duckdb: Connect to a DuckDB database instance

In duckdb: DBI Package for the DuckDB Database Management System

Connect to a DuckDB database instance

Description

duckdb() creates or reuses a database instance.

duckdb_shutdown() shuts down a database instance.

Return an adbcdrivermanager::adbc_driver() for use with Arrow Database Connectivity via the adbcdrivermanager package.

dbConnect() connects to a database instance.

dbDisconnect() closes a DuckDB database connection. The associated DuckDB database instance is shut down automatically, it is no longer necessary to set shutdown = TRUE or to call duckdb_shutdown().

Usage

duckdb(
  dbdir = DBDIR_MEMORY,
  read_only = FALSE,
  bigint = "numeric",
  config = list(),
  ...,
  environment_scan = FALSE
)

duckdb_shutdown(drv)

duckdb_adbc()

## S4 method for signature 'duckdb_driver'
dbConnect(
  drv,
  dbdir = DBDIR_MEMORY,
  ...,
  debug = getOption("duckdb.debug", FALSE),
  read_only = FALSE,
  timezone_out = "UTC",
  tz_out_convert = c("with", "force"),
  config = list(),
  bigint = "numeric",
  array = "none"
)

## S4 method for signature 'duckdb_connection'
dbDisconnect(conn, ..., shutdown = TRUE)

Arguments

dbdir	Location for database files. Should be a path to an existing directory in the file system. With the default (or ""), all data is kept in RAM.
read_only	Set to TRUE for read-only operation. For file-based databases, this is only applied when the database file is opened for the first time. Subsequent connections (via the same drv object or a drv object pointing to the same path) will silently ignore this flag.
bigint	How 64-bit integers should be returned. There are two options: "numeric" and "integer64". If "numeric" is selected, bigint integers will be treated as double/numeric. If "integer64" is selected, bigint integers will be set to bit64 encoding.
config	Named list with DuckDB configuration flags, see https://duckdb.org/docs/configuration/overview#configuration-reference for the possible options. These flags are only applied when the database object is instantiated. Subsequent connections will silently ignore these flags.
...	Reserved for future extensions, must be empty.
environment_scan	Set to TRUE to treat data frames from the calling environment as tables. If a database table with the same name exists, it takes precedence. The default of this setting may change in a future version.
drv	Object returned by duckdb()
debug	Print additional debug information, such as queries.
timezone_out	The time zone returned to R, defaults to "UTC", which is currently the only timezone supported by duckdb. If you want to display datetime values in the local timezone, set to Sys.timezone() or "".
tz_out_convert	How to convert timestamp columns to the timezone specified in timezone_out. There are two options: "with", and "force". If "with" is chosen, the timestamp will be returned as it would appear in the specified time zone. If "force" is chosen, the timestamp will have the same clock time as the timestamp in the database, but with the new time zone.
array	How arrays should be returned. There are two options: "none" and "matrix". If "none" is selected, arrays are not returned. Instead an error is generated. If "matrix" is selected, arrays are returned as a column matrix. Each array is one row in the matrix.
conn	A duckdb_connection object
shutdown	Unused. The database instance is shut down automatically.

Value

duckdb() returns an object of class duckdb_driver.

dbDisconnect() and duckdb_shutdown() are called for their side effect.

An object of class "adbc_driver"

dbConnect() returns an object of class duckdb_connection.

Examples

library(adbcdrivermanager)
with_adbc(db <- adbc_database_init(duckdb_adbc()), {
  as.data.frame(read_adbc(db, "SELECT 1 as one;"))
})

drv <- duckdb()
con <- dbConnect(drv)

dbGetQuery(con, "SELECT 'Hello, world!'")

dbDisconnect(con)
duckdb_shutdown(drv)

# Shorter:
con <- dbConnect(duckdb())
dbGetQuery(con, "SELECT 'Hello, world!'")
dbDisconnect(con, shutdown = TRUE)

duckdb documentation built on June 23, 2025, 5:09 p.m.