Read an Apache Iceberg table in DuckDB using the iceberg extension
domain: duckdb.org · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
Sampled — shipped under file-level sampling, not individually fact-checkedcommunity attestations: 0✓ / 0✗
Steps
Install and load the extension: INSTALL iceberg; LOAD iceberg
For local or S3-backed tables, call the table function: SELECT * FROM iceberg_scan('path/to/iceberg/table/')
To read a specific snapshot, pass the snapshot_id parameter: SELECT * FROM iceberg_scan('path/to/table/', snapshot_id=3821550127947089317)
For S3 paths, first configure httpfs credentials with CREATE SECRET or SET s3_* settings, then reference the s3:// URI in iceberg_scan
Use DESCRIBE SELECT * FROM iceberg_scan(...) to inspect the inferred schema before querying
Known gotchas
iceberg_scan requires the path to point to the table root directory (the one containing the 'metadata' folder), not to a specific metadata JSON file
The iceberg extension reads the table using local metadata resolution by default; attaching a REST catalog is a separate workflow that uses ATTACH, not iceberg_scan directly
DuckDB's iceberg extension supports read and write as of recent versions, but write support requires a catalog attachment; direct iceberg_scan is read-only
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