PL/R User’s Guide - R Procedural
Language

PL/R User’s Guide - R Procedural Language
Copyright © 2003-2009 Joseph E Conway

Table of Contents
1. Overview .................................................................................................................................................1
2. Installation..............................................................................................................................................2
3. Functions and Arguments.....................................................................................................................4
4. Passing Data Values ...............................................................................................................................7
5. Using Global Data..................................................................................................................................96. Database Access and Support Functions...........................................................................................126.1. Normal Support.........................................................................................................................126.2. RPostgreSQL Compatibility Support........................................................................................16
7. PostgreSQL Support Functions..........................................................................................................17
8. Aggregate Functions ............................................................................................................................19
9. Loading R Modules at Startup ...........................................................................................................20
10. R Function Names..............................................................................................................................21
11. Trigger Procedures ............................................................................................................................22
12. License ................................................................................................................................................24

iii

Chapter 1. Overview
PL/R is a loadable procedural language that enables you to write PostgreSQL functions and triggers in the
R programming language1. PL/R offers most (if not all) of the capabilities a function writer has in the R
language.
Commands are available to access the database via the PostgreSQL Server Programming Interface (SPI)
and to raise messages via elog() . There is no way to access internals of the database backend. However
the user is able to gain OS-level access under the permissions of the PostgreSQL user ID, as with a C
function. Thus, any unprivileged database user should not be permitted to use this language. It must be
installed as an untrusted procedural language so that only database superusers can create functions in it.
The writer of a PL/R function must take care that the function cannot be used to do anything unwanted,
since it will be able to do anything that could be done by a user logged in as the database administrator.
An implementation restriction is that PL/R procedures cannot be used to create input/output functions for
new data types.

1.

http://www.r-project.org/

1Chapter 2. Installation
Place source tar file in contrib in the PostgreSQL source tree and untar it. The shared object for the Rcall handler is built and installed in the PostgreSQL library directory via the following commands (startingfrom /path/to/postgresql_source/contrib):
cd plrmake
make install

As of PostgreSQL 8.0.0, PL/R can also be built without the PostgreSQL source tree. Untar PL/R
whereever you prefer. The shared object for the R call handler is built and installed in the PostgreSQL
library directory via the following commands (starting from /path/to/plr):
cd plr
USE_PGXS=1 make
USE_PGXS=1 make install

Win32 - adjust paths according to your own setup, and be sure to restart the PostgreSQL service after
changing:
In Windows environment:
R_HOME=C:\Progra~1\R\R-2.5.0
Path=%PATH%;C:\Progra~1\R\R-2.5.0\bin
In MSYS:
export R_HOME=/c/progra~1/R/R-2.5.0
export PATH=$PATH:/c/progra~1/PostgreSQL/8.2/bin
USE_PGXS=1 make
USE_PGXS=1 make install

You can use plr.sql (which is created in contrib/plr) to create the language and support functions
in your database of choice:psql mydatabase < plr.sql

Alternatively you can create the language manually using SQL commands:
CREATE FUNCTION plr_call_handler()
RETURNS LANGUAGE_HANDLER
AS ’$libdir/plr’ LANGUAGE C;
CREATE LANGUAGE plr HANDLER plr_call_handler;2Chapter 2. Installation

Tip: If a language is installed into template1, all subsequently created databases will have the language installed automatically.

Tip: In addition to the documentation, the plr.out.* files in plr/expected are a good source ofusage examples.

Tip: R headers are required. Download and install R prior to building PL/R. R must have been builtwith the --enable-R-shlib option when it was configured, in order for the libR shared object library
to be available.

Tip: Additionally, libR must be findable by your runtime linker. On Linux, this involves adding an entry
in /etc/ld.so.conf for the location of libR (typically $R_HOME/bin or $R_HOME/lib), and then runningldconfig. Refer to man ldconfig or its equivalent for your system.

Tip: R_HOME must be defined in the environment of the user under which PostgreSQL is started,
before the postmaster is started. Otherwise PL/R will refuse to load. See plr_environ(), which allows
examination of the environment available to the PostgreSQL postmaster process.

