Encode an object with Avro to a byte array in Python

Question

In python 2.7, using Avro, I\'d like to encode an object to a byte array.

All examples I\'ve found write to a file.

I\'ve tried using io.BytesIO() but this g

Answer 1

Your question helped me figure things out, so thanks. Here's a simple python example based on the python example in the docs:

import io
import avro.schema
import avro.io

test_schema = '''
{
"namespace": "example.avro",
 "type": "record",
 "name": "User",
 "fields": [
     {"name": "name", "type": "string"},
     {"name": "favorite_number",  "type": ["int", "null"]},
     {"name": "favorite_color", "type": ["string", "null"]}
 ]
}
'''

schema = avro.schema.parse(test_schema)
writer = avro.io.DatumWriter(schema)

bytes_writer = io.BytesIO()
encoder = avro.io.BinaryEncoder(bytes_writer)
writer.write({"name": "Alyssa", "favorite_number": 256}, encoder)
writer.write({"name": "Ben", "favorite_number": 7, "favorite_color": "red"}, encoder)

raw_bytes = bytes_writer.getvalue()
print(len(raw_bytes))
print(type(raw_bytes))

bytes_reader = io.BytesIO(raw_bytes)
decoder = avro.io.BinaryDecoder(bytes_reader)
reader = avro.io.DatumReader(schema)
user1 = reader.read(decoder)
user2 = reader.read(decoder)

print(user1)
print(user2)

Answer 2

Using import avro library we can't write the avro file with the schema.

To overcome this problem use fastavro e.g.

import io
import fastavro
data = [{"name": "Shravan", "favorite_number": 256}, {"name": "Ram", "favorite_number": 7, "favorite_color": "red"}]
bytes_writer = io.BytesIO()
fastavro.writer(bytes_writer, get_avro_schema(), data)
print(bytes_writer.get_value())