DuckDB

Vortex is a core extension shipped with DuckDB, available from DuckDB 1.4.2+ on Linux and macOS (amd64, arm64).

Setup

INSTALL vortex;
LOAD vortex;

Reading Vortex Files

Use the read_vortex function to query a Vortex file:

SELECT * FROM read_vortex('data.vortex');

Filters and projections are pushed down into Vortex, so only the columns and rows needed by the query are read and decompressed.

SELECT name, age
FROM read_vortex('data.vortex')
WHERE age > 30;

Note

Direct file path syntax (SELECT * FROM 'data.vortex') is coming in an upcoming DuckDB release.

Writing Vortex Files

Export data to Vortex using the COPY statement. The FORMAT vortex clause is required — without it, DuckDB defaults to CSV.

COPY (SELECT * FROM my_table) TO 'output.vortex' (FORMAT vortex);

Python

The DuckDB Python client works with read_vortex the same way:

import duckdb

duckdb.sql("INSTALL vortex")
duckdb.sql("LOAD vortex")

result = duckdb.sql("SELECT * FROM read_vortex('data.vortex') WHERE age > 30")
result.show()