3

Chapter 3. Functions and Arguments
To create a function in the PL/R language, use standard R syntax, but without the enclosing braces orfunction assignment. Instead of myfunc <- function(arguments) { function body }, the bodyof your PL/R function is just function body
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION funcname (argument-types)
RETURNS return-type AS ’function body
’ LANGUAGE ’plr’;

The body of the function is simply a piece of R script. When the function is called, the argument values
are passed as variables arg1 ... argN to the R script. The result is returned from the R code in the usual
way. For example, a function returning the greater of two integer values could be defined as:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION r_max (integer, integer) RETURNS integer AS ’if (arg1 > arg2)
return(arg1)
else
return(arg2)’ LANGUAGE ’plr’ STRICT;

Starting with PostgreSQL 8.0, arguments may be explicitly named when creating a function. If an argument is explicitly named at function creation time, that name will be available to your R script in place of
the usual argN variable. For example:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION sd(vals float8[]) RETURNS float AS ’sd(vals)’ LANGUAGE ’plr’ STRICT;

Note the clause STRICT, which saves us from having to think about NULL input values: if a NULL ispassed, the function will not be called at all, but will just return a NULL result automatically.
In a non-strict function, if the actual value of an argument is NULL, the corresponding argN variable will
be set to a NULL R object. For example, suppose that we wanted r_max with one null and one non-nullargument to return the non-null argument, rather than NULL:CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION r_max (integer, integer) RETURNS integer AS ’if (is.null(arg1) && is.null(arg2))
return(NULL)
if (is.null(arg1))
return(arg2)
if (is.null(arg2))
return(arg1)
if (arg1 > arg2)
return(arg1)
arg2’ LANGUAGE ’plr’;

4Chapter 3. Functions and Arguments

As shown above, to return a NULL value from a PL/R function, return NULL. This can be done whether
the function is strict or not.
Composite-type (tuple) arguments are passed to the procedure as R data.frames. The element names ofthe frame are the attribute names of the composite type. If an attribute in the passed row has the NULL
value, it will appear as an "NA" in the frame. Here is an example:
CREATE TABLE emp (name text, age int, salary numeric(10,2));
INSERT INTO emp VALUES (’Joe’, 41, 250000.00);
INSERT INTO emp VALUES (’Jim’, 25, 120000.00);
INSERT INTO emp VALUES (’Jon’, 35, 50000.00);
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION overpaid (emp) RETURNS bool AS ’if (200000 < arg1$salary) {return(TRUE)}
if (arg1$age < 30 && 100000 < arg1$salary) {return(TRUE)}
return(FALSE)’ LANGUAGE ’plr’;
SELECT name, overpaid(emp) FROM emp;
name | overpaid------+---------Joe | t
Jim | tJon | f(3 rows)

There is also support for returning a composite-type result value:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_emps() RETURNS SETOF emp AS ’
names <- c("Joe","Jim","Jon")ages <- c(41,25,35)
salaries <- c(250000,120000,50000)
df <- data.frame(name = names, age = ages, salary = salaries)
return(df)’ LANGUAGE ’plr’;select * from get_emps();name | age | salary------+-----+----------Jim | 41 | 250000.00
Joe | 25 | 120000.00
Jon | 35 | 50000.00(3 rows)

5

Chapter 3. Functions and Arguments

An alternative method may be used to create a function in PL/R, if certain criteria are met. First, thefunction must be a simple call to an existing R function. Second, the function name used for the PL/R
function must match that of the R function exactly. If these two criteria are met, the PL/R function may
be defined with no body, and the arguments will be passed directly to the R function of the same name.
For example:
create or replace function sd(_float8) returns float as ” language ’plr’;select round(sd(’{1.23,1.31,1.42,1.27}’::_float8)::numeric,8);
round-----------0.08180261(1 row)

Tip: Because the function body is passed as an SQL string literal to CREATE FUNCTION, you have toescape single quotes and backslashes within your R source, typically by doubling them.

