fix: scan misaligned per-column chunk grids (#221)

dfa1 · claude · dfa1 · commit 023041f92dd7 · 2026-07-07T07:40:35.000+02:00
ScanIterator.buildChunks rejected any per-column chunk mismatch beyond the narrow 1-vs-N case ("mixed per-column chunking beyond 1-vs-N is not supported"), so two Raincloud files the Rust oracle reads fine failed to scan. Replace the 1-vs-N special case with the Rust reference's policy: the scan planner now splits at the merged boundary grid — the sorted, deduplicated union of every column's chunk boundaries. This mirrors vortex-layout's StructReader::register_splits, which unions each field child's chunk boundaries into one RowSplits set (vortex-layout/src/scan/split_by.rs), the scan then walking each adjacent-boundary window and slicing every column's covering chunk to it. The merged grid refines every column's grid, so each window lies entirely within exactly one chunk of each column. Tier decision: the merged-grid generalization is tractable and subsumes both tiers from the issue, so it is implemented in full rather than only the nested tier: - nested boundaries (emotions-dataset-for-nlp: label [131072 x3, 23593] nests inside text's 16384 grid), and - disjoint boundaries (uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality: numeric [131072 x3, 27552] vs station's 40960/49152 grid, which do not nest) both fall out of the union with no tier-specific code. Fast paths are preserved: when a window equals a whole covering chunk (offset 0, window rows == flat rows) the chunk is decoded straight into the chunk's arena with no slice wrapper, so aligned N-vs-N and per-chunk decode stay zero-copy. A coarse chunk that spans several windows is decoded once into the iterator's shared arena (cached by identity) and sliced zero-copy per window, never re-decoded. Corpus evidence (CLI export vs the Parquet oracle): uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality: OK (420768 rows x 18 cols) emotions-dataset-for-nlp: OK (416809 rows x 2 cols) Both matrix entries flipped gap:221 -> ok; conformance suite green. Closes #221 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 ### Fixed
 
 - Per-zone stats from current Rust writers (`vortex.zoned`, vortex-jni 0.76.0) decode again. The 0.76 zoned layout replaced the legacy `vortex.stats` bit-set metadata with an aggregate-function spec list and dropped the per-stat truncation flags; the reader now reconstructs the stats table from that spec list (min/max/sum/null_count), so `columnZoneStats` and aggregate push-down work against those files instead of throwing `ClassCastException`. ([#197](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/pull/197))
+- Scans of files whose columns use different chunk grids no longer fail with `mixed per-column chunking beyond 1-vs-N is not supported`. The scan planner now splits at the merged boundary grid — the sorted union of every column's chunk boundaries, matching the Rust reference — and decodes each column's covering chunk once, slicing it zero-copy to each window. This handles both nested grids (Raincloud `emotions-dataset-for-nlp`, where `label`'s coarse chunks nest inside `text`'s finer grid) and disjoint grids (`uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality`, where numeric and `station` boundaries do not nest). Aligned N-vs-N and 1-vs-N scans keep their existing slice-free fast path. ([#221](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/221))
 - CSV export renders nested struct columns as JSON object cells (`{"field":value,...}`, strings JSON-escaped, null fields as JSON `null`, nested structs recursed) instead of throwing `unsupported array type: StructArray`. ([#217](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/217))
