Struct ArrowArray 

#[repr(C)]
pub struct ArrowArray {
    pub length: i64,
    pub null_count: i64,
    pub offset: i64,
    pub n_buffers: i64,
    pub n_children: i64,
    pub buffers: *mut *const u8,
    pub children: *mut *mut ArrowArray,
    pub dictionary: *mut ArrowArray,
    pub release: Option<unsafe extern "C" fn(*mut ArrowArray)>,
    pub private_data: *mut c_void,
}

ArrowArray as per the Arrow C spec

1. Box::new(ArrowArray::empty()) - allocates ~80 bytes for the metadata struct
2. PyArrow’s _export_to_c fills in the struct, setting buffers to point to PyArrow’s memory
3. ForeignBuffer stores this Box and uses the buffers pointer for zero-copy access
4. The data never moves - we just hold a pointer to it

Fields

length: i64

null_count: i64

offset: i64

n_buffers: i64

n_children: i64

buffers: *mut *const u8

children: *mut *mut ArrowArray

dictionary: *mut ArrowArray

release: Option<unsafe extern "C" fn(*mut ArrowArray)>

private_data: *mut c_void

Implementations

impl ArrowArray

pub fn empty() -> ArrowArray

Creates an empty ArrowArray for receiving FFI data. Used when importing from external sources (e.g., PyArrow).