Python Convert Parquet to CSV

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Problem

💬 Challenge: How to convert a Parquet file 'my_file.parquet' to a CSV file 'my_file.csv' in Python?

In case you don’t know what a Parquet file is, here’s the definition:

💡 Info: Apache Parquet is an open-source, column-oriented data file format designed for efficient data storage and retrieval using data compression and encoding schemes to handle complex data in bulk. Parquet is available in multiple languages including Java, C++, and Python.

Here’s an example Parquet file format:

source

Solution

The most simple way to convert a Parquet to a CSV file in Python is to import the Pandas library, call the pandas.read_parquet() function passing the 'my_file.parquet' filename argument to load the file content into a DataFrame, and convert the DataFrame to a CSV using the DataFrame to_csv() method.

  • import pandas as pd
  • df = pd.read_parquet('my_file.parquet')
  • df.to_csv('my_file.csv')

Here’s a minimal example:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_parquet('my_file.parquet')
df.to_csv('my_file.csv')

For this to work, you may have to install pandas and pyarrow. But if I were you, I’d just try it because chances are you’ve already installed them or don’t explicitly need to install the PyArrow library.

Related

🌍 Related Tutorial: Python Convert CSV to Parquet

I also found this video from a great YT channel that concerns this particular problem of converting a Parquet to a CSV: