[Docs][Format] Make Variant value field mandatory

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Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
72/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Quiet
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Open docs/source/format/CanonicalExtensions.rst at the referenced line and compare its Variant wording with parquet-format PR #591 and the linked VariantShredding arrays guidance. Update the text to describe the required fields separately for top-level groups, shredded object fields, and list elements, then verify each level matches the referenced Parquet requirements.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Component: Format Type: enhancement
Describe the enhancement requested

Fix wording in the Arrow Variant spec to make the value field mandatory.
https://github.com/apache/arrow/blob/f10c93c000775c5fb30ca230f540358611091589/docs/source/format/CanonicalExtensions.rst?plain=1#L448

Per the conversation in https://github.com/apache/parquet-format/pull/591#issuecomment-4897543546

Note the requirement is level-dependent in the Parquet spec, so the Arrow wording should mirror it level by level rather than making value mandatory everywhere:

  • top-level variant group: value must be present
  • shredded object fields: the field group contains both value and typed_value
  • list elements: value may be omitted when shredding elements as a specific type, but at least one of the two fields must be present
Component(s)

Format

Dominant language
C++
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