"Raise RuntimeError('Not supported on 32-bit Windows')" when installing pyarrow

Question

I get this error whenever I try to install pyarrow on my PC. It is 64bit so I don't understand it:

raise RuntimeError('Not supported on 32-bit Windows')
  RuntimeError: Not supported on 32-bit Windows
  ----------------------------------------
  ERROR: Failed building wheel for pyarrow
ERROR: Could not build wheels for pyarrow which use PEP 517 and cannot be installed directly

I have pip updated and have installed many more packages without problems.

Answer 1

The reason PyArrow is trying to build a 32-bit version is certainly that you are using a 32-bit Python installation.

A 64-bit Python installation would probably show you something like this when you run the interpreter prompt (note the "MSC v.1915 64 bit (AMD64)" which indicates it's a 64-bit version):

c:\>python
Python 3.7.2 (default, Jan  2 2019, 17:07:39) [MSC v.1915 64 bit (AMD64)]
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>