diff --git a/datafusion-examples/examples/catalog.rs b/datafusion-examples/examples/catalog.rs
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/datafusion-examples/examples/catalog.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,289 @@
+// Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+// or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+// distributed with this work for additional information
+// regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+// to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+// "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+// with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+// software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+// "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+// KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+// specific language governing permissions and limitations
+// under the License.
+
+//! Simple example of a catalog/schema implementation.
+//!
+//! Example requires git submodules to be initialized in repo as it uses data from
+//! the `parquet-testing` repo.
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use datafusion::{
+    arrow::util::pretty,
+    catalog::{
+        catalog::{CatalogList, CatalogProvider},
+        schema::SchemaProvider,
+    },
+    datasource::{
+        file_format::{csv::CsvFormat, parquet::ParquetFormat, FileFormat},
+        listing::{ListingOptions, ListingTable, ListingTableConfig, ListingTableUrl},
+        TableProvider,
+    },
+    error::Result,
+    execution::context::SessionState,
+    prelude::SessionContext,
+};
+use std::sync::RwLock;
+use std::{
+    any::Any,
+    collections::HashMap,
+    path::{Path, PathBuf},
+    sync::Arc,
+};
+
+#[tokio::main]
+async fn main() -> Result<()> {
+    let repo_dir = std::fs::canonicalize(
+        PathBuf::from(env!("CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR"))
+            // parent dir of datafusion-examples = repo root
+            .join(".."),
+    )
+    .unwrap();
+    let mut ctx = SessionContext::new();
+    let state = ctx.state();
+    let catlist = Arc::new(CustomCatalogList::new());
+    // use our custom catalog list for context. each context has a single catalog list.
+    // context will by default have MemoryCatalogList
+    ctx.register_catalog_list(catlist.clone());
+
+    // intitialize our catalog and schemas
+    let catalog = DirCatalog::new();
+    let parquet_schema = DirSchema::create(
+        &state,
+        DirSchemaOpts {
+            format: Arc::new(ParquetFormat::default()),
+            dir: &repo_dir.join("parquet-testing").join("data"),
+            ext: "parquet",
+        },
+    )
+    .await?;
+    let csv_schema = DirSchema::create(
+        &state,
+        DirSchemaOpts {
+            format: Arc::new(CsvFormat::default()),
+            dir: &repo_dir.join("testing").join("data").join("csv"),
+            ext: "csv",
+        },
+    )
+    .await?;
+    // register schemas into catalog
+    catalog.register_schema("parquet", parquet_schema.clone())?;
+    catalog.register_schema("csv", csv_schema.clone())?;
+    // register our catalog in the context
+    ctx.register_catalog("dircat", Arc::new(catalog));
+    {
+        // catalog was passed down into our custom catalog list since we overide the ctx's default
+        let catalogs = catlist.catalogs.read().unwrap();
+        assert!(catalogs.contains_key("dircat"));
+    };
+    // take the first 5 (arbitrary amount) keys from our schema's hashmap.
+    // in our `DirSchema`, the table names are equivalent to their key in the hashmap,
+    // so any key in the hashmap will now  be a queryable in our datafusion context.
+    let parquet_tables = {
+        let tables = parquet_schema.tables.read().unwrap();
+        tables.keys().take(5).cloned().collect::<Vec<_>>()
+    };
+    for table in parquet_tables {
+        println!("querying table {table} from parquet schema");
+        let df = ctx
+            .sql(&format!("select * from dircat.parquet.\"{table}\" "))
+            .await?
+            .limit(0, Some(5))?;
+        let result = df.collect().await;
+        match result {
+            Ok(batches) => {
+                pretty::print_batches(&batches).unwrap();
+            }
+            Err(e) => {
+                println!("table '{table}' query failed due to {e}");
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    let table_to_drop = {
+        let parquet_tables = parquet_schema.tables.read().unwrap();
+        parquet_tables.keys().next().unwrap().to_owned()
+    };
+    // DDL example
+    let df = ctx
+        .sql(&format!("DROP TABLE dircat.parquet.\"{table_to_drop}\""))
+        .await?;
+    df.collect().await?;
+    let parquet_tables = parquet_schema.tables.read().unwrap();
+    // datafusion has deregistered the table from our schema
+    // (called our schema's deregister func)
+    assert!(!parquet_tables.contains_key(&table_to_drop));
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+struct DirSchemaOpts<'a> {
+    ext: &'a str,
+    dir: &'a Path,
+    format: Arc<dyn FileFormat>,
+}
+/// Schema where every file with extension `ext` in a given `dir` is a table.
