Output Collector

The OutputCollector is passed to produce and exchange handlers to emit data batches and log messages.

Emitting data

There are three ways to emit output:

Column arrays

Most efficient for multi-row batches. Pass an object with arrays keyed by field name:

out.emit({ name: ["alice", "bob"], value: [1.0, 2.0] });

Single-row convenience

Wraps each value in an array and calls emit():

out.emitRow({ name: "alice", value: 1.0 });

Pre-built RecordBatch

Pass a RecordBatch directly:

import { recordBatchFromArrays } from "apache-arrow";

const batch = recordBatchFromArrays(
  { name: ["alice"], value: [1.0] },
  outputSchema,
);
out.emit(batch);

One batch per call

Each produce or exchange invocation must emit exactly one data batch. Emitting more than one throws an error:

// This will throw
produce: (state, out) => {
  out.emitRow({ value: 1 });
  out.emitRow({ value: 2 }); // Error: Only one data batch may be emitted per call
},

To emit multiple rows, use column arrays:

produce: (state, out) => {
  out.emit({ value: [1, 2, 3] }); // Single batch with 3 rows
},

Finishing a stream

In producer methods, call out.finish() to end the stream:

produce: (state, out) => {
  if (state.current >= state.limit) {
    out.finish();
    return;
  }
  out.emitRow({ value: state.current });
  state.current++;
},

finish() is only available in producer methods. Calling it in an exchange method throws an error — exchange streams end when the client stops sending input batches.

Client logging

The OutputCollector also implements the LogContext interface:

produce: (state, out) => {
  out.clientLog("INFO", `Processing batch ${state.current}`);
  out.emitRow({ value: state.current });
  state.current++;
},

See Client Logging for more details.

Int64 coercion

When emitting column arrays, JavaScript Number values for Int64 fields are automatically coerced to BigInt. This lets you write natural JavaScript without worrying about BigInt literals:

// Both work for Int64 fields
out.emit({ count: [42] });       // Number → BigInt automatically
out.emit({ count: [42n] });      // BigInt directly