Ibis

How to get rid of stringly typed analytics

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ABOUT ME

NOT A FAN oF STRINGLY TYPED CODE

EXPLAIN PLAN
  • What's an ibis?
  • Why ibis?
  • Demo
  • Design
  • Execution
  • Questions

UPSHOT

  • SQL + Python for analytics
  • String programming

What's an ibis?

An ibis

Thanks @tswast!

Another ibis

ibis

  • Python library for analytic SQL
  • Inspired by dplyr
  • "Pandonic"?
  • "Ibisish"?
  • "Birdlike"?

Example

In [32]: import ibis

In [33]: ibis.options.interactive = True

In [34]: con = ibis.sqlite.connect('crunchbase.db')

In [35]: con.list_tables()
Out[35]: ['acquisitions', 'companies', 'investments', 'rounds']

In [36]: t = con.table('companies')

In [37]: t.name.nunique()
Out[37]: 51063

In [38]: t.region.nunique()
Out[38]: 1034

In [39]: (t.groupby('region')
    ...:   .aggregate(topk=t.funding_rounds.count())
    ...:   .sort_by(ibis.desc('topk'))
    ...:   .head())
    ...:
Out[39]:
          region  topk
0    SF Bay Area  7165
1           None  5071
2  New York City  2724
3         Boston  1906
4         London  1679

Why IBIS?

SQl & Productivity

SELECT *,
       acq_ipos / num_investments::float AS acq_rate
FROM (
  SELECT
    CASE
      WHEN i.investor_name IS NULL THEN 'NO INVESTOR'
      ELSE i.investor_name
    END AS "Investor name",
    COUNT(DISTINCT c.permalink) AS num_investments,
    COUNT(
      DISTINCT
        CASE
          WHEN c.status IN ('ipo', 'acquired') THEN
            c.permalink
          ELSE NULL
        END
    ) AS acq_ipos
  FROM crunchbase_companies
  LEFT JOIN crunchbase_investments
    ON c.permalink = i.company_permalink
  GROUP BY 1
  ORDER BY 2 DESC
) a
SELECT *,
       acq_ipos / num_investments::float AS acq_rate
FROM (
  SELECT
    CASE
      WHEN i.investor_name IS NULL THEN 'NO INVESTOR'
      ELSE i.investor_name
    END AS "Investor name",
    COUNT(DISTINCT c.permalink) AS num_investments,
    COUNT(
      DISTINCT
        CASE
          WHEN c.status IN ('ipo', 'acquired') THEN
            c.permalink
          ELSE NULL
        END
    ) AS acq_ipos
  FROM crunchbase_companies AS c
  LEFT JOIN crunchbase_investments AS i
    ON c.permalink = i.company_permalink
  GROUP BY 1
  ORDER BY 2 DESC
) a

Ask me if you want access to the data for this query

SQl & Productivity

Lines of SQL Written

Productivity

WHY SQL?

WHY SQL?

SQL

PYTHON

PYTHON

  • Good
    • Easy to learn/use
    • Rich ecosystem
  • Not so good
    • Analytics limited in scale
    • SQL interaction

MAKE SQL PRODUCTIVE FROM PYTHON

"I knoW, I'll just generate STRINGS"

"STRINGLY" Typed

"""
SELECT *,
       acq_ipos/num_investments::FLOAT AS acquitision_rate
FROM (
  SELECT CASE WHEN i.investor_name IS NULL THEN 'NO INVESTOR'
              ELSE i.investor_name END "Investor name",
          {agg}(DISTINCT c.permalink) AS number_of_investments,
          COUNT(DISTINCT
          {case_with_conditions}
          AS {my_name}
  FROM {}
  LEFT JOIN {}
  ON c.permalink = i.company_permalink
  GROUP BY 1
  ORDER BY 2 DESC
) a
""".format(
    generate_left_part_of_join(use_templating='obviously'),
    generate_right_join_v2(sometimes_do_not_use_templating='what else would I do'),
    agg=next(agg_generator()),
    case_with_conditions='CASE {} END'.format(
        'WHEN {} THEN {}'.format(k, v) for k, v in conditions
    ),
    my_name='acqusitions or whatever'
)

"I knoW, I'll just generate STRINGS"

"I knoW, I'll just generate STRINGS write CoNCISE PYTHON code that type checks and eventually generates strings"

recap

  • Python
  • Fail fastlyish
  • Convenience
  • Performance

DEMO time

Potential drawbacks

  • Performance
  • Abstraction
  • Features

DESIGN

DESIGN PRinCIPLES

  • Separate API from operation
  • Check types ASAP
t.string_col + 1.0

API

Impl

class Expr:
    def __init__(self, impl):
        self.impl = impl

    def op(self):
        return self.impl


class StringValue(Expr):
    def concat(self, other):
        return ops.Concat(
            self, other
        ).to_expr()
class Node:
    def to_expr(self):
        output_type = self.output_type()
        return output_type(self)


class Concat(ops.Node):
    left = Arg(rules.string)
    right = Arg(rules.string)
    
    def output_type(self):
        return rules.shape_like(
            self.args,
            dtype=dt.string
        )
  • Exprs are the API
  • Based on element type, shape
  • Used for type checking
  • Implementation details
  • Know how to make exprs
  • Used for compilation

DESIGN - SEPARATION

DESIGN - operations

  • Nodes (Ops) are implementation
  • Holds arguments
  • Determines the Expr type
class Repeat(ValueOp):
    arg = Arg(rlz.string)
    times = Arg(rlz.integer)

    def output_type(self):
        return rlz.shape_like(
            self.args, dt.string
        )
class StringJoin(ValueOp):
    sep = Arg(rlz.string)
    arg = Arg(
        rlz.list_of(
            rlz.string, min_length=1
        )
    )

    def output_type(self):
        return rlz.shape_like(
            tuple(self.flat_args()),
            dt.string
        )

Execution phases

  • Expression graph construction
  • Compilation
  • Execution

EXPReSSION GRAPH

t.bigint_col.bitwise_and(where=(t.bigint_col == 10) | (t.bigint_col == 40))

COmpilation

t.bigint_col.bitwise_and(where=(t.bigint_col == 10) | (t.bigint_col == 40))
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE (t.bigint_col = 10 OR t.bigint_col = 40)
BITWISE_AND({}.bigint_col) WHERE ({})
BITWISE_AND({}) WHERE ({})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE ({})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE ({} OR {})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE ({} = {} OR {})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE (t.bigint_col = {} OR {})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE (t.bigint_col = 10 OR {})
BITWISE_AND(t.bigint_col) WHERE (t.bigint_col = 10 OR t.bigint_col = {})

Execution

  • Give string to driver
  • Convert results into pandas things

lots to do

  • Inline SQL: expr.sql("SELECT * FROM t")
  • Returning something other than DataFrames
  • Usability
  • TPC-xBB
  • Roadmap for 2022 is in the works!

QUESTIONS?

Ibis

By Phillip Cloud

Ibis

Ibis is a Python library for making it easy to work with different flavors of SQL engines, with a focus on big data systems such as Apache Impala, Google BigQuery and others.

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