6

Chapter 4. Passing Data Values
The argument values supplied to a PL/R function’s script are the input arguments converted to a corresponding R form. See Table 4-1. Scalar PostgreSQL values become single element R vectors. One exception to this are scalar bytea values. These are first converted to R raw type, and then processed by the
R unserialize command. One-dimensional PostgreSQL arrays are converted to multi-element R vectors,
two-dimensional PostgreSQL arrays are mapped to R matrixes, and three-dimensional PostgreSQL arrays
are converted to three-dimensional R arrays. Greater than three-dimensional arrays are not supported.
Composite-types are transformed into R data.frames.
Table 4-1. Function Arguments
PostgreSQL type

R typebooleanlogicalint2, int4

integer

int8, float4, float8, cash, numericnumeric

bytea

objecteverything elsecharacter

Conversely, the return values are first coerced to R character, and therefore anything that resolves to astring that is acceptable input format for the function’s declared return type will produce a result. Again,
there is an exception for scalar bytea return values. In this case, the R object being returned is first processed by the R serialize command, and then the binary result is directly mapped into a PostgreSQL bytea
datum. Similar to argument conversion, there is also a mapping between the dimensionality of the declared
PostgreSQL return type and the type of R object. That mapping is shown in Table 4-2
Table 4-2. Function Result Dimensionality
PgSQL return type

R typeResultExamplescalararray, matrix,
vectorfirst column of first row

c(1,2,3) in R returns 1 in
PostgreSQL

setof scalar

1D array, greaterthan 2D array,
vectormulti-row, 1 column set

array(1:10) in R returns
10 rows in PostgreSQL

scalardata.frame

textual representation of data.frame(c(1,2,3)) in
the first column’s vector R returns ’c(1, 2, 3)’

setof scalar

2D array, matrix,
data.frame#columns > 1, error;#columns == 1,
multi-row, 1 column set(as.data.frame(array(1:10,c(2,5))))[,1]
in R returns 2 rows ofscalararray

1D array, greaterthan 3D array,
vector

1D arrayarray(1:8,c(2,2,2,2)) in
R returns{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8}

array

2D array, matrix,
data.frame

2D arrayarray(1:4,c(2,2)) in R
returns {{1,3},{2,4}}

7

Chapter 4. Passing Data Values
PgSQL return type

R typeResultExamplearray

3D array

3D arrayarray(1:8,c(2,2,2)) in R
returns{{{1,5},{3,7}},{{2,6},{4,8}}}composite

1D array, greaterthan 2D array,
vectorfirst row, 1 column

array(1:8,c(2,2,2)) in R
returns 1 row of scalarsetof composite

1D array, greaterthan 2D array,
vectormulti-row, 1 column set

array(1:8,c(2,2,2)) in R
returns 8 rows of scalarcomposite

2D array, matrix,
data.frame

first row, multi-column

array(1:4,c(2,2)) in R
returns 1 row of 2columns

setof composite

2D array, matrix,
data.frame

multi-row, multi-column array(1:4,c(2,2)) in R
setreturns 2 rows of 2columns8

Chapter 5. Using Global Data
Sometimes it is useful to have some global status data that is held between two calls to a procedure oris shared between different procedures. Equally useful is the ability to create functions that your PL/R
functions can share. This is easily done since all PL/R procedures executed in one backend share the same
R interpreter. So, any global R variable is accessible to all PL/R procedure calls, and will persist for theduration of the SQL client connection. An example of using a global object appears in the pg.spi.execp
example, in Chapter 6.
A globally available, user named, R function (the R function name of PL/R functions is not the same as its
PostgreSQL function name; see: Chapter 10) can be created dynamically using the provided PostgreSQL
function install_rcmd(text). Here is an example:
select install_rcmd(’pg.test.install <-function(msg) {print(msg)}’);
install_rcmd-------------OK(1 row)
create or replace function pg_test_install(text) returns text as ’pg.test.install(arg1)’ language ’plr’;select pg_test_install(’hello world’);
pg_test_install----------------hello world(1 row)

