R UDF Compatibility in Vertica 7

vioravis

Hi,

We have created R UDFs in Vertica 6.1 and would like to know whether these UDFs are compatible with Vertica 7.0.0 (Crane).

In the community edition of Vertica 7.0.0 downloads page, I see "User Defined Functions in R: sources package" which was not part of 6.1. 

Has something changed between 6.1 and 7.0 in terms of creating and using R UDFs? Could someone please clarify.

Thank you.

Ravi

[Deleted User]

Hi Ravi,

R UDF's written for Vertica 6.1 should be compatible with Vertica 7 as well.

To use R in Vertica 7, you need to install the R Language Pack for your platform.  This is the same as in 6.1.

It is also possible to build the R connector from source code, rather than from the pre-compiled binary package.  That's what the "source packages" download is that you're referring to.  It's how Vertica's R functionality was installed prior to 6.1.  Most users will not want to install R this way today.

We provide the source in part because we have to -- the R interpreter is licensed under the GPL; we modify it (to run from within Vertica), so we're expected to publish our code as well.  (The package was actually part of 6.1 as well.  But I think it was on a different part of the page; people often didn't see it.)  We also publish it because, while it would take a lot of effort to modify this code, you could in principle take it and do something really cool with it, like run Python or some totally-different language.  No one's done this yet, but I have my fingers crossed :-)

Adam

vioravis

Thanks a lot, Adam