---
warning: DO NOT CHANGE THIS MANUALLY, THIS IS GENERATED BY https://github.com/duckdb/community-extensions repository, check README there
title: orc
excerpt: |
  DuckDB Community Extensions
  A DuckDB extension for reading Apache ORC files, written in pure Rust. Supports all ORC primitives, struct, list, map types and all compression codecs (Zlib, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, ZSTD).

extension:
  name: orc
  description: A DuckDB extension for reading Apache ORC files, written in pure Rust. Supports all ORC primitives, struct, list, map types and all compression codecs (Zlib, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, ZSTD).
  version: 0.2.1
  language: Rust
  build: cargo
  license: MIT
  excluded_platforms: "wasm_mvp;wasm_eh;wasm_threads;windows_amd64_rtools;windows_amd64_mingw;linux_amd64_musl"
  requires_toolchains: "rust"
  maintainers:
    - alitrack

repo:
  github: alitrack/duckdb_orc
  ref: e2bb83eb1f50531dddf3074b14eb56d85401b8f3
  ref_next: e2bb83eb1f50531dddf3074b14eb56d85401b8f3

docs:
  hello_world: |
    -- Install and use the ORC extension
    INSTALL orc FROM community;
    LOAD orc;

    -- Read a single ORC file
    SELECT * FROM read_orc('data.orc');

    -- Read multiple ORC files with a glob pattern
    SELECT * FROM read_orc('sales/*.orc');

    -- Filter and aggregate (DuckDB applies filters post-scan)
    SELECT region, SUM(amount)
    FROM read_orc('sales.orc')
    WHERE year = 2024
    GROUP BY region;

    -- Column projection is pushed down to the ORC reader
    SELECT col1, col2 FROM read_orc('big_table.orc');

  extended_description: |
    Built on top of [`orc-rust`](https://github.com/datafusion-contrib/orc-rust),
    a native Rust ORC reader that outputs Arrow record batches.

    ### Supported ORC Features

    - **Data types**: all ORC primitives, struct, list, map
    - **Encodings**: all ORC encodings (direct, dictionary, RLE, etc.)
    - **Compression**: Zlib, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, ZSTD
    - **Projection pushdown**: column pruning via DuckDB's optimizer
    - **Multi-file globs**: `read_orc('*.orc')` — all files must have identical schema
    - **Streaming**: files of any size, read in 2048-row batches

    ### Known Limitations

    - **Write support**: `COPY tbl TO 'file.orc' (FORMAT orc)` writes with ZSTD compression. Supported types: bool, int8-64, float32/64, date, timestamp, varchar, blob. List/Struct/Map/Decimal rejected cleanly (upstream `orc-rust` writer doesn't encode them yet).
    - **Write column names**: output columns are `column_N` — the DuckDB C API COPY bind does not expose source column names.
    - **Parallel scan**: multi-stripe files read in parallel across threads (caps at CPU count).
    - **No filter pushdown**: blocked by missing DuckDB C API
      (`duckdb_table_function_supports_filter_pushdown` not exposed)
    - **No union type**: not supported by `orc-rust` upstream
extension_star_count: 4
extension_star_count_pretty: 4
extension_download_count: 787
extension_download_count_pretty: 787
image: '/images/community_extensions/social_preview/preview_community_extension_orc.png'
layout: community_extension_doc
---
### Compatibility Matrix

This table covers all DuckDB releases that have not reached [end-of-life](https://duckdb.org/release_calendar), including LTS releases, and shows the 2 most recent patch releases of each. Older patch releases are not listed, but the extension may be available for them as well.

<div class="extension_compatibility_table"></div>

| Platform | 1.4.4 | 1.4.5 | 1.5.5 | 1.5.6 | 2.0.0 |
| :--- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| Linux AMD64 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Linux ARM64 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| macOS AMD64 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| macOS ARM64 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Windows AMD64 | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Windows ARM64 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| WebAssembly | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |

### Installing and Loading
```sql
INSTALL {{ page.extension.name }} FROM community;
LOAD {{ page.extension.name }};
```

{% if page.docs.hello_world %}
### Example
```sql
{{ page.docs.hello_world }}```
{% endif %}

{% if page.docs.extended_description %}
### About {{ page.extension.name }}
{{ page.docs.extended_description }}
{% endif %}
### Added Functions

<div class="extension_functions_table"></div>

| function_name | function_type | description | comment | examples |
|---------------|---------------|-------------|---------|----------|
| read_orc      | table         | NULL        | NULL    |          |

### Overloaded Functions

<div class="extension_functions_table"></div>

This extension does not add any function overloads.

### Added Types

<div class="extension_types_table"></div>

This extension does not add any types.

### Added Settings

<div class="extension_settings_table"></div>

|      name      |                       description                       | input_type | scope  | aliases | typed_value |
|----------------|---------------------------------------------------------|------------|--------|---------|-------------|
| temp_directory | Set the directory to which temporary files are written. | VARCHAR    | GLOBAL | []      | post.db.tmp |