A globally available, user named, R function can also be automatically created and installed in the R
interpreter. See: Chapter 9
PL/R also provides a global variable called pg.state.firstpass. This variable is reset to TRUE the first timeeach PL/R function is called, for a particular query. On subsequent calls the value is left unchanged. This
allows one or more PL/R functions to perform a possibly expensive initialization on the first call, andreuse the results for the remaining rows in the query. For example:
create table t (f1 int);
insert into t values (1);insert into t values (2);insert into t values (3);create or replace function f1() returns int as ’msg <- paste("enter f1, pg.state.firstpass is", pg.state.firstpass)
pg.thrownotice(msg)
if (pg.state.firstpass == TRUE)
pg.state.firstpass <<- FALSE
msg <- paste("exit f1, pg.state.firstpass is", pg.state.firstpass)
pg.thrownotice(msg)9Chapter 5. Using Global Data
return(0)’ language plr;
create or replace function f2() returns int as ’msg <- paste("enter f2, pg.state.firstpass is", pg.state.firstpass)
pg.thrownotice(msg)
if (pg.state.firstpass == TRUE)
pg.state.firstpass <<- FALSE
msg <- paste("exit f2, pg.state.firstpass is", pg.state.firstpass)
pg.thrownotice(msg)
return(0)’ language plr;
select f1(), f2(), f1 from t;
NOTICE: enter f1, pg.state.firstpass is TRUENOTICE: exit f1, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: enter f2, pg.state.firstpass is TRUENOTICE: exit f2, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: enter f1, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: exit f1, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: enter f2, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: exit f2, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: enter f1, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: exit f1, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: enter f2, pg.state.firstpass is FALSENOTICE: exit f2, pg.state.firstpass is FALSE
f1 | f2 | f1----+----+---0 | 0 | 1
0 | 0 | 2
0 | 0 | 3
(3 rows)
create or replace function row_number() returns int as ’if (pg.state.firstpass){assign("pg.state.firstpass", FALSE, env=.GlobalEnv)
lclcntr <- 1}
else
lclcntr <- plrcounter + 1
assign("plrcounter", lclcntr, env=.GlobalEnv)
return(lclcntr)’ language ’plr’;
SELECT row_number(), f1 from t;
row_number | f1------------+---1 | 1
2 | 2
3 | 3
(3 rows)

10Chapter 5. Using Global Data

11

Chapter 6. Database Access and Support
Functions
The following commands are available to access the database from the body of a PL/R procedure, or insupport thereof:

6.1. Normal Support
pg.spi.exec (character query )Execute an SQL query given as a string. An error in the query causes an error to be raised. Otherwise, the command’s return value is the number of rows processed for INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE
statements, or zero if the query is a utility statement. If the query is a SELECT statement, the values ofthe selected columns are placed in an R data.frame with the target column names used as the frame
column names. However, non-numeric columns are not converted to factors. If you want all nonnumeric columns converted to factors, a convenience function pg.spi.factor (described below)
is provided.
If a field of a SELECT result is NULL, the target variable for it is set to “NA”. For example:
create or replace function test_spi_tup(text) returns setof record as ’pg.spi.exec(arg1)’ language ’plr’;select * from test_spi_tup(’select oid, NULL::text as nullcol,
typname from pg_type where typname = ”oid” or typname = ”text”’)
as t(typeid oid, nullcol text, typename name);
typeid | nullcol | typename--------+---------+---------25 || text26 || oid(2 rows)

The NULL values were passed to R as “NA”, and on return to PostgreSQL they were converted backto NULL.
pg.spi.prepare (character query , integer vector type_vector )Prepares and saves a query plan for later execution. The saved plan will be retained for the life of thecurrent backend.
The query may use arguments, which are placeholders for values to be supplied whenever the plan is
actually executed. In the query string, refer to arguments by the symbols $1 ... $n. If the query uses
arguments, the values of the argument types must be given as a vector. Pass NA for type_vector
if the query has no arguments. The argument types must be identified by the type Oids, shown in
pg_type. Global variables are provided for this use. They are named according to the convention
TYPENAMEOID, where the actual name of the type, in all capitals, is substituted for TYPENAME.
A support function, load_r_typenames() must be used to make the predefined global variables
available for use:

12

Chapter 6. Database Access and Support Functions
select load_r_typenames();load_r_typenames-----------------OK(1 row)

