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Question

Cognite Raw Staging SDK returns empty pandas dataframe

  • March 24, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 40 views
D
Committed

We have a Cognite Function in which we are retrieving rows from staging tables using below sdk command

client.raw.rows.retrieve_dataframe(db_name, tbl_name, limit=-1)

The problem we are facing is the above command returns an empty Dataframe (0 columns, 0 rows) even though the table exists with data. The code execution does not fail but returns an empty Dataframe.

When I manually/locally run the above command on the same database and tables, I get the required data.

However, when running inside a CDF function it returns a Dataframe with shape (0,0)

 

    5 replies

    Mithila Jayalath
    Seasoned Practitioner
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    As a diagnostic step, try using a small finite limit instead of -1 inside the function:

    df = client.raw.rows.retrieve_dataframe(db_name, tbl_name, limit=5)
    print(df)

     

    D
    Committed
    • DipeshY
    • Author
    • Committed
    • March 25, 2026

    Hey ​@Mithila Jayalath - Sure will try that.

    Also I tried using below and this seems to be working fine

    client.raw.rows.list(db_name, table_name, limit=None).to_pandas()

    Will also try limiting the rows with retrieve_dataframe and see how it behaves.

    D
    Committed
    • DipeshY
    • Author
    • Committed
    • March 25, 2026

    Hi ​@Mithila Jayalath 

    I tested the row table data retrieval with different setting and had below observation.

    **NOTE: I am reading data from a table that has 315 rows & 12 columns

    • With `limit = 5`, we are getting 5 rows in the df

       

    • With `limit = -1`, the behavior is very erratic. Sometimes we received DF of shape (0, 0), sometime the same table return DF of shape (171, 12) and also had instances where a DF of shape (167, 12) is returned

     

    • With `limit=None`, I am getting the right results - DF of shape (315, 12)

    Based on my observations, there seems to be some issues with `limit = -1` settings while using retrieve_dataframe.

    Can you please check and confirm.

      Mithila Jayalath
      Seasoned Practitioner
      Forum|alt.badge.img+8

      ​@DipeshY I’ll check on this and get back to you with an update.

        Mithila Jayalath
        Seasoned Practitioner
        Forum|alt.badge.img+8

        ​@DipeshY I checked from my end and I was able to reproduce the same behaviour. I’ll create a support ticket for this issue. The support team will get back to you with an update.

        Thank you for reporting this issue.

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