 - Scanning a struct whose columns include a nested struct no longer fails chunk planning. A nested `vortex.struct` layout column (e.g. Raincloud `countries-of-the-world`'s `data` column) is now treated as a single full-range chunk source and decoded through the layout registry's new struct decoder into a `StructArray`, matching the Rust reference (a nested struct spans its parent's row range, not an independent chunking). `schema`/`count`/`inspect` already worked; plain scans and `select` of sibling columns now work too. CSV export of the struct column itself remains unsupported (a separate rendering limitation). ([#207](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/207))
 - CSV export renders unsigned integer columns (U8–U64) with their unsigned values — high-half values previously printed as two's-complement negatives (uci-wine `magnesium` U8 132 exported as -124), silent corruption found by the Raincloud conformance suite. ([#208](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/208))
diff --git a/docs/compatibility.md b/docs/compatibility.md
@@ -62,9 +62,11 @@ Per-slug status lives in `integration/src/test/resources/raincloud/expected-stat
 (`ok` must pass; `gap:<issue>` must still fail, so a fix flips the entry in the same change;
 `untriaged` runs and reports without failing the build). A scheduled workflow
 (`raincloud-conformance.yml`) hydrates a size-capped subset weekly. Current triage —
-28 `ok`, 2 known gaps (both misaligned per-column chunk grids,
-[#221](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/221)); 217 slugs untriaged. Fixed so far
-by this suite: lazy dict U8/U16 values ([#206](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/206)),
+30 `ok`, 0 known gaps; 217 slugs untriaged. Fixed so far
+by this suite: misaligned per-column chunk grids
+([#221](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/221) — scan now splits at the merged boundary
+grid, slicing each column's covering chunk per window), lazy dict U8/U16 values
+([#206](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/206)),
 nested struct columns in scan ([#207](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/207)),
 unsigned integers rendered signed ([#208](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/208) /
 [#216](https://github.com/dfa1/vortex-java/issues/216) — silent corruption, incl. wrong filter
diff --git a/integration/src/test/resources/raincloud/expected-status.csv b/integration/src/test/resources/raincloud/expected-status.csv
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ diabetes-health-indicators-dataset,untriaged
 disease-symptom-description-dataset,untriaged
 docmatix-zero-shot,untriaged
 electric-motor-temperature,untriaged
-emotions-dataset-for-nlp,gap:221
+emotions-dataset-for-nlp,ok
 fhv_tripdata_2025,untriaged
 fhvhv_tripdata_2025,untriaged
 finemath-4plus,untriaged
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ uci-air-quality,ok
 uci-auto-mpg,ok
 uci-automobile,untriaged
 uci-bank-marketing,ok
-uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality,gap:221
+uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality,ok
 uci-bike-sharing-dataset,ok
 uci-breast-cancer,untriaged
 uci-breast-cancer-wisconsin-diagnostic,untriaged
diff --git a/reader/src/main/java/io/github/dfa1/vortex/reader/ScanIterator.java b/reader/src/main/java/io/github/dfa1/vortex/reader/ScanIterator.java
@@ -37,12 +37,14 @@
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.IdentityHashMap;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.NoSuchElementException;
 import java.util.SequencedMap;
+import java.util.TreeSet;
 import java.util.function.Consumer;
 
