--- title: Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type for... description: Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type as defined in the Apache Iceberg V3 specification. This allows writing semi-structured data like JSON... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-the-variant-data-type-for-apache-iceberg-v3-a7ltmew4l twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type for Apache Iceberg V3 | daily.dev og:description: Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type as defined in the Apache Iceberg V3 specification. This allows writing semi-structured data like JSON... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-the-variant-data-type-for-apache-iceberg-v3-a7ltmew4l og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/A7lTmEW4l.png og:image:alt: Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type for Apache Iceberg V3 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type for Apache Iceberg V3 **[AWS](https://daily.dev/sources/aws)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type as defined in the Apache Iceberg V3 specification. This allows writing semi-structured data like JSON directly to S3 Tables without a fixed schema, enabling faster data ingestion while maintaining analytical query performance. Iceberg V3-compatible engines shred semi-structured data into hidden columns during writes, generating Parquet column statistics for optimizations like file pruning. S3 Tables also handle ongoing maintenance including compaction for Variant columns. The feature is available across 15 AWS regions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Does Amazon S3 Tables support the Variant data type from Apache Iceberg V3? Yes, Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type defined in the Apache Iceberg V3 specification, allowing semi-structured data like JSON to be written directly without defining a fixed schema in advance. Iceberg V3-compatible engines shred this data into hidden columns as it is written, generating Parquet column statistics used for file pruning to reduce scanned data during queries. _Teams adopting Iceberg V3 features can track AWS data platform updates like this on daily.dev._ ### Which AWS regions support the Variant data type in S3 Tables? Variant support in S3 Tables is available in US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo), Canada (Central), Europe (Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris, Stockholm), and South America (São Paulo). _Engineers planning regional rollouts can follow AWS service availability news on daily.dev._ ### How does S3 Tables handle maintenance for Variant columns in Iceberg tables? S3 Tables provide ongoing table maintenance, including compaction, for Variant columns, consolidating data from small files into larger files that Iceberg engines can read efficiently. This reduces file fragmentation from frequent semi-structured data writes while preserving analytical query performance through generated Parquet column statistics. _Data engineers managing Iceberg table maintenance can keep up with these operational details on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Amazon S3 Tables now support all Apache Iceberg V3 data types](https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-all-apache-iceberg-v3-data-types-nkjnu2oqj) · AWS · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Amazon Redshift now supports Apache Iceberg v3 tables](https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-redshift-now-supports-apache-iceberg-v3-tables-lh6g9nkhk) · AWS · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ingest semi-structured data faster and more efficiently with Variant - Now Generally Available](https://daily.dev/posts/ingest-semi-structured-data-faster-and-more-efficiently-with-variant---now-generally-available-yxwphvq9m) · databricks · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why Apache Iceberg Is Not “Just Another Table Format”](https://daily.dev/posts/why-apache-iceberg-is-not-just-another-table-format--jeknvsrjf) · Snowflake Community · 37 upvotes · 0 comments - [Dremio Deepens Apache Iceberg Leadership with V3 Support](https://daily.dev/posts/dremio-deepens-apache-iceberg-leadership-with-v3-support-hm7yamtrs) · SD Times · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#big-data](https://daily.dev/tags/big-data), [#aws-s3](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-s3), [#apache-iceberg](https://daily.dev/tags/apache-iceberg) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-the-variant-data-type-for-apache-iceberg-v3-a7ltmew4l) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type for Apache Iceberg V3","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-the-variant-data-type-for-apache-iceberg-v3-a7ltmew4l","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/amazon-s3-tables-now-support-the-variant-data-type-for-apache-iceberg-v3-a7ltmew4l"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T16:05:38.677Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:52:16.188Z","description":"Amazon S3 Tables now support the Variant data type as defined in the Apache Iceberg V3 specification. 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