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Create a DuckLake table

Source: R/create_table.R
create_table.Rd

Create a DuckLake table

Usage

create_table(data_source, table_name, labels = TRUE)

Arguments

data_source

Raw data source. Can be:

  • A URL (http:// or https://)

  • A file path (e.g., "data.csv", "data.parquet")

  • An R data.frame or tibble

  • A lazy table (tbl_duckdb_connection or tbl_lazy). A lazy table on the package's connection, such as a dplyr pipeline built on get_ducklake_table(), is written with CREATE TABLE ... AS inside DuckDB, so its rows never pass through R. A lazy table on another connection is collected first.

table_name

Name of the new table

labels

When TRUE (the default), store variable labels in the lake as column comments, in the same transaction as the table creation, so both land as one snapshot. For a data frame the labels are its haven/labelled label attributes; for a lazy table, each output column keeps the comment of the same-named column in the tables the query reads, so labels follow the data through a pipeline (a renamed or derived column starts without one). Collecting the table later restores the labels (see get_table_comments()), and every other client of the lake can read them too. Set to FALSE to skip.

Value

Invisibly, NULL. Called for its side effect of creating the table in the lake.

See also

Other table operations: add_data_files(), create_schema(), create_view(), drop_schema(), drop_view(), ducklake_exec(), get_ducklake_table(), get_metadata_table(), list_ducklake_tables(), replace_table(), show_ducklake_query()

Examples

lake_dir <- tempfile("create_lake_")
dir.create(lake_dir)
attach_ducklake("create_lake", lake_path = lake_dir)

# From data.frame
create_table(mtcars, "cars")

# From a local file
csv_path <- tempfile(fileext = ".csv")
utils::write.csv(mtcars, csv_path, row.names = FALSE)
create_table(csv_path, "cars_from_csv")

# From a lazy table: the query runs inside DuckDB and writes straight
# into the lake, without collecting into R
get_ducklake_table("cars") |>
  dplyr::filter(cyl > 4) |>
  create_table("big_cars")

# From a URL -- needs network access and the httpfs extension
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
create_table("https://example.com/data.csv", "remote_table")
} # }

unlink(csv_path)

detach_ducklake("create_lake", shutdown = TRUE)
unlink(lake_dir, recursive = TRUE)