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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-81?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=15425061#comment-15425061
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Wes McKinney commented on ARROW-81:
-----------------------------------

The other question I have is the category / dictionary indices. For small 
cardinality levels it is not uncommon to store the indices in a smaller integer 
(like int8 / uint8). 

> C++: Add a Category nested type
> -------------------------------
>
>                 Key: ARROW-81
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-81
>             Project: Apache Arrow
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>          Components: C++
>            Reporter: Wes McKinney
>            Assignee: Wes McKinney
>
> A Category (or "factor") is a dictionary-encoded array whose dictionary has 
> semantic meaning. The data consists of
> - An array of integer "codes"
> - A child array of some other type, known as the "categories" or "levels" of 
> the array. Typically there is an "ordered" boolean flag indicating whether 
> the order of the categories is meaningful.
> Category/factor types are used in a number of common statistical analyses. 
> See, for example, 
> http://www.voteview.com/R_Ordered_Logistic_or_Probit_Regression.htm. It is a 
> basic requirement for Python and R, at least, as Arrow C++ consumers, to have 
> this type. Separately, we should consider what is necessary to be able to 
> transmit category data in IPCs -- possible an expansion of the Arrow format. 



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