 /// Iterates over decoded chunks from a [io.github.dfa1.vortex.reader.VortexReader].
@@ -79,15 +81,14 @@ public final class ScanIterator implements Iterator<Chunk>, AutoCloseable {
     private List<ChunkSpec> chunks;
     private List<ColumnName> projectedNames;
     private List<DType> projectedDtypes;
-    private Map<ColumnName, Layout> columnTopLayouts;
     private Map<ColumnName, DType> columnDtypes;
     private int chunkIndex;
     private int peekedChunkIdx = -1;
     private long rowsReturned;
     private Chunk openChunk;
     private boolean closed;
     private Arena sharedArena;
-    private Map<ColumnName, Array> sharedFullArrays;
+    private Map<Layout, Array> sharedFlats;
 
     public ScanIterator(VortexHandle file, ScanOptions options) {
         this.file = file;
@@ -123,63 +124,89 @@ private static void collectFlats(Layout layout, List<Layout> out) {
         }
     }
 
-    private static List<ChunkSpec> buildChunks(Map<ColumnName, List<Layout>> columnFlats) {
+    /// Plans the scan by merging every column's chunk grid into one split grid, mirroring the Rust
+    /// reference: `StructReader::register_splits` unions each field's chunk boundaries into a single
+    /// sorted, deduplicated set (`vortex-layout/src/scan/split_by.rs`), and the scan then walks each
+    /// adjacent-boundary window slicing every column's covering chunk to it. The merged grid refines
+    /// every column's grid, so each window lies entirely within exactly one chunk of each column.
+    ///
+    /// This subsumes the previous special cases without regressing them:
+    /// - aligned N-vs-N (all columns share a grid) — every window equals a whole chunk, so decode is
+    ///   direct with no slicing;
+    /// - 1-vs-N (one full-column flat over a chunked column) — the single flat covers every window
+    ///   and is decoded once, then sliced;
+    /// - nested boundaries (emotions-dataset-for-nlp: `label` `[131072 ×3, 23593]` vs `text`'s
+    ///   26-chunk `16384` grid) and disjoint grids (uci-beijing-multi-site-air-quality: numeric
+    ///   `[131072 ×3, 27552]` vs `station`'s `40960/49152/...` grid) both fall out of the union.
+    static List<ChunkSpec> buildChunks(Map<ColumnName, List<Layout>> columnFlats) {
         if (columnFlats.isEmpty()) {
             return List.of();
         }
         ColumnName[] colNames = columnFlats.keySet().toArray(ColumnName[]::new);
         int numCols = colNames.length;
-        int maxChunks = 0;
-        int refCol = 0;
-        for (int j = 0; j < numCols; j++) {
-            int n = columnFlats.get(colNames[j]).size();
-            if (n > maxChunks) {
-                maxChunks = n;
-                refCol = j;
-            }
-        }
-        // Detect single-flat columns sharing the chunked range of a wider column.
-        // Other mismatched widths (e.g. 5 flats vs 23 flats) are not supported.
-        boolean[] shared = new boolean[numCols];
+
+        // Per-column cumulative chunk starts: colStarts[j][c] is the first row of chunk c and the
+        // final entry is the column's total row count. Chunk c spans [colStarts[j][c], colStarts[j][c+1]).
+        long[][] colStarts = new long[numCols][];
         for (int j = 0; j < numCols; j++) {
-            int n = columnFlats.get(colNames[j]).size();
-            if (n == maxChunks) {
-                continue;
+            List<Layout> flats = columnFlats.get(colNames[j]);
+            long[] starts = new long[flats.size() + 1];
+            long acc = 0;
+            for (int c = 0; c < flats.size(); c++) {
+                starts[c] = acc;
+                acc += flats.get(c).rowCount();
             }
-            if (n == 1) {
-                shared[j] = true;
-            } else {
-                throw new VortexException(
-                        "scan: column '" + colNames[j] + "' has " + n
-                                + " flats but the widest column has " + maxChunks
-                                + "; mixed per-column chunking beyond 1-vs-N is not supported");
+            starts[flats.size()] = acc;
+            colStarts[j] = starts;
+        }
+
+        long[] boundaries = mergedBoundaries(colStarts);
+        int numWindows = boundaries.length - 1;
+        var result = new ArrayList<ChunkSpec>(numWindows);
+        int[] cursor = new int[numCols]; // covering chunk index per column; advances monotonically
+        for (int w = 0; w < numWindows; w++) {
+            long windowStart = boundaries[w];
+            long windowRows = boundaries[w + 1] - windowStart;
+            Layout[] layouts = new Layout[numCols];
+            long[] sliceOffsets = new long[numCols];
+            for (int j = 0; j < numCols; j++) {
+                long[] starts = colStarts[j];
+                int c = cursor[j];
+                // Advance to the chunk whose range contains windowStart (starts[c+1] > windowStart).
+                while (c + 1 < starts.length && starts[c + 1] <= windowStart) {
+                    c++;
+                }
+                cursor[j] = c;
+                List<Layout> flats = columnFlats.get(colNames[j]);
+                if (c >= flats.size()) {
+                    throw new VortexException("scan: column '" + colNames[j]
+                            + "' has no chunk covering rows [" + windowStart + ", "
+                            + (windowStart + windowRows) + ")");
+                }
+                layouts[j] = flats.get(c);
+                sliceOffsets[j] = windowStart - starts[c];
             }
-        }
-        var result = new ArrayList<ChunkSpec>(maxChunks);
-        long sliceStart = 0;
-        for (int i = 0; i < maxChunks; i++) {
-            long chunkRowCount = columnFlats.get(colNames[refCol]).get(i).rowCount();
-            result.add(buildChunkSpec(colNames, columnFlats, shared, i, sliceStart, chunkRowCount));
-            sliceStart += chunkRowCount;
+            result.add(new ChunkSpec(windowRows, colNames, layouts, sliceOffsets));
         }
         return List.copyOf(result);
     }
 
