ADBC: Arrow Database Connectivity
EXPERIMENTAL. Please see the mailing list discussion and the original proposal for context.
ADBC is an API standard for database access libraries ("drivers") in C and Java that uses Arrow for data. Instead of writing code for each individual database, applications can build against the ADBC APIs, and link against drivers that implement the standard. Additionally, a JDBC/ODBC-style driver manager is provided. This also implements the ADBC APIs, but dynamically loads drivers and dispatches calls to them.
Like JDBC/ODBC, the goal is to provide a generic API for multiple databases, but ADBC is focused on Arrow-based data access for analytics use cases (bulk data retrieval/ingestion), and not the full spectrum of use cases that JDBC/ODBC drivers handle. Hence, ADBC is complementary to those existing standards.
Like Flight SQL, ADBC is an Arrow-based database access API. But Flight SQL also specifies the wire format and network transport (Flight RPC), while ADBC lets drivers make their own decisions. Together, ADBC and Flight SQL offer a fully Arrow-native solution for clients and database vendors.
Building
For detailed instructions, see CONTRIBUTING.md.