Some embodiments provide a non-transitory machine-readable medium that stores a program. The program receives a request to create a file for storing data from a table that includes a plurality of rows. The program further divides the plurality of rows into a plurality of blocks of rows. For each column of each block of rows, the program also encodes the data in the column of the block of rows based on the type of data stored in the column and stores the encoded data in the file as a separate page of data. The program further generates a set of column metadata for the set of columns. The program also stores each column metadata in the file as a separate page of data. The program further generates a header page. The program also stores the header page in the file as a separate page of data.