Apache ORC

aid: apache-orc
name: Apache ORC
description: Apache ORC is a self-describing, type-aware columnar file format designed for Hadoop workloads. It provides high
  compression ratios and fast read performance for large-scale data processing with support for complex data types.
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-productions2.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Big Data
- Columnar Storage
- Compression
- File Format
- Hadoop
- Apache
- Open Source
created: '2026-03-16'
modified: '2026-05-19'
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/apache-orc/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: apache-orc:apache-orc
  name: Apache ORC
  description: ORC provides Java and C++ APIs for reading and writing ORC columnar files, with support for predicate pushdown,
    column projection, compression codecs, and integration with Hive, Spark, Presto, and other query engines.
  humanURL: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
  tags:
  - C++
  - Columnar Format
  - Java
  - Apache
  - Open Source
  - Big Data
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://orc.apache.org/docs/
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/apache-orc-tools-api.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/tools-conversion.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/tools-files.yaml
  - type: NaftikoCapability
    url: capabilities/tools-operations.yaml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: [email protected]
common:
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/apache/orc
- type: Documentation
  url: https://orc.apache.org/
- type: SpectralRules
  url: rules/apache-orc-spectral-rules.yml
- type: Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/apache-orc-vocabulary.yaml
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/apache-orc-context.jsonld
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Columnar Storage
    description: Stores data by column for efficient compression and query performance
  - name: Predicate Pushdown
    description: Skip reading data that does not match query predicates
  - name: Column Projection
    description: Read only the columns needed for a query
  - name: ACID Support
    description: Full ACID transactional support when used with Apache Hive
  - name: Schema Evolution
    description: Add, rename, and remove columns while preserving backward compatibility
  - name: Compression
    description: Supports ZLIB, Snappy, LZO, LZ4, and ZSTD compression codecs
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: Hive Data Warehousing
    description: Store Hive tables in highly efficient ORC format
  - name: Spark Analytics
    description: Process large ORC datasets with Apache Spark SQL
  - name: Presto/Trino Queries
    description: Fast analytical queries over ORC files with Presto or Trino
  - name: Data Lake Storage
    description: Efficient columnar storage for data lake architectures
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: Apache Hive
    description: Native ORC support as default Hive storage format
  - name: Apache Spark
    description: ORC data source support in Spark SQL
  - name: Presto/Trino
    description: Fast ORC reading with native vectorized reader
  - name: Apache Flink
    description: ORC file format support for batch and streaming
  - name: Apache Arrow
    description: ORC to Arrow conversion for in-memory analytics