Overview
PyArrow 21.0, released on July 17, 2025, adds the utf8_zero_fill function, DLPack support, and removes the NumPy dependency for float16 arrays.
Main Features
utf8_zero_fill and DLPack
The new pc.utf8_zero_fill function pads strings with zeros. DLPack support enables zero-copy data exchange with other libraries.
python
import pyarrow as pa
import pyarrow.compute as pc
# Zero-fill strings
arr = pa.array(['42', '7', '123'])
print(pc.utf8_zfill(arr, 5)) # ['00042', '00007', '00123']
# float16 without NumPy
f16 = pa.array([1.0, 2.0], type=pa.float16())
print(f16.type) # halffloat