---
title: "Multimodal Table"
sidebar_position: 4
---

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# Overview

Multimodal Table extends the Append Table with capabilities for storing and querying multimodal data — images, videos,
audio, vectors, and full-text content — all within a single table. It is built on top of the
[Data Evolution](./data-evolution) mode, which enables efficient partial column updates and schema evolution without
rewriting entire data files.

Key capabilities:

- **[Data Evolution](./data-evolution)**: Update partial columns without rewriting entire files, enabling efficient schema evolution.
- **[Variant Storage](./variant)**: Store and query schema-flexible semi-structured data with optional typed sub-column shredding.
- **[Blob Storage](./blob)**: Store large binary objects (images, videos, audio) in dedicated `.blob` files with efficient column projection.
- **[Vector Storage](./vector)**: Store and manage vector embeddings in dedicated Vortex-format files optimized for vector workloads.
- **[Global Index](./global-index)**: Build BTree, Bitmap, vector, and full-text indexes for efficient lookups and similarity search.

Data Evolution, Blob Storage, Vector Storage, and Global Index require the following table properties.
Variant Storage can also be used in a regular Paimon table without these properties:

```sql
'row-tracking.enabled' = 'true',
'data-evolution.enabled' = 'true'
```
