title: What are the pros and cons of parquet format compared to other formats?
body: <p>Characteristics of Apache Parquet are :</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Self-describing </li>
  <li>Columnar format</li>
  <li>Language-independent</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>In comparison to Avro, Sequence Files, RC File etc. I want an overview of the formats. I have already read : <a href="https://www.cloudera.com/documentation/enterprise/5-8-x/topics/impala_file_formats.html" rel="noreferrer">How Impala Works with Hadoop File Formats</a> , it gives some insights on the formats but I would like to know how the access to data &amp; storage of data is done in each of these formats. How parquet has an advantage over the others?</p>