+struct DirSchema {
+    ext: String,
+    tables: RwLock<HashMap<String, Arc<dyn TableProvider>>>,
+}
+impl DirSchema {
+    async fn create(state: &SessionState, opts: DirSchemaOpts<'_>) -> Result<Arc<Self>> {
+        let DirSchemaOpts { ext, dir, format } = opts;
+        let mut tables = HashMap::new();
+        let listdir = std::fs::read_dir(dir).unwrap();
+        for res in listdir {
+            let entry = res.unwrap();
+            let filename = entry.file_name().to_str().unwrap().to_string();
+            if !filename.ends_with(ext) {
+                continue;
+            }
+
+            let table_path = ListingTableUrl::parse(entry.path().to_str().unwrap())?;
+            let opts = ListingOptions::new(format.clone());
+            let conf = ListingTableConfig::new(table_path)
+                .with_listing_options(opts)
+                .infer_schema(state)
+                .await?;
+            let table = ListingTable::try_new(conf)?;
+            tables.insert(filename, Arc::new(table) as Arc<dyn TableProvider>);
+        }
+        Ok(Arc::new(Self {
+            tables: RwLock::new(tables),
+            ext: ext.to_string(),
+        }))
+    }
+    #[allow(unused)]
+    fn name(&self) -> &str {
+        &self.ext
+    }
+}
+
+#[async_trait]
+impl SchemaProvider for DirSchema {
+    fn as_any(&self) -> &dyn Any {
+        self
+    }
+
+    fn table_names(&self) -> Vec<String> {
+        let tables = self.tables.read().unwrap();
+        tables.keys().cloned().collect::<Vec<_>>()
+    }
+
+    async fn table(&self, name: &str) -> Option<Arc<dyn TableProvider>> {
+        let tables = self.tables.read().unwrap();
+        tables.get(name).cloned()
+    }
+
+    fn table_exist(&self, name: &str) -> bool {
+        let tables = self.tables.read().unwrap();
+        tables.contains_key(name)
+    }
+    fn register_table(
+        &self,
+        name: String,
+        table: Arc<dyn TableProvider>,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Arc<dyn TableProvider>>> {
+        let mut tables = self.tables.write().unwrap();
+        println!("adding table {name}");
+        tables.insert(name, table.clone());
+        Ok(Some(table))
+    }
+
+    /// If supported by the implementation, removes an existing table from this schema and returns it.
+    /// If no table of that name exists, returns Ok(None).
+    #[allow(unused_variables)]
+    fn deregister_table(&self, name: &str) -> Result<Option<Arc<dyn TableProvider>>> {
+        let mut tables = self.tables.write().unwrap();
+        println!("dropping table {name}");
+        Ok(tables.remove(name))
+    }
+}
+/// Catalog holds multiple schemas
+struct DirCatalog {
+    schemas: RwLock<HashMap<String, Arc<dyn SchemaProvider>>>,
+}
+impl DirCatalog {
+    fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            schemas: RwLock::new(HashMap::new()),
+        }
+    }
+}
+impl CatalogProvider for DirCatalog {
+    fn as_any(&self) -> &dyn Any {
+        self
+    }
+    fn register_schema(
+        &self,
+        name: &str,
+        schema: Arc<dyn SchemaProvider>,
+    ) -> Result<Option<Arc<dyn SchemaProvider>>> {
+        let mut schema_map = self.schemas.write().unwrap();
+        schema_map.insert(name.to_owned(), schema.clone());
+        Ok(Some(schema))
+    }
+
+    fn schema_names(&self) -> Vec<String> {
+        let schemas = self.schemas.read().unwrap();
+        schemas.keys().cloned().collect()
+    }
+
+    fn schema(&self, name: &str) -> Option<Arc<dyn SchemaProvider>> {
+        let schemas = self.schemas.read().unwrap();
+        let maybe_schema = schemas.get(name);
+        if let Some(schema) = maybe_schema {
+            let schema = schema.clone() as Arc<dyn SchemaProvider>;
+            Some(schema)
+        } else {
+            None
+        }
+    }
+}
+/// Catalog lists holds multiple catalogs. Each context has a single catalog list.
+struct CustomCatalogList {
+    catalogs: RwLock<HashMap<String, Arc<dyn CatalogProvider>>>,
+}
+impl CustomCatalogList {
+    fn new() -> Self {
+        Self {
+            catalogs: RwLock::new(HashMap::new()),
+        }
+    }
+}
+impl CatalogList for CustomCatalogList {
+    fn as_any(&self) -> &dyn Any {
+        self
+    }
+    fn register_catalog(
+        &self,
+        name: String,
+        catalog: Arc<dyn CatalogProvider>,
+    ) -> Option<Arc<dyn CatalogProvider>> {
+        let mut cats = self.catalogs.write().unwrap();
+        cats.insert(name, catalog.clone());
+        Some(catalog)
+    }
+
+    /// Retrieves the list of available catalog names
+    fn catalog_names(&self) -> Vec<String> {
+        let cats = self.catalogs.read().unwrap();
+        cats.keys().cloned().collect()
+    }
+
+    /// Retrieves a specific catalog by name, provided it exists.
+    fn catalog(&self, name: &str) -> Option<Arc<dyn CatalogProvider>> {
+        let cats = self.catalogs.read().unwrap();
+        cats.get(name).cloned()
+    }
+}