Files
lancedb/python
lancedb-gatefixer[bot] 102518ebda fix(python): preserve nested fields in filtered scans (#3816)
## Summary

- add a Python regression for filtered scans over deeply nested
list/struct values
- verify the public query path returns every nested sibling field
without an Arrow schema mismatch

## Root cause

Older Lance scanner code split filter projections into partial nested
arrays and did not recursively merge List<Struct> children, so a sibling
field could be omitted from the returned array while remaining in the
declared schema. That merge was fixed upstream in
lance-format/lance#4838, and the Lance revision currently pinned by
LanceDB contains that fix. This test makes the repair durable at the
LanceDB Python API boundary.

## Validation

- cd python && uv run --extra tests pytest
python/tests/test_query.py::test_filter_preserves_deeply_nested_struct_fields
-q
- cd python && uv run --extra tests pytest python/tests/test_query.py -q
- uv run --project python --extra tests --extra dev ruff check .
- uv run --project python --extra tests --extra dev ruff format --check
python/python/tests/test_query.py

Fixes #2217

<!-- lance-gatekeeper-fix:v1 agent=9ddc0efd1f13888b2a7a896881c6e68a
generation=1 -->

Co-authored-by: Gatefixer <313497061+lancedb-gatefixer[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-10-23 01:09:16 +08:00
..
2025-01-29 08:27:07 -08:00
2024-04-05 16:22:59 -07:00

LanceDB Python SDK

A Python library for LanceDB.

Installation

pip install lancedb

If no wheel is published for your platform, pip builds lancedb from the source distribution. That build needs a Rust toolchain and protoc (the Protocol Buffers compiler) on your PATH, and can take a while.

Pre-Haswell x86_64 hosts: lancedb-compat

The default lancedb wheel targets x86-64-haswell (AVX2 + FMA + F16C) for full performance on modern hardware. Pre-Haswell hosts — Intel Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge / Westmere; AMD Bulldozer / Piledriver / Steamroller — don't have AVX2 and crash with Illegal instruction at import lancedb.

For those hosts, install the lancedb-compat package instead:

pip install lancedb-compat

Same Python API (import lancedb works as usual). The compat wheel is compiled at the x86-64-v2 baseline (Nehalem-class) and uses runtime SIMD dispatch in the embedded lance crate to pick the right kernel tier (scalar / AVX / AVX+FMA / AVX2+FMA / AVX-512) at load time, so it still goes fast on modern hardware while running cleanly on the pre-Haswell silicon. Use lance.simd_info() from Python to verify which tier was selected.

lancedb and lancedb-compat install to the same lancedb/ namespace and conflict at install time. Pick one. To switch, pip uninstall lancedb first, then pip install lancedb-compat (or vice-versa).

If you need a custom baseline (or lancedb-compat isn't yet published for your platform), build from source with the override:

RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=x86-64-v2" maturin build --release
pip install ./target/wheels/lancedb-*.whl

Preview Releases

Stable releases are created about every 2 weeks. For the latest features and bug fixes, you can install the preview release. These releases receive the same level of testing as stable releases, but are not guaranteed to be available for more than 6 months after they are released. Once your application is stable, we recommend switching to stable releases.

pip install --pre --extra-index-url https://pypi.fury.io/lancedb/ lancedb

Threading in CPU-limited containers

LanceDB uses separate pools for compute work and storage I/O. On a container with two visible CPUs, current releases intentionally use one compute worker by default; no manual configuration is needed. If every query logs an I/O core reservation warning on a two-CPU container, upgrade from LanceDB 0.21.1 or earlier.

The two commonly tuned environment variables control different resources:

  • LANCE_CPU_THREADS overrides the number of compute workers. One worker is the appropriate setting for a two-CPU container when an explicit override is needed.
  • LANCE_IO_THREADS controls concurrent storage operations, not reserved CPU cores. Its default can be greater than the number of CPUs because I/O workers spend much of their time waiting for storage.

Keep the defaults unless measurements show that the workload benefits from an override. See the Lance threading model for the current defaults and tuning guidance.

Usage

Basic Example

import lancedb
db = lancedb.connect('<PATH_TO_LANCEDB_DATASET>')
table = db.open_table('my_table')
results = table.search([0.1, 0.3]).limit(20).to_list()
print(results)

Development

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on how to contribute to LanceDB.