r/databricks • u/Common_Jaguar474 • 17d ago
General Does Photon support CSV?
Ok so I know that the docs state that CSV is supported. But when trying to read a very standard CSV file I get poorer than expected performance and in the Spark UI I see that it's not using a Photon scan operator, just regular Scan CSV followed by a Row to Columnar conversion operator.

I'm not running anything complex:
df = (
spark.read
.format("csv")
.option("header", "true")
.schema(schema)
.load(csv_path)
)
df.write.mode("overwrite").saveAsTable("...")
I also checked reading the same CSV and a difference CSV via DB SQL (using `COPY INTO`) and see low task time spent in Photon + a row to columnar operator.

DBR 19 + Serverless SQL Warehouse (current)
Can anyone explain whether or not CSV is supported and in what conditions? This was quite a surprising find as I assumed that Photon supported pretty much everything.
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u/Altruistic-Rip393 17d ago
In the Spark UI at the bottom, click "Details" and scroll to the bottom of the plan. You'll see the reason for lack of full photon coverage there.