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https://github.com/KxSystems/rkdb

R client for kdb+
https://github.com/KxSystems/rkdb

interface kdb kdb-expression q r

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R client for kdb+

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# R client for kdb+

[![GitHub release (latest by date)](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/kxsystems/rkdb)](https://github.com/kxsystems/rkdb/releases) [![Travis (.org) branch](https://img.shields.io/travis/kxsystems/rkdb/master?label=travis%20build)](https://travis-ci.org/kxsystems/rkdb/branches) [![AppVeyor branch](https://img.shields.io/appveyor/ci/sv/rkdb/master?label=appveyor%20build)](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/sv/rkdb/branch/master)

Execute kdb+ queries from R for advanced high-performance
analytics.

See [Interfacing with R](https://code.kx.com/v2/interfaces/with-r/) on code.kx.com.

## Installation

``` r
# remove old package
if('rkdb' %in% rownames(installed.packages())) remove.packages('rkdb')
# install devtools
if(! 'devtools' %in% rownames(installed.packages())) install.packages('devtools')
library(devtools)
# install rkdb
devtools::install_github('kxsystems/rkdb', quiet=TRUE,INSTALL_opts=c("--no-multiarch"))
# to install rkdb of particular release
# devtools::install_github('kxsystems/[email protected]', quiet=TRUE)
library(rkdb)
```

## First steps

### Set up a connection

Start a kdb+ process to test the installation.

```bash
q -p 5000
```

Open a connection to it.

```r
h <- open_connection('localhost',5000)
```

### Hello kdb+

You can evaluate any kdb+ expression and its result will come back to R:

```r
execute(h, '1+1')

## [1] 2
```

Assigning a variable in the q workspace also works:

```r
execute(h, 'x:1+1') #assign x to 2

## NULL

execute(h, 'x') # get back the value

## [1] 2
```

## Getting data from kdb+ to R

Kdb+ uses some basic types that might not have a direct equivalent in R.
Note also that this is not a bijective operation. The conversions (from
kdb to R) are:

| kdb/q | r |
| --------------------------- | ------------ |
| boolean | logical |
| byte | raw |
| short | integer |
| int | integer |
| long | integer64 |
| real | numeric |
| float | numeric |
| char | character |
| symbol | character |
| timestamp | nanotime |
| month | integer |
| date | Date |
| datetime | POSIXct |
| timespan | integer64 |
| minute | difftime |
| second | difftime |
| time | integer |
| enumeration | character |
| table | data.frame |
| keyed table | data.frame |
| dictionary (mixed types) | named list |
| dictionary (same types) | named vector |
| function | character |
| list (same types) | vector |
| list (same ‘complex’ types) | list |
| list (different types) | list |

## Computing on kdb+

Rkdb provides a convenient way to retrieve computation done on the kdb+
side so you can have the best of both worlds:

```r
kdb <- '
t: ([] x:1000#`a`b`c;y:1000#1f*til 10;z:1000#1f*til 4);
select sum y, dev z by x from t
'

execute(h, kdb)

## x y z
## 1 a 1503 1.120709
## 2 b 1497 1.116689
## 3 c 1500 1.116689
```

One can for instance use R graphical capabilities:

``` r
kdb <- '
t: ([] x:1000#`a`b`c;y:1000#1f*til 10;z:1000#1f*til 4);
select y,z from t where x=`a
'

DF <- execute(h, kdb)
plot(DF$y, DF$z, main='scatter plot', xlab='y values', ylab='z values')
```

![](doc/figures/example-1.png)

## Getting data from R to kdb+

### Evaluating kdb+ expressions using R objects

You can call kdb+ functions with R objects as arguments. They will be
passed and converted to native kdb+ data types, and the kdb+ expression
will be evaluated:

```r
execute(h, "raze", list(c(1,2,3), c(4,5,6)))

## [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6

execute(h, "+", 2, 5)

## [1] 7

execute(h,'{`tmp set x}',data.frame(a=c(1,2,3),b=c("a","b","b")))

## [1] "tmp"
```

For example, here is how you can use the left-join function on two
data frames:

``` r
DF1 <- data.frame(x=c('x','x','y','y'), y=1:4)
DF2 <- data.frame(x=c('x','y','z'), z=seq(10,30,10))
execute(h, "{[x;y] x lj `x xkey y}", DF1, DF2)

## x y z
## 1 x 1 10
## 2 x 2 10
## 3 y 3 20
## 4 y 4 20
```