[feat] Support update table's sort order

[JasperHG90]

Question

I was playing around with the sort order option and I couldn't find a way to update the sort order of a table. Is this supported? The docs only show how to define a sort order when a table is being created.

Thanks in advance.

[kevinjqliu]

hey @JasperHG90
There's actually no public API currently to update sort order for a table. There is an action defined AddSortOrderUpdate.

We probably need something like UpdateSchema and UpdateSpec which is used to update schema and partition spec respectively.

Such as adding update_sort_order function to the Transaction class

[JasperHG90]

Thanks @kevinjqliu. Is this part of your roadmap? If so, I'd like to take a crack at it.

[kevinjqliu]

i didnt find any similar ticket. renamed and assigned to you. Cheers! Please LMK if you have any questions

[Fokko]

For inspiration we can look at the Java side, there is a method on the table called replaceSortOrder():

I would expect something like, similar to Java:

with table.replace_sort_order() as update:
    update.asc("id")  # identity
    update.desc("user-id", BucketTransform(16))  # Bucket transform

Similar to the partition spec: https://py.iceberg.apache.org/api/#partition-evolution but a bit more straightforward, since in the Spec we update it, and with the sort-order we replace it :) Feel free to reach out if you run into anything!

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been open for 180 days with no activity. It will be closed in next 14 days if no further activity occurs. To permanently prevent this issue from being considered stale, add the label 'not-stale', but commenting on the issue is preferred when possible.

[JasperHG90]

PR is open but needs review

[mwa28]

Hello, any update on the PR ?

[rambleraptor]

@JasperHG90 are you still working on this? Happy to pick it up if not!