# ORC Input

The ORC Input step reads the fields data from an [Apache ORC](https://orc.apache.org/) (Optimized Row Columnar) file into the PDI data stream.

Before using the ORC Input step, you must configure a named connection for your distribution, even if you set your **Location** to `Local`. For information on named connections, see [Connecting to a Hadoop cluster with the PDI client](/pdia-data-integration/9.3-data-integration/advanced-topics-pentaho-data-integration-overview/connecting-to-a-hadoop-cluster-with-the-pdi-client-article.md).


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