Another support function, r_typenames() may be used to list the predefined Global variables:
select * from r_typenames();typename| typeoid-----------------+--------ABSTIMEOID|
702
ACLITEMOID|
1033
ANYARRAYOID|
2277
ANYOID|
2276
BITOID|
1560
BOOLOID|
16[...]
TRIGGEROID|
2279
UNKNOWNOID|
705
VARBITOID|
1562
VARCHAROID|
1043
VOIDOID|
2278
XIDOID|28(59 rows)

The return value from pg.spi.prepare is a query ID to be used in subsequent calls to
pg.spi.execp. See spi_execp for an example.
pg.spi.execp (external pointer saved_plan, variable listvalue_list)

Execute a query previously prepared with pg.spi.prepare . saved_plan is the external pointerreturned by pg.spi.prepare. If the query references arguments, a value_list must be supplied:
this is an R list of actual values for the plan arguments. It must be the same length as the argument
type_vector previously given to pg.spi.prepare. Pass NA for value_list if the query has
no arguments. The following illustrates the use of pg.spi.prepare and pg.spi.execp with andwithout query arguments:
create or replace function test_spi_prep(text) returns text as ’sp <<- pg.spi.prepare(arg1, c(NAMEOID, NAMEOID));
print("OK")’ language ’plr’;select test_spi_prep(’select oid, typname from pg_typewhere typname = $1 or typname = $2’);
test_spi_prep--------------OK(1 row)
create or replace function test_spi_execp(text, text, text) returns setof record as ’pg.spi.execp(pg.reval(arg1), list(arg2,arg3))’ language ’plr’;

13

Chapter 6. Database Access and Support Functions
select * from test_spi_execp(’sp’,’oid’,’text’) as t(typeid oid, typename name);
typeid | typename--------+---------25 | text
26 | oid(2 rows)
create or replace function test_spi_prep(text) returns text as ’sp <<- pg.spi.prepare(arg1, NA);
print("OK")’ language ’plr’;select test_spi_prep(’select oid, typname from pg_typewhere typname = ”bytea” or typname = ”text”’);
test_spi_prep--------------OK(1 row)
create or replace function test_spi_execp(text) returns setof record as ’pg.spi.execp(pg.reval(arg1), NA)’ language ’plr’;select * from test_spi_execp(’sp’) as t(typeid oid, typename name);
typeid | typename--------+---------17 | bytea
25 | text(2 rows)
create or replace function test_spi_prep(text) returns text as ’sp <<- pg.spi.prepare(arg1);
print("OK")’ language ’plr’;select test_spi_prep(’select oid, typname from pg_typewhere typname = ”bytea” or typname = ”text”’);
test_spi_prep--------------OK(1 row)
create or replace function test_spi_execp(text) returns setof record as ’pg.spi.execp(pg.reval(arg1))’ language ’plr’;select * from test_spi_execp(’sp’) as t(typeid oid, typename name);
typeid | typename--------+---------17 | bytea
25 | text(2 rows)

14

Chapter 6. Database Access and Support Functions
NULL arguments should be passed as individual NA values in value_list.
Except for the way in which the query and its arguments are specified, pg.spi.execp works justlike pg.spi.exec.
pg.spi.cursor_open( character cursor_name, external pointer saved_plan, variable
list value_list)

Opens a cursor identified by cursor_name. The cursor can then be used to scroll through the resultsof a query plan previously prepared by pg.spi.prepare. Any arguments to the plan should be specified
in argvalues similar to pg.spi.execp. Only read-only cursors are supported at the moment.
plan <- pg.spi.prepare(’SELECT * FROM pg_class’);cursor_obj <- pg.spi.cursor_open(’my_cursor’,plan);

Returns a cursor object that be be passed to pg.spi.cursor_fetch
pg.spi.cursor_fetch( external pointer cursor , boolean forward , integer rows)

Fetches rows from the cursor object previosuly returned by pg.spi.cursor_open . If forward is
TRUE then the cursor is moved forward to fetch at most the number of rows required by the rows
parameter. If forward is FALSE then the cursor is moved backrwards at most the number of rows
specified.
rows indicates the maximum number of rows that should be returned.
plan <- pg.spi.prepare(’SELECT * FROM pg_class’);cursor_obj <- pg.spi.cursor_open(’my_cursor’,plan);data <- pg.spi.cursor_fetch(cursor_obj,TRUE,as.integer(10));Returns a data frame containing the results.
pg.spi.cursor_close( external pointercursor )Closes a cursor previously opened by pg.spi.cursor_open
plan <- pg.spi.prepare(’SELECT * FROM pg_class’);cursor_obj <- pg.spi.cursor_open(’my_cursor’,plan);pg.spi.cursor_close(cursor_obj);
pg.spi.lastoid()

