Improve Query Speeds by 66% : Delta Lake Auto Compaction

Delta Lake Auto Compaction. Sounds fancy, right? When I first heard about it, my initial reaction was, “Oh great, another buzzword to mess with my perfectly normal life.” But it turns out, this feature is actually a lifesaver in the world of data engineering. Let me break it down for you, with a bit of personal flair.

What is Delta Lake Auto Compaction?

Imagine you’ve got a house party. People are walking in, out, and occasionally smashing chips into your carpet (why are they like this?). At some point, the mess piles up, and it’s not a great look. Delta Lake Auto Compaction is like a robot vacuum that comes in and keeps everything tidy for you — automatically. It’s designed to reduce the clutter (a.k.a. small files) that accumulates in your data lake over time.

When working with Delta Lake, every transaction or batch of data can create small files. These files are harmless at first, but over time, they pile up like receipts in your glove compartment — annoying and performance-draining.

My First Encounter with Auto Compaction

I remember the first time I had to optimize a Delta Lake table manually. Picture me, running optimization jobs at midnight, hoping the data gods would smile upon me. It was like trying to mow the lawn with scissors — tedious and frustrating.