Skip to content

Zone Map Index

Zone maps are a columnar database technique for predicate pushdown and scan pruning. They break data into fixed-size chunks called "zones" and maintain summary statistics (min, max, null count) for each zone, enabling efficient filtering by eliminating zones that cannot contain matching values.

Zone maps are "inexact" filters - they can definitively exclude zones but may include false positives that require rechecking.

Index Details

message ZoneMapIndexDetails {

}

Storage Layout

The zone map index stores zone statistics in a single file:

  1. zonemap.lance - Zone statistics for query pruning

Zone Statistics File Schema

Column Type Nullable Description
min {DataType} true Minimum value in the zone
max {DataType} true Maximum value in the zone
null_count UInt32 false Number of null values in the zone
nan_count UInt32 false Number of NaN values (for float types)
fragment_id UInt64 false Fragment containing this zone
zone_start UInt64 false Starting row offset within the fragment
zone_length UInt32 false Number of rows in this zone

Schema Metadata

Key Type Description
rows_per_zone String Number of rows per zone (default: "8192")

Accelerated Queries

The zone map index provides inexact results for the following query types:

Query Type Description Operation Result Type
Equals column = value Includes zones where min ≤ value ≤ max AtMost
Range column BETWEEN a AND b Includes zones where ranges overlap AtMost
IsIn column IN (v1, v2, ...) Includes zones that could contain any value AtMost
IsNull column IS NULL Includes zones where null_count > 0 AtMost