python-v0.16.0: schema evolution, timestampNtz, faster MERGE, drop constraints

Performance improvements

• perf: directly create projection instead of using DataFrame::with_column by @emcake in #2222

Breaking changes

This version introduces timestampNtz datatype, this means if your writer before wrote timestamp with no timezones to a timestamp column, this will now fail. The new behavior is that you can only write timestamps with UTC time zone to timestamp primitive type.

New features

• feat: implement string representation for PartitionFilter by @sonhmai in #2183
• feat(rust, python): add drop constraint operation by @ion-elgreco in #2071
• feat: merge schema support for the write operation and Python by @aersam @rtyler in #2246
• feat(python, rust): timestampNtz support by @ion-elgreco in #2236

Bug Fixes

• feat: add comment to explain why assert has failed and show state by @braaannigan in #2179
• fix: removed panic in method by @mightyshazam in #2185
• fix: correct map field names by @emcake in #2182
• fix: add data_type and nullable to StructField hash (#2045) by @sonhmai in #2190
• fix: is_commit_file should only catch commit jsons by @emcake in #2213
• fix(python): sort before schema comparison by @ion-elgreco in #2209
• fix: canonicalize config keys by @emcake in #2206
• fix(writer): retry storage.put on temporary network errors by @qinix in #2207
• fix: fix ruff and mypy version and do formatting by @aersam in #2240
• fix: object_store 0.9.0 since 0.9.1 causes CI failure by @aersam in #2245

Other Changes

• chore: 0.17.0 publish changes by @rtyler in #2171
• docs: include the 0.17.0 changelog by @rtyler in #2173
• docs: add delta lake best practices by @MrPowers in #2147
• docs: dask integration fix formatting typo by @avriiil in #2196
• docs: update README code samples for newer versions by @jhoekx in #2202
• chore: remove caches from github actions by @rtyler in #2215
• docs: fixing example in CONTRIBUTING.md by @gacharya in #2224
• chore: fix the Cargo.tomls to publish information properly on docs.rs by @rtyler in #2211
• chore: bump to 0.16 by @ion-elgreco in #2248
• chore: clean up some compilation failures and un-ignore some tests by @rtyler in #2231

New Contributors

• @braaannigan made their first contribution in #2179
• @sonhmai made their first contribution in #2183
• @jhoekx made their first contribution in #2202
• @gacharya made their first contribution in #2224
• @qinix made their first contribution in #2207

Full Changelog: python-v0.15.3...python-v0.16.0