As a data engineer, picking the wrong format can slow queries, bloat disks, or leave analysts crying in a text editor.
Here’s my go-to cheat sheet:
✅ Parquet — scan petabytes in seconds, nested data is fine.
✅ CSV — the universal handshake, opens in any spreadsheet.
✅ JSON — flexible for APIs and webhooks.
✅ Avro — schema-safe, perfect for streaming.
✅ ORC — dense and fast for heavy Hive/Spark crunching.
✅ YAML — configs your teammates can actually read.
💡 Real code snippets and use cases included (yes, even screenshots for your future self).
Top comments (0)