View a Parquet File Schema
Published August 19, 2026
See column names and types in a .parquet file without Python, pandas, or uploading the file to a converter.
You need the columns, not the whole table
Someone sent a .parquet file. Before you write a query or a pipeline, you need names and types. Is amount a decimal or a string? Is there a nested struct?
You do not need pandas for that question.
Read the schema locally
Parquet Fox opens the file in the tab and lists columns with types. The query engine is DuckDB WebAssembly on your device. The file is not uploaded to a Parquet Fox server to show the schema.
Typical flow:
- Open Parquet Fox and drop the
.parquetfile. - Read the column list and types before you scroll rows.
- Run SQL only if you need a sample of values, not just the shape.
Parquet files up to 500 MB are in the product cap. Schema inspection still costs some footer I/O and WASM memory. It is cheaper than SELECT *.
When you still want Python
Use pandas or pyarrow when the next step is a typed DataFrame in a repo you already run in CI. This page does not repeat that tutorial. See How to Read a Parquet File for the method table.
What to do next
- Open a file and confirm the column list matches what you expected.
- If you need SQL on those columns, stay in the same tab after the schema looks right.
FAQ
- Can I see a Parquet schema without Python?
- Yes. Open the file in a browser-local viewer. Column names and types appear from the file metadata without a pandas install.
- Do I need to scan every row to see the schema?
- No. Parquet stores the schema in the file footer. A local reader can list columns and types without loading every row group.