Data types

Polars is entirely based on Arrow data types and backed by Arrow memory arrays. This makes data processing cache-efficient and well-supported for Inter Process Communication. Most data types follow the exact implementation from Arrow, with exception of Utf8 (this is actually LargeUtf8), Categorical, and Object (support is limited).

The data types are:

  • Int8: 8-bit signed integer.
  • Int16: 16-bit signed integer.
  • Int32: 32-bit signed integer.
  • Int64: 64-bit signed integer.
  • UInt8: 8-bit unsigned integer.
  • UInt16: 16-bit unsigned integer.
  • UInt32: 32-bit unsigned integer.
  • UInt64: 64-bit unsigned integer.
  • Float32: 32-bit floating point.
  • Float64: 64-bit floating point.
  • Boolean: Boolean type effectively bit packed.
  • Utf8: String data (this is actually Arrow LargeUtf8 internally).
  • List: A list array contains a child array containing the list values and an offset array. (this is actually Arrow LargeList internally).
  • Struct: A struct array is represented as Vec<Series> and is useful to pack multiple/heterogenous values in a single column.
  • Date: Date representation, internally represented as days since UNIX epoch encoded by a 32-bit signed integer.
  • Datetime: Datetime representation, internally represented as nanoseconds since UNIX epoch encoded by a 64-bit signed integer.
  • Duration: A timedelate type. Created when subtracting Date/Datetime.
  • Time: Time representation, internally represented as nanoseconds since midnight.
  • Object: A limited supported data type that can be any value.

To learn more about the internal representation of these data types, check the Arrow columnar format.