Returns the OID of the row inserted by the last query executed via pg.spi.exec or pg.spi.execp,
if that query was a single-row INSERT. (If not, you get zero.)pg.quoteliteral (character SQL_string )Duplicates all occurrences of single quote and backslash characters in the given string. This may
be used to safely quote strings that are to be inserted into SQL queries given to pg.spi.exec or
pg.spi.prepare.
pg.quoteident (character SQL_string )Return the given string suitably quoted to be used as an identifier in an SQL query string. Quotes
are added only if necessary (i.e., if the string contains non-identifier characters or would be casefolded). Embedded quotes are properly doubled. This may be used to safely quote strings that are to
be inserted into SQL queries given to pg.spi.exec or pg.spi.prepare.

15

Chapter 6. Database Access and Support Functions
pg.thrownotice (character message)
pg.throwerror (character message)

Emit a PostgreSQL NOTICE or ERROR message. ERROR also raises an error condition: further execution of the function is abandoned, and the current transaction is aborted.
pg.spi.factor (data.frame data)

Accepts an R data.frame as input, and converts all non-numeric columns to factors. This may
be useful for data.frames produced by pg.spi.exec or pg.spi.prepare, because the PL/R conversion mechanism does not do that for you.

6.2. RPostgreSQL Compatibility Support
The following functions are intended to provide some level of compatibility between PL/R and
RPostgreSQL (PostgreSQL DBI package). This allows, for example, a function to be first prototyped using an R client, and then easily moved to PL/R for production use.
dbDriver (character dvr_name)dbConnect (DBIDriver drv , character user , character password , character host,character dbname, character port, character tty , character options)
dbSendQuery (DBIConnection conn, character sql)
fetch (DBIResult rs, integer num_rows)
dbClearResult (DBIResult rs)
dbGetQuery (DBIConnection conn, character sql)
dbReadTable (DBIConnection conn, character name)dbDisconnect (DBIConnection conn)
dbUnloadDriver (DBIDriver drv )These functions nominally work like their RPostgreSQL counterparts except that all queries are
performed in the current database. Therefore all driver and connection related parameters are ignored,
and dbDriver, dbConnect, dbDisconnect, and dbUnloadDriver are no-ops.

16

Chapter 7. PostgreSQL Support Functions
The following commands are available to use in PostgreSQL queries to aid in the use of PL/R functions:install_rcmd (text R_code)

Install R code, given as a string, into the interpreter. See Chapter 5 for an example.
reload_plr_modules ()Force re-loading of R code from the plr_modules table. It is useful after modifying the contents of
plr_modules, so that the change will have an immediate effect.
plr_singleton_array (float8 first_element)

Creates a new PostgreSQL array, using element first_element. This function is predefined toaccept one float8 value and return a float8 array. The C function that implements this PostgreSQL
function is capable of accepting and returning other data types, although the return type must be anarray of the input parameter type. It can also accept multiple input parameters. For example, to definea plr_array function to create a text array from two input text values:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION plr_array (text, text)
RETURNS text[]
AS ’$libdir/plr’,’plr_array’
LANGUAGE ’C’ WITH (isstrict);select plr_array(’hello’,’world’);
plr_array--------------{hello,world}(1 row)
plr_array_push (float8[] array , float8 next_element)

Pushes a new element onto the end of an existing PostgreSQL array. This function is predefined toaccept one float8 array and a float8 value, and return a float8 array. The C function that implements
this PostgreSQL function is capable of accepting and returning other data types. For example, todefine a plr_array_push function to add a text value to an existing text array:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION plr_array_push (_text, text)
RETURNS text[]
AS ’$libdir/plr’,’plr_array_push’
LANGUAGE ’C’ WITH (isstrict);select plr_array_push(plr_array(’hello’,’world’), ’how are you’);
plr_array_push----------------------------{hello,world,"how are you"}(1 row)

