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Add (Field|Schema).withMetadata() helper to match other Arrow bindings

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#333 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
48/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
typescript
Domain
api

Research direction

Start by locating the TypeScript definitions and tests for Field and Schema, then read how metadata is currently constructed and replaced. Done means both withMetadata() methods accept Map<string, string>, Record<string, string>, and null, return new objects with replacement semantics, and have coverage for setting and clearing metadata.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Describe the enhancement requested

Manipulating field and schema metadata in the JS bindings currently requires manually constructing Map<string, string> instances and re-instantiating Field/Objects objects.

Other Arrow implementations:

expose a helper that replaces a field/schema’s metadata map (and accepts null/None to clear it).

Request

Add a Field.withMetadata(), and Schema.withMetadata() method that:

  • Accepts a Map<string, string>, a plain object Record<string, string>, or null (to clear metadata).
  • Returns a new Field with the supplied metadata (replacement semantics, not merging).

This brings the JavaScript bindings in line with the existing C++/PyArrow/Rust APIs and makes metadata updates more ergonomic (and less error-prone).

Dominant language
TypeScript
Stars
112
Forks
23
Avg merge
1d 10h
Merged PRs (30d)
13

Getting set up

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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