Data engineering·Files, formats and table layers
the file was written as whatever the source sent and the shape is decided by the query that reads it, which is why two teams parse it differently.
Schema-on-read
Also calledlate binding schema
Deferring interpretation of structure to read time, so anything can be stored immediately. It is what makes a lake able to accept a new source the same afternoon, and it moves the entire cost of a malformed record from the producer to every consumer, forever. The pattern is defensible for a landing zone and indefensible for a table that many teams query.