TEMPLATE: extend polars (the R package) with rust

Installation

Install R package polars e.g. from binary. Also needed for end user

  install.packages("polars", repos = "https://rpolars.r-universe.dev")

Install rextendr R package to assist write R bindings for your rust project. See extendr github page or visit the discord to ask questions.

  install.packages("rextendr")

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System dependencies

To install the full version of rust-polars you will need rust nightly e.g. this version. Stable is also possible, check with rust-polars docs.

• Install rustup, the cross-platform Rust installer. Then:

  rustup toolchain install nightly-2023-05-07
  rustup default nightly-2023-05-07

• Windows: Make sure the latest version of Rtools is installed and on your PATH.

• MacOS: Make sure Xcode is installed.

• Install CMake and add it to your PATH.

Build templates

Once Rust is working, you can build this

remotes::install_github("rpolars/extendrpolarsexamples")

After installation, the following should work:

library(extendrpolarsexamples)

# zero-copy export a rust-polars DataFrame to valid r-polars DataFrame
extendrpolarsexamples::make_df()
┌───────┬────────┬──────────────┐
│ names ┆ values ┆ values_nulls │
│ ---   ┆ ---    ┆ ---          │
│ str   ┆ i32    ┆ i32          │
╞═══════╪════════╪══════════════╡
│ a     ┆ 1      ┆ 1            │
│ b     ┆ 2      ┆ null         │
│ c     ┆ 6      ┆ 3            │
└───────┴────────┴──────────────┘

Development

• fork this template rpolars/extendrpolarsexamples
• clone your fork

Generate wrappers

When you make either of the following changes to the Rust source code, you'll need to regenerate the wrappers.

• add a new function
• modify the signature of an existing function
• modify the documentation written on Rust code (on the lines starting with ///)

This can be done by:

  rextendr::document()

Which will compile the Rust code as well as updating documentation.

More rextendr help

For a fully worked out demonstration of how to create a Rust + R library see here.