17

Chapter 7. PostgreSQL Support Functions
plr_array_accum (float8[] state_value, float8 next_element)

Creates a new array using next_element if state_value is NULL. Otherwise, pushes
next_element onto the end of state_value. This function is predefined to accept one
float8 array and a float8 value, and return a float8 array. The C function that implements thisPostgreSQL function is capable of accepting and returning other data types. For example, to definea plr_array_accum function to add an int4 value to an existing int4 array:
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION plr_array_accum (_int4, int4)
RETURNS int4[]
AS ’$libdir/plr’,’plr_array_accum’
LANGUAGE ’C’;
select plr_array_accum(NULL, 42);
plr_array_accum------------{42}(1 row)
select plr_array_accum(’{23,35}’, 42);
plr_array_accum----------------{23,35,42}(1 row)

This function may be useful for creating custom aggregates. See Chapter 8 for an example.
load_r_typenames()

Installs datatype Oid variables into the R interpreter as globals. See also r_typenames below.
r_typenames()

Displays the datatype Oid variables installed into the R interpreter as globals. See Chapter 6 for an
example.
plr_environ()

Displays the environment under which the Postmaster is currently running. This may be useful to
debug issues related to R specific environment variables. This function is installed with EXECUTE
permission revoked from PUBLIC.
plr_set_display(text display )Sets the DISPLAY environment vaiable under which the Postmaster is currently running. This may
be useful if using R to plot to a virtual frame buffer. This function is installed with EXECUTE
permission revoked from PUBLIC.
plr_get_raw(bytea serialized_object)

By default, when R objects are returned as type bytea, the R object is serialized using an internal
R function prior to sending to PostgreSQL. This function unserializes the R object using anotherinternal R function, and returns the pure raw bytes to PostgreSQL. This is useful, for example, if the
R object being returned is a JPEG or PNG graphic for use outside of R.

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Chapter 8. Aggregate Functions
Aggregates in PostgreSQL are extensible via SQL commands. In general, to create a new aggregate, astate transition function and possibly a final function are specified. The final function is used in case thedesired output of the aggregate is different from the data that needs to be kept in the running state value.
There is more than one way to create a new aggregate using PL/R. A simple aggregate can be definedusing the predefined PostgreSQL C function, plr_array_accum (see Chapter 7) as a state transition
function, and a PL/R function as a finalizer. For example:
create or replace function r_median(_float8) returns float as ’median(arg1)’ language ’plr’;
CREATE AGGREGATE median (sfunc = plr_array_accum,basetype = float8,
stype = _float8,
finalfunc = r_median);create table foo(f0 int, f1 text, f2 float8);
insert into foo values(1,’cat1’,1.21);
insert into foo values(2,’cat1’,1.24);
insert into foo values(3,’cat1’,1.18);
insert into foo values(4,’cat1’,1.26);
insert into foo values(5,’cat1’,1.15);
insert into foo values(6,’cat2’,1.15);
insert into foo values(7,’cat2’,1.26);
insert into foo values(8,’cat2’,1.32);
insert into foo values(9,’cat2’,1.30);
select f1, median(f2) from foo group by f1 order by f1;
f1 | median------+-------cat1 |1.21
cat2 |
1.28(2 rows)

A more complex aggregate might be created by using a PL/R functions for both state transition andfinalizer.

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Chapter 9. Loading R Modules at Startup
PL/R has support for auto-loading R code during interpreter initialization. It uses a special table,
plr_modules, which is presumed to contain modules of R code. If this table exists, the modules defined
are fetched from the table and loaded into the R interpreter immediately after creation.
The definition of the table plr_modules is as follows:
CREATE TABLE plr_modules (modseq int4,
modsrc text);

The field modseq is used to control the order of installation. The field modsrc contains the full text of
the R code to be executed, including assignment if that is desired. Consider, for example, the following
statement:
INSERT INTO plr_modules
VALUES (0, ’pg.test.module.load <-function(msg) {print(msg)}’);

This statement will cause an R function named pg.test.module.load to be created in the R interpreter on initialization. A PL/R function may now simply reference the function directly as follows:
create or replace function pg_test_module_load(text) returns text as ’pg.test.module.load(arg1)’ language ’plr’;select pg_test_module_load(’hello world’);
pg_test_module_load--------------------hello world(1 row)

The table plr_modules must be readable by all, but it is wise to make it owned and writable only by the
database administrator.

