---
warning: DO NOT CHANGE THIS MANUALLY, THIS IS GENERATED BY https://github.com/duckdb/community-extensions repository, check README there
title: pdal
excerpt: |
  DuckDB Community Extensions
  Extension that adds support for manipulating point cloud data using SQL.

extension:
  name: pdal
  description: Extension that adds support for manipulating point cloud data using SQL.
  version: 0.7.0
  language: C++
  build: cmake
  excluded_platforms: "windows_amd64;windows_amd64_mingw;wasm_mvp;wasm_eh;wasm_threads"
  requires_toolchains: "parser_tools"
  license: MIT / Overall PDAL license (BSD) - https://pdal.org/en/latest/copyright.html
  maintainers:
    - ahuarte47

repo:
  github: ahuarte47/duckdb-pdal
  ref: fb98e432ac310956e4d0a02a28b7ed2245532713

docs:
  hello_world: |
    SELECT * FROM PDAL_Read('path/to/your/pointcloud.las');
    ---
    ┌───────────┬───────────┬────────┬───────┐
    │     X     │     Y     │   Z    │       │
    │   double  │   double  │ double │  ...  │
    ├───────────┼───────────┼────────┤───────┤
    │ 637177.98 │ 849393.95 │ 411.19 │  ...  │
    │ 637177.30 │ 849396.95 │ 411.25 │  ...  │
    │ 637176.34 │ 849400.84 │ 411.01 │  ...  │
    │ 637175.45 │ 849404.62 │ 410.99 │  ...  │
    │ 637174.33 │ 849407.37 │ 411.38 │  ...  │
    └───────────┴───────────┴────────┴───────┘

    WITH __input AS (
        SELECT
            X, Y, RasterValue
        FROM
            PDAL_Pipeline('./test/data/overlay-sample.tiff', './test/data/overlay-sample-pipeline.json')
    )
    SELECT
        COUNT(*) AS c,
        SUM(RasterValue) AS s
    FROM
        __input
    ;
    ---
    ┌───────┬──────────┐
    │   c   │    s     │
    │ int64 │  double  │
    ├───────┼──────────┤
    │ 57600 │ 576000.0 │
    └───────┴──────────┘

  extended_description: |
    This is an extension for DuckDB for manipulating point cloud data using SQL.

    You can use the extension to read point cloud data from various formats (e.g., LAS, LAZ) and perform transformations on them.

    The extension is built on top of [PDAL (Point Data Abstraction Library)](https://pdal.io/), a C++ library that enables users to read, write, and process point cloud data and, with this extension, load the data directly into DuckDB using SQL queries.

    ```sql
    SELECT * FROM PDAL_Read('path/to/your/pointcloud.las');

    ┌───────────┬───────────┬────────┬───────┐
    │     X     │     Y     │   Z    │       │
    │   double  │   double  │ double │  ...  │
    ├───────────┼───────────┼────────┤───────┤
    │ 637177.98 │ 849393.95 │ 411.19 │  ...  │
    │ 637177.30 │ 849396.95 │ 411.25 │  ...  │
    │ 637176.34 │ 849400.84 │ 411.01 │  ...  │
    │ 637175.45 │ 849404.62 │ 410.99 │  ...  │
    │ 637174.33 │ 849407.37 │ 411.38 │  ...  │
    └───────────┴───────────┴────────┴───────┘
    ```

    PDAL supports data pipelines, you can perform complex transformations before loading data points into DuckDB.

    For example, load a raster file, and using `filters.overlay`, extract attributes from a Geopackage:

    ```sql
    WITH __input AS (
        SELECT
            X, Y, RasterValue
        FROM
            PDAL_Pipeline('./test/data/overlay-sample.tiff', './test/data/overlay-sample-pipeline.json')
    )
    SELECT
        COUNT(*) AS c,
        SUM(RasterValue) AS s
    FROM
        __input
    ;

    ┌───────┬──────────┐
    │   c   │    s     │
    │ int64 │  double  │
    ├───────┼──────────┤
    │ 57600 │ 576000.0 │
    └───────┴──────────┘
    ```

    Where the pipeline is:

    ```json
    {
        "pipeline": [
            {
                "type": "filters.assign",
                "value" : [ "RasterValue = 0.0" ]
            },
            {
                "type": "filters.overlay",
                "datasource": "./test/data/overlay-sample.gpkg",
                "layer": "area",
                "column": "user_data",
                "dimension": "RasterValue"
            }
        ]
    }
    ```

    The pipeline can be provided either as a JSON file or as an inline JSON string. If the second parameter value
    starts with "[" and ends with "]", it represents an inline JSON, otherwise it is a file path:

    ```sql
    SELECT
        COUNT(*)
    FROM
        PDAL_pipeline('./test/data/autzen_trim.las',
            '[
                {
                    "type": "filters.tail",
                    "count": 10
                }
            ]'
        )
    ;
    ┌──────────────┐
    │ count_star() │
    │    int64     │
    ├──────────────┤
    │     10       │
    └──────────────┘
    ```

    The `PDAL_PipelineTable` function runs a PDAL pipeline on an input table. It is supposed that the input table
    contains columns compatible with PDAL point clouds.

    The pipeline can be provided either as a JSON file or as an inline JSON string as well. If the second parameter value
    starts with "[" and ends with "]", it represents an inline JSON, otherwise it is a file path:

    ```sql
    SELECT
    	*
    FROM
        PDAL_PipelineTable((SELECT X,Y,Z FROM ...), '[ {"type": "filters.tail", "count": 10} ]')
    ;
    ```

extension_star_count: 30
extension_star_count_pretty: 30
extension_download_count: 923
extension_download_count_pretty: 923
image: '/images/community_extensions/social_preview/preview_community_extension_pdal.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                                               |
|--------------------|---------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| PDAL_Drivers       | table         | Returns the list of supported stage types of a PDAL Pipeline.                                    | NULL    | [SELECT * FROM PDAL_Drivers();]                                                                      |
| PDAL_Read          | table         | Read and import a variety of point cloud data file formats using the PDAL library.               | NULL    | [SELECT * FROM PDAL_Read('./test/data/autzen_trim.laz');]                                            |
| PDAL_Info          | table         | Read the metadata from point cloud file[s].                                                      | NULL    | [SELECT * FROM PDAL_Info('./test/data/autzen_trim.la*');]                                            |
| PDAL_Pipeline      | table         | Read and import a point cloud data file, applying also a custom processing pipeline to the data. | NULL    | [SELECT * FROM PDAL_Pipeline('path/to/your/filename.las', 'path/to/your/pipeline.json');]            |
| PDAL_PipelineTable | table         | Apply a custom processing pipeline to the input table.                                           | NULL    | [SELECT * FROM PDAL_PipelineTable((SELECT X,Y,Z FROM ...), '[ {type: filters.tail, count: 100} ]');] |

### 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 |