ddbs_create_conn: Create a DuckDB connection with spatial extension

In duckspatial: R Interface to 'DuckDB' Database with Spatial Extension

Create a DuckDB connection with spatial extension

Description

It creates a DuckDB connection, and then it installs and loads the spatial extension

Usage

ddbs_create_conn(
  dbdir = "memory",
  threads = NULL,
  memory_limit_gb = NULL,
  upgrade = FALSE,
  ...,
  duckdb_storage_version = duckspatial_storage_default()
)

Arguments

dbdir	String. Either "tempdir", "memory", or a DuckDB database file path with .duckdb, .db, or .ddb extension. Defaults to "memory".
threads	Integer. Number of threads to use. If NULL (default), the setting is not changed, and DuckDB engine will use all available cores it detects (warning, on some shared HPC nodes the detected number of cores might be total number of cores on the node, not the per-job allocation).
memory_limit_gb	Numeric. Memory limit in GB. If NULL (default), the setting is not changed, and DuckDB engine will use 80% of available operating system memory it detects (warning, on some shared HPC nodes the detected memory might be the full node memory, not the per-job allocation).
upgrade	if TRUE, it upgrades the DuckDB extension to the latest version
...	Additional parameters to be passed to dbConnect
duckdb_storage_version	Storage compatibility for newly created persistent native DuckDB files (.duckdb, .db, .ddb). See https://duckdb.org/docs/internals/storage for more information on DuckDB storage versions and compatibility. "v1.5.0" (Native Spatial Storage, Default): Preserves CRS metadata in native DuckDB GEOMETRY columns. Requires DuckDB >= 1.5.0 to open the file. "v1.0.0" (Legacy Compatibility): Creates files readable by older DuckDB versions (>= 1.0.0). Persists CRS metadata in duckspatial-managed column comments (a convention not recognized by other spatial software). "latest": Use the highest storage version supported by your installed DuckDB engine. Other major version strings like "v1.4.0", "v1.3.0", etc., are also supported.

Value

A duckdb_connection

Examples

## Not run: 
# load packages
library(duckspatial)

# create a duckdb database in memory (with spatial extension)
conn <- ddbs_create_conn(dbdir = "memory")

# create a duckdb database in disk  (with spatial extension)
conn <- ddbs_create_conn(dbdir = "tempdir")

# create a connection with 1 thread and 2GB memory limit
conn <- ddbs_create_conn(threads = 1, memory_limit_gb = 2)
ddbs_stop_conn(conn)

## End(Not run)

duckspatial