20Chapter 10. R Function Names
In PostgreSQL, one and the same function name can be used for different functions as long as the numberof arguments or their types differ. R, however, requires all function names to be distinct. PL/R deals withthis by constructing the internal R function names as a concatenation of the string “PLR” with the object
ID of the procedure’s pg_proc. Thus, PostgreSQL functions with the same name and different argument
types will be different R functions too. This is not normally a concern for a PL/R programmer, but it might
be visible when debugging.
If a specific, known, function name is needed so that an R function can be referenced by one or more PL/R
functions, the install_rcmd(text) command can be used. See Chapter 5.

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Chapter 11. Trigger Procedures
Trigger procedures can be written in PL/R. PostgreSQL requires that a procedure that is to be called as a
trigger must be declared as a function with no arguments and a return type of trigger.
The information from the trigger manager is passed to the procedure body in the following variables:
pg.tg.name

The name of the trigger from the CREATE TRIGGER statement.
pg.tg.relid

The object ID of the table that caused the trigger procedure to be invoked.
pg.tg.relname

The name of the table that caused the trigger procedure to be invoked.
pg.tg.when

The string BEFORE or AFTER depending on the type of trigger call.
pg.tg.level

The string ROW or STATEMENT depending on the type of trigger call.
pg.tg.op

The string INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE depending on the type of trigger call.
pg.tg.new

When the trigger is defined FOR EACH ROW, a data.frame containing the values of the new tablerow for INSERT or UPDATE actions. For triggers defined FOR EACH STATEMENT and for DELETE
actions, set to NULL. The atribute names are the table’s column names. Columns that are null will be
represented as NA.
pg.tg.old

When the trigger is defined FOR EACH ROW, a data.frame containing the values of the old tablerow for DELETE or UPDATE actions. For triggers defined FOR EACH STATEMENT and for INSERT
actions, set to NULL. The atribute names are the table’s column names. Columns that are null will be
represented as NA.
pg.tg.args

A vector of the arguments to the procedure as given in the CREATE TRIGGER statement.

The return value from a trigger procedure can be NULL or a one row data.frame matching the number
and type of columns in the trigger table. NULL tells the trigger manager to silently suppress the operation
for this row. If a one row data.frame is returned, it tells PL/R to return a possibly modified row to thetrigger manager that will be inserted instead of the one given in pg.tg.new. This works for INSERT and
UPDATE only. Needless to say that all this is only meaningful when the trigger is BEFORE and FOR EACH
ROW; otherwise the return value is ignored.

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Chapter 11. Trigger Procedures
Here’s a little example trigger procedure that forces an integer value in a table to keep track of the numberof updates that are performed on the row. For new rows inserted, the value is initialized to 0 and thenincremented on every update operation.
CREATE FUNCTION trigfunc_modcount() RETURNS trigger AS ’if (pg.tg.op == "INSERT"){
retval <- pg.tg.new
retval[pg.tg.args[1]] <- 0}
if (pg.tg.op == "UPDATE"){
retval <- pg.tg.new
retval[pg.tg.args[1]] <- pg.tg.old[pg.tg.args[1]] + 1}
if (pg.tg.op == "DELETE")
retval <- pg.tg.old
return(retval)’ LANGUAGE plr;
CREATE TABLE mytab (num integer, description text, modcnt integer);
CREATE TRIGGER trig_mytab_modcount BEFORE INSERT OR UPDATE ON mytab
FOR EACH ROW EXECUTE PROCEDURE trigfunc_modcount(’modcnt’);

Notice that the trigger procedure itself does not know the column name; that’s supplied from the trigger
arguments. This lets the trigger procedure be reused with different tables.

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Chapter 12. License
License: GPL version 2 or newer. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at youroption) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; withouteven the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not,write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

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