Z-Order Sort

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Overview

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When to Use Z-Order

-- Queries that benefit from z-order on (region, date):
SELECT * FROM events WHERE region = 'US' AND date > '2026-01-01';
SELECT * FROM orders WHERE customer_id = 123 AND status = 'pending';

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How It Works

1. Normalize: Each column value is converted to an 8-byte comparable representation
2. Interleave: Bits from all columns are woven together
3. Sort: Records are sorted by the interleaved value
4. Write: Parquet files preserve the z-order, creating natural clustering

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Configuration

1. Set Sort Strategy to “Z-Order”
2. Enter columns: region, date, user_id

{
  "managedLakehouseSettings": {
    "sortStrategy": "z_order",
    "sortColumns": ["region", "date", "user_id"]
  }
}

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Supported Column Types

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Tips

• Choose 2–4 columns that are most frequently used together in WHERE clauses
• Timestamp columns are excellent z-order candidates
• Z-order is applied per batch; compaction further improves clustering over time
• For single-column queries, standard sort order is sufficient — z-order helps with multi-column patterns