User guide
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# DataFrame
A fast, safe, and intuitive DataFrame library.
## Why use this DataFrame library?
* Encourages concise, declarative, and composable data pipelines.
* Static typing makes code easier to reason about and catches many bugs at compile time—before your code ever runs.
* Delivers high performance thanks to Haskell’s optimizing compiler and efficient memory model.
* Designed for interactivity: expressive syntax, helpful error messages, and sensible defaults.
* Works seamlessly in both command-line and notebook environments—great for exploration and scripting alike.
## Example usage
### Interactive environment
Key features in example:
* Intuitive, SQL-like API to get from data to insights.
* Create typed, completion-ready references to columns in a dataframe using `:exposeColumns`
* Type-safe column transformations for faster and safer exploration.
* Fluid, chaining API that makes code easy to reason about.
### Standalone script example
```haskell
-- Useful Haskell extensions.
{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-} -- Allow string literal to be interpreted as any other string type.
{-# LANGUAGE TypeApplications #-} -- Convenience syntax for specifiying the type `sum a b :: Int` vs `sum @Int a b'.
import qualified DataFrame as D -- import for general functionality.
import qualified DataFrame.Functions as F -- import for column expressions.
import DataFrame ((|>)) -- import chaining operator with unqualified.
main :: IO ()
main = do
df <- D.readTsv "./data/chipotle.tsv"
let quantity = F.col "quantity" :: D.Expr Int -- A typed reference to a column.
print (df
|> D.select ["item_name", "quantity"]
|> D.groupBy ["item_name"]
|> D.aggregate [ (F.sum quantity) `F.as` "sum_quantity"
, (F.mean quantity) `F.as` "mean_quantity"
, (F.maximum quantity) `F.as` "maximum_quantity"
]
|> D.sortBy D.Descending ["sum_quantity"]
|> D.take 10)
```
Output:
```
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
index | item_name | sum_quantity | mean_quanity | maximum_quanity
------|------------------------------|--------------|--------------------|----------------
Int | Text | Int | Double | Int
------|------------------------------|--------------|--------------------|----------------
0 | Chicken Bowl | 761 | 1.0482093663911847 | 3
1 | Chicken Burrito | 591 | 1.0687160940325497 | 4
2 | Chips and Guacamole | 506 | 1.0563674321503131 | 4
3 | Steak Burrito | 386 | 1.048913043478261 | 3
4 | Canned Soft Drink | 351 | 1.1661129568106312 | 4
5 | Chips | 230 | 1.0900473933649288 | 3
6 | Steak Bowl | 221 | 1.04739336492891 | 3
7 | Bottled Water | 211 | 1.3024691358024691 | 10
8 | Chips and Fresh Tomato Salsa | 130 | 1.1818181818181819 | 15
9 | Canned Soda | 126 | 1.2115384615384615 | 4
```
Full example in `./examples` folder using many of the constructs in the API.
## Installing
### Jupyter notebook
* We have a [hosted version of the Jupyter notebook](https://ulwazi-exh9dbh2exbzgbc9.westus-01.azurewebsites.net/lab) on azure sites. This is hosted on Azure's free tier so it can only support 3 or 4 kernels at a time.
* To get started quickly, use the Dockerfile in the [ihaskell-dataframe](https://github.com/mchav/ihaskell-dataframe) to build and run an image with dataframe integration.
* For a preview check out the [California Housing](https://github.com/mchav/dataframe/blob/main/docs/California%20Housing.ipynb) notebook.
### CLI
* Run the installation script `curl '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mchav/dataframe/refs/heads/main/scripts/install.sh | sh`
* Download the run script with: `curl --output dataframe "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mchav/dataframe/refs/heads/main/scripts/dataframe.sh"`
* Make the script executable: `chmod +x dataframe`
* Add the script your path: `export PATH=$PATH:./dataframe`
* Run the script with: `dataframe`
## What is exploratory data analysis?
We provide a primer [here](https://github.com/mchav/dataframe/blob/main/docs/exploratory_data_analysis_primer.md) and show how to do some common analyses.
## Coming from other dataframe libraries
Familiar with another dataframe library? Get started:
* [Coming from Pandas](https://github.com/mchav/dataframe/blob/main/docs/coming_from_pandas.md)
* [Coming from Polars](https://github.com/mchav/dataframe/blob/main/docs/coming_from_polars.md)
* [Coming from dplyr](https://github.com/mchav/dataframe/blob/main/docs/coming_from_dplyr.md)
## Supported input formats
* CSV
* Apache Parquet
## Supported output formats
* CSV
## Future work
* Apache arrow compatability
* Integration with common data formats (currently only supports CSV)
* Support windowed plotting (currently only supports ASCII plots)
* Host the whole library + Jupyter lab on Azure with auth and isolation.
