalog is an open-source, multi-modal catalog for data and AI that
      supports Apache Iceberg REST Catalog API, Apache Hive Metastore (HMS) API,
      and Delta Sharing. It provides unified governance across Delta Lake, Iceberg,
      and Hudi tables with an OpenAPI specification under Apache 2.0 license.
    humanURL: https://www.unitycatalog.io/
    tags:
      - Data Catalog
      - Unity Catalog
      - Data Governance
      - Multi-format
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://www.unitycatalog.io/
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: https://github.com/unitycatalog/unitycatalog/blob/main/api/all.yaml
      - type: GitHub
        url: https://github.com/unitycatalog/unitycatalog

common:
  - type: Wikipedia
    url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Iceberg
  - type: Apache Iceberg
    url: https://iceberg.apache.org/
  - type: Delta Lake
    url: https://delta.io/
  - type: Apache Hudi
    url: https://hudi.apache.org/
  - type: Unity Catalog
    url: https://www.unitycatalog.io/
  - type: Apache Iceberg GitHub
    url: https://github.com/apache/iceberg
  - type: Delta Lake GitHub
    url: https://github.com/delta-io/delta
  - type: Apache Hudi GitHub
    url: https://github.com/apache/hudi
  - type: Vocabulary
    url: >-
      https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/table-format/refs/heads/main/vocabulary/table-format-vocabulary.yml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com