-    private static ChunkSpec buildChunkSpec(ColumnName[] colNames, Map<ColumnName, List<Layout>> columnFlats,
-            boolean[] shared, int chunkIdx, long sliceStart, long chunkRowCount) {
-        int numCols = colNames.length;
-        Layout[] layouts = new Layout[numCols];
-        long[] sliceOffsets = new long[numCols];
-        for (int j = 0; j < numCols; j++) {
-            if (shared[j]) {
-                layouts[j] = null;
-                sliceOffsets[j] = sliceStart;
-            } else {
-                layouts[j] = columnFlats.get(colNames[j]).get(chunkIdx);
-                sliceOffsets[j] = 0L;
+    /// Returns the sorted, deduplicated union of every column's cumulative chunk starts (each ending
+    /// in the column's total row count). The result always contains `0` and the total; adjacent
+    /// entries are the scan's split windows.
+    private static long[] mergedBoundaries(long[][] colStarts) {
+        var set = new TreeSet<Long>();
+        for (long[] starts : colStarts) {
+            for (long s : starts) {
+                set.add(s);
             }
         }
-        return new ChunkSpec(chunkRowCount, colNames, layouts, sliceOffsets);
+        long[] out = new long[set.size()];
+        int i = 0;
+        for (long v : set) {
+            out[i++] = v;
+        }
+        return out;
     }
 
     // ── Layout tree traversal ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -540,7 +567,7 @@ public void close() {
         if (sharedArena != null) {
             sharedArena.close();
             sharedArena = null;
-            sharedFullArrays = null;
+            sharedFlats = null;
         }
     }
 
@@ -555,7 +582,6 @@ private void initialize() {
         DType rootDtype = file.dtype();
 
         var columnFlats = new LinkedHashMap<ColumnName, List<Layout>>();
-        var columnTopLayouts = new LinkedHashMap<ColumnName, Layout>();
         Map<ColumnName, DType> columnDtypes = new LinkedHashMap<>();
 
         if (rootLayout.isStruct() && rootDtype instanceof DType.Struct structDtype) {
@@ -570,51 +596,19 @@ private void initialize() {
                 var flats = new ArrayList<Layout>();
                 collectFlats(colTop, flats);
                 columnFlats.put(colName, flats);
-                columnTopLayouts.put(colName, colTop);
                 columnDtypes.put(colName, colDtype);
             }
         } else {
             var flats = new ArrayList<Layout>();
             collectFlats(rootLayout, flats);
             ColumnName colName = ColumnName.of("_col");
             columnFlats.put(colName, flats);
-            columnTopLayouts.put(colName, rootLayout);
             columnDtypes.put(colName, rootDtype);
         }
 
         projectedNames = List.copyOf(columnDtypes.keySet());
         projectedDtypes = List.copyOf(columnDtypes.values());
-        this.columnTopLayouts = Map.copyOf(columnTopLayouts);
         chunks = buildChunks(columnFlats);
-        decodeSharedColumns(columnFlats, columnTopLayouts, columnDtypes);
-    }
-
-    private void decodeSharedColumns(
-            Map<ColumnName, List<Layout>> columnFlats,
-            Map<ColumnName, Layout> columnTopLayouts,
-            Map<ColumnName, DType> columnDtypes) {
-        int maxFlats = 0;
-        for (List<Layout> flats : columnFlats.values()) {
-            if (flats.size() > maxFlats) {
-                maxFlats = flats.size();
-            }
-        }
-        if (maxFlats <= 1) {
-            return;
-        }
-        for (var entry : columnFlats.entrySet()) {
-            if (entry.getValue().size() != 1) {
-                continue;
-            }
-            if (sharedArena == null) {
-                sharedArena = Arena.ofConfined();
-                sharedFullArrays = new HashMap<>();
-            }
-            ColumnName name = entry.getKey();
-            Layout topLayout = columnTopLayouts.get(name);
-            DType dtype = columnDtypes.get(name);
-            sharedFullArrays.put(name, decodeLayout(topLayout, dtype, sharedArena));
-        }
     }
 
     // A LinkedHashMap preserves schema/projection order (the public columns() contract is a
@@ -640,8 +634,8 @@ private SequencedMap<ColumnName, Chunk.Column> buildColumnMap(ChunkSpec chunk, A
     }
 
     /// Builds the column map for [#decodeChunkAt(int)]. Identical decode to [#buildColumnMap]
-    /// except that a shared (single-flat) column is decoded into `arena` and sliced there,
-    /// so the resulting [Chunk] owns every buffer and survives this iterator's close.
+    /// except that a covering chunk spanning several windows is decoded into `arena` and sliced
+    /// there, so the resulting [Chunk] owns every buffer and survives this iterator's close.
     private SequencedMap<ColumnName, Chunk.Column> buildSelfContainedColumnMap(ChunkSpec chunk, Arena arena) {
         Layout[] layouts = chunk.columnLayouts();
         long[] sliceOffsets = chunk.sliceOffsets();
@@ -668,30 +662,44 @@ private SequencedMap<ColumnName, Chunk.Column> singleColumn(Array array) {
         return unmodifiable(map);
     }
 
