DuckDB

Noun · Development

Definitions

  1. An in-process analytical database (like SQLite for analytics) that runs columnar queries directly on Parquet, CSV, and JSON files without loading them into a server. Optimized for OLAP workloads with vectorized execution. Can query files on S3, join with pandas DataFrames, and process gigabytes of data on a laptop. The 'Swiss Army knife' of data exploration.

    In plain English: A fast, embedded database for analytics that can query Parquet, CSV, and JSON files directly without a server.

    Example: "SELECT * FROM 's3://bucket/data.parquet' WHERE date > '2024-01-01' -- DuckDB queries Parquet on S3 directly, no ETL needed."

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