Issue with loading Parquet data into Snowflake Cloud Database when written with v1.11.0 - avro

Question

I am new to Snowflake, but my company has been using it successfully.
Parquet files are currently being written with an existing Avro Schema, using Java parquet-avro v1.10.1.
I have been updating the dependencies in order to use latest Avro, and part of that bumped Parquet to 1.11.0.
The Avro Schema is unchanged. However when using the COPY INTO Snowflake command, I receive a LOAD FAILED with error: Error parsing the parquet file: Logical type Null can not be applied to group node but no other error details :(
The problem is that there are no null columns in the files.
I've cut the Avro schema down, and found that the presence of a MAP type in the Avro schema is causing the issue.
The field is
{
"name": "FeatureAmounts",
"type": {
"type": "map",
"values": "records.MoneyDecimal"
}
}
An example of the Parquet schema using parquet-tools.
message record.ResponseRecord {
required binary GroupId (STRING);
required int64 EntryTime (TIMESTAMP(MILLIS,true));
required int64 HandlingDuration;
required binary Id (STRING);
optional binary ResponseId (STRING);
required binary RequestId (STRING);
optional fixed_len_byte_array(12) CostInUSD (DECIMAL(28,15));
required group FeatureAmounts (MAP) {
repeated group map (MAP_KEY_VALUE) {
required binary key (STRING);
required fixed_len_byte_array(12) value (DECIMAL(28,15));
}
}
}
The 2 files I have, written in parquet 1.10.1 and 1.11.0 output this identical schema.
I have also tried with a bigger schema example, and it appears everything works fine if there is no "map" avro type present in the schema. I have other massive files with huge schemas, many union types that convert to groups in parquet, but all are written and read successfully when they don't contain any "map" types.
But as soon as I add back the "map" type then I get that weird error message from Snowflake when trying to ingest the 1.11.0 version (however 1.10.1 version will load successfully). But parquet-tools with 1.11.0, 1.10.1 etc can still read the files.
I understand that from this comment that there are changes to the Logical Types in Parquet 1.11.0, but that it is supposed to be compatibile still for old versions to read.
But does anyone know what version of Parquet is used by Snowflake to parse these files? Is there something else that could be going on here?
Appreciate any assistance

Answer 1

Logical type Null can not be applied to group node
Looking up the error above, it appears that a version of Apache Arrow's parquet libraries is being used to read the file.
However, looking closer, the real problem lies in the use of legacy types within the Avro based Parquet Writer implementation (the following assumes Java was used to write the files).
The new logicalTypes schema metadata introduced in Parquet defines many types including a singular MAP type. Historically, the former convertedTypes schema field supported use of MAP AND MAP_KEY_VALUE for legacy readers. The new writers that use logicalTypes (1.11.0+) should not be using the legacy map type anymore, but work hasn't been done yet to update the Avro to Parquet schema conversions to drop the MAP_KEY_VALUE types entirely.
As a result, the schema field for MAP_KEY_VALUE gets written out with an UNKNOWN value of logicalType, which trips up Arrow's implementation that only understands logicalType values of MAP and LIST (understandably).
Consider logging this as a bug against the Apache Parquet project to update their Avro writers to stop nesting the legacy MAP_KEY_VALUE type when transforming an Avro schema to a Parquet one. It should've ideally been done as part of PARQUET-1410.
Unfortunately this is hard-coded behaviour and there are no configuration options that influence map-types that can aid in producing a correct file for Apache Arrow (and for Snowflake by extension). You'll need to use an older version of the writer until a proper fix is released by the Apache Parquet developers.