Adding an Elementwise Operation¶

This notebook will show you how to add a new elementwise operation to an existing backend.

We are going to add julianday, a function supported by the SQLite database, to the SQLite Ibis backend.

The Julian day of a date, is the number of days since January 1st, 4713 BC. For more information check the Julian day wikipedia page.

Step 1: Define the Operation¶

Let's define the julianday operation as a function that takes one string input argument and returns a float.

def julianday(date: str) -> float:
    """Julian date"""

In [1]:

import ibis.expr.datatypes as dt
import ibis.expr.rules as rlz
from ibis.expr.operations import ValueOp


class JulianDay(ValueOp):
    arg = rlz.string

    output_dtype = dt.float32
    output_shape = rlz.shape_like('arg')

import ibis.expr.datatypes as dt import ibis.expr.rules as rlz from ibis.expr.operations import ValueOp class JulianDay(ValueOp): arg = rlz.string output_dtype = dt.float32 output_shape = rlz.shape_like('arg')

We just defined a JulianDay class that takes one argument of type string or binary, and returns a float.

Step 2: Define the API¶

Because we know the output type of the operation, to make an expression out of JulianDay we simply need to construct it and call its ibis.expr.types.Node.to_expr method.

We still need to add a method to StringValue and BinaryValue (this needs to work on both scalars and columns).

When you add a method to any of the expression classes whose name matches *Value both the scalar and column child classes will pick it up, making it easy to define operations for both scalars and columns in one place.

We can do this by defining a function and assigning it to the appropriate class of expressions.

In [2]:

from ibis.expr.types import BinaryValue, StringValue


def julianday(string_value):
    return JulianDay(string_value).to_expr()


StringValue.julianday = julianday

from ibis.expr.types import BinaryValue, StringValue def julianday(string_value): return JulianDay(string_value).to_expr() StringValue.julianday = julianday

Interlude: Create some expressions with sha1¶

In [3]:

import ibis

t = ibis.table([('string_col', 'string')], name='t')

t.string_col.julianday()

import ibis t = ibis.table([('string_col', 'string')], name='t') t.string_col.julianday()

Out[3]:

r0 := UnboundTable: t
  string_col string

Selection[r0]
  selections:
    JulianDay(string_col): JulianDay(r0.string_col)

Step 3: Turn the Expression into SQL¶

In [4]:

import sqlalchemy as sa


@ibis.sqlite.add_operation(JulianDay)
def _julianday(translator, expr):
    # pull out the arguments to the expression
    (arg,) = expr.args

    # compile the argument
    compiled_arg = translator.translate(arg)

    # return a SQLAlchemy expression that calls into the SQLite julianday function
    return sa.func.julianday(compiled_arg)

import sqlalchemy as sa @ibis.sqlite.add_operation(JulianDay) def _julianday(translator, expr): # pull out the arguments to the expression (arg,) = expr.args # compile the argument compiled_arg = translator.translate(arg) # return a SQLAlchemy expression that calls into the SQLite julianday function return sa.func.julianday(compiled_arg)

Step 4: Putting it all Together¶

In [5]:

!curl -LsS -o geography.db 'https://storage.googleapis.com/ibis-tutorial-data/geography.db'

!curl -LsS -o geography.db 'https://storage.googleapis.com/ibis-tutorial-data/geography.db'

In [6]:

import os
import tempfile

import ibis

db_fname = 'geography.db'

con = ibis.sqlite.connect(db_fname)

import os import tempfile import ibis db_fname = 'geography.db' con = ibis.sqlite.connect(db_fname)

Create and execute a julianday expression¶

In [7]:

independence = con.table('independence')
independence

independence = con.table('independence') independence

Out[7]:

AlchemyTable: independence
  country_code      string
  independence_date date
  independence_from string

In [8]:

day = independence.independence_date.cast('string')
day

day = independence.independence_date.cast('string') day

Out[8]:

r0 := AlchemyTable: independence
  country_code      string
  independence_date date
  independence_from string

Selection[r0]
  selections:
    Cast(independence_date, string): Cast(r0.independence_date, to=string)

In [9]:

julianday_expr = day.julianday().name("jday")
julianday_expr

julianday_expr = day.julianday().name("jday") julianday_expr

Out[9]:

r0 := AlchemyTable: independence
  country_code      string
  independence_date date
  independence_from string

Selection[r0]
  selections:
    jday: JulianDay(Cast(r0.independence_date, to=string))

In [10]:

sql_expr = julianday_expr.compile()
print(sql_expr)

sql_expr = julianday_expr.compile() print(sql_expr)

SELECT julianday(CAST(t0.independence_date AS TEXT)) AS jday 
FROM main.independence AS t0

In [11]:

result = julianday_expr.execute()
result.head()

result = julianday_expr.execute() result.head()

Out[11]:

0    2422189.5
1    2419734.5
2    2437850.5
3    2442727.5
4    2444909.5
Name: jday, dtype: float32

Because we've defined our operation on StringValue, and not just on StringColumn we get operations on both string scalars and string columns for free

In [12]:

scalar = ibis.literal('2010-03-14')
scalar

scalar = ibis.literal('2010-03-14') scalar

Out[12]:

'2010-03-14'

In [13]:

julianday_scalar = scalar.julianday()

julianday_scalar = scalar.julianday()

In [14]:

con.execute(julianday_scalar)

con.execute(julianday_scalar)

Out[14]:

2455269.5

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Last update: January 6, 2023