Database · PostgreSQL wire

TimescaleDB into Apache Arrow with ADBC

TimescaleDB 2.29 (PostgreSQL 16), read and written through adbcBridge — the ADBC driver that loads the database's ODBC driver — verified on Linux, macOS arm64 and Windows x64. Everything below is the compatibility matrix's record for this row.

Status

Linux✓ pass

PASS

macOS arm64✓ pass

PASS (TimescaleDB, PostgreSQL wire 16.15)

Windows x64✓ pass

PASS (TimescaleDB latest-pg16, PostgreSQL wire 16.15.0; hypertable steps included)

Driver and connection string

ODBC driver: psqlodbc 16 (PG wire)
Wire: PostgreSQL wire
adbcBridge: 0.1.1 (release)

The connection string the matrix used, as the connection strings reference records it (PostgreSQL wire); {drv} is the driver library or its name from odbcinst.ini, and the host, port and credentials are the test server's.

Driver={drv};Server=127.0.0.1;Port=15434;Database=adbc;Uid=adbc;Pwd=adbc;

Python

import adbcbridge

# {drv}: the ODBC driver library (path), or its name from odbcinst.ini
conn = adbcbridge.connect(uri="Driver={drv};Server=127.0.0.1;Port=15434;Database=adbc;Uid=adbc;Pwd=adbc;")
with conn.cursor() as cur:
    cur.execute("SELECT * FROM my_table")
    table = cur.fetch_arrow_table()      # pyarrow.Table

Polars and pandas

import polars as pl, pandas as pd

df = pl.read_database("SELECT * FROM my_table", connection=conn)   # Polars, Arrow-native
pdf = pd.read_sql("SELECT * FROM my_table", conn)                   # pandas 2.2+, ADBC connection

pip install adbcbridge brings the driver library; the TimescaleDB ODBC driver is installed the way its vendor documents, then named in Driver=. Rust, Go, C# and Java use the same connection string through their ADBC driver managers — see the docs.

What the matrix recorded

no quirks; an extension on stock PostgreSQL, so the array-ingest form applies and is used (verified); also ingests into and reads back a create_hypertable() hypertable; a plain table with rows in it has a heap and takes the ctid split, while a hypertable is an inheritance parent (relkind r, chunks through pg_inherits, not a declarative p parent) whose own heap is empty — pg_relation_size 0, so the block-count probe declines the heap split — and takes the key-range split only when its primary key leads with an integer NOT NULL column (not timed; TimescaleDB requires the partitioning column in any unique index, so a (d, a) key leads with the DATE and gets no split).

What this stack needed

SELECT ctid itself succeeds on an uncompressed hypertable and hands back chunk-local ctids that repeat across chunks, so it is the zero block count and not an error that rules the heap split out

Native ADBC driver, compared

TimescaleDB speaks the PostgreSQL wire protocol, so Apache Arrow's native PostgreSQL ADBC driver (adbc-driver-postgresql 1.12.0) can be pointed at it too. On 2026-09-05 the same seven-step ADBC workload (connect, SELECT 1, DDL and inserts and a read, a 1,000-row adbc_ingest, table schema, catalog listing, read back) ran through both:

Path	Result	First error
Native ADBC driver	✓ all seven steps
adbcBridge over ODBC	✓ all seven steps

Where the native driver stops it is by design of that driver, not a defect of TimescaleDB; the full table for all 28 wire-compatible databases, with each first error, is in the note.