-    private Array decodeOrSliceSelfContained(int colIdx, Layout layout, long sliceStart,
+    private Array decodeOrSliceSelfContained(int colIdx, Layout coveringFlat, long sliceOffset,
                                              long rowCount, Arena arena) {
-        if (layout != null) {
-            return decodeLayout(layout, projectedDtypes.get(colIdx), arena);
-        }
-        // Shared single-flat column: decode its full top layout into THIS chunk's arena and
-        // slice, so the returned Chunk does not reference the iterator's shared arena.
-        ColumnName name = projectedNames.get(colIdx);
         DType dtype = projectedDtypes.get(colIdx);
-        Array full = decodeLayout(columnTopLayouts.get(name), dtype, arena);
-        return sliceArray(full, sliceStart, rowCount, dtype);
+        Array full = decodeLayout(coveringFlat, dtype, arena);
+        if (isWholeFlat(coveringFlat, sliceOffset, rowCount)) {
+            return full;
+        }
+        // Covering chunk spans several windows: slice it into THIS chunk's arena so the returned
+        // Chunk owns every buffer and survives this iterator's close.
+        return sliceArray(full, sliceOffset, rowCount, dtype);
     }
 
-    private Array decodeOrSlice(int colIdx, Layout layout, long sliceStart, long rowCount,
+    private Array decodeOrSlice(int colIdx, Layout coveringFlat, long sliceOffset, long rowCount,
                                 Arena arena) {
-        if (layout != null) {
-            return decodeLayout(layout, projectedDtypes.get(colIdx), arena);
+        DType dtype = projectedDtypes.get(colIdx);
+        if (isWholeFlat(coveringFlat, sliceOffset, rowCount)) {
+            // Fast path: the window is a whole chunk — decode straight into the chunk's arena with
+            // no slice wrapper (aligned N-vs-N and per-chunk decode keep their zero-copy behavior).
+            return decodeLayout(coveringFlat, dtype, arena);
         }
-        Array full = sharedFullArrays.get(projectedNames.get(colIdx));
-        if (full == null) {
-            throw new VortexException("scan: missing shared array for column "
-                    + projectedNames.get(colIdx));
+        // Covering chunk spans several windows: decode it once into the shared arena and slice
+        // zero-copy per window, matching how Rust decodes a chunk once and slices each split range.
+        Array full = sharedCoveringFlat(coveringFlat, dtype);
+        return sliceArray(full, sliceOffset, rowCount, dtype);
+    }
+
+    private static boolean isWholeFlat(Layout coveringFlat, long sliceOffset, long rowCount) {
+        return sliceOffset == 0 && rowCount == coveringFlat.rowCount();
+    }
+
+    /// Decodes `flat` once into the iterator's shared arena and caches it by identity, so a coarse
+    /// chunk that covers several split windows is decoded a single time and then sliced per window.
+    private Array sharedCoveringFlat(Layout flat, DType dtype) {
+        if (sharedArena == null) {
+            sharedArena = Arena.ofConfined();
+            sharedFlats = new IdentityHashMap<>();
         }
-        return sliceArray(full, sliceStart, rowCount, projectedDtypes.get(colIdx));
+        return sharedFlats.computeIfAbsent(flat, f -> decodeLayout(f, dtype, sharedArena));
     }
 
     private static Array sliceArray(Array full, long offset, long length, DType dtype) {
@@ -873,7 +881,7 @@ public SegmentSpec segmentSpec(int index) {
     // ── Internal record ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
     @SuppressWarnings("java:S6218") // internal data carrier; record components are arrays of immutable primitives or refs that flow through pipelines without ever being compared.
-    private record ChunkSpec(
+    record ChunkSpec(
             long rowCount, ColumnName[] columnNames, Layout[] columnLayouts, long[] sliceOffsets) {
         Layout layoutFor(ColumnName col) {
             for (int i = 0; i < columnNames.length; i++) {
diff --git a/reader/src/test/java/io/github/dfa1/vortex/reader/ScanIteratorChunkGridTest.java b/reader/src/test/java/io/github/dfa1/vortex/reader/ScanIteratorChunkGridTest.java
