Generically, wide table schemas will bypass the type system: https://github.com/JuliaData/Tables.jl/blob/2cb13998e856692ed273c931b83477caf8b7b020/src/Tables.jl#L477-L483 But not for `MatrixTable`s: https://github.com/JuliaData/Tables.jl/blob/2cb13998e856692ed273c931b83477caf8b7b020/src/matrix.jl#L40 Maybe the branch should be put in the constructor, such that it is done for any table type? C.f. https://github.com/apache/arrow-julia/pull/415