Backend Table Hierarchy

Several SQL backends support two levels of hierarchy in organizing tables (although the levels are also used for other purposes, like data access, billing, etc.).

Ibis uses the following terminology:

Below is a table with the terminology used by each backend for the two levels of hierarchy. This is provided as a reference, note that when using Ibis, we will use the terms catalog and database and map them onto the appropriate fields.

Backend Catalog Database
bigquery project database
clickhouse database
datafusion catalog schema
druid dataSourceType dataSource
duckdb database schema
flink catalog database
impala database
mssql database schema
mysql database
oracle database
pandas NA
polars NA
postgres database schema
pyspark database
risingwave database schema
snowflake database
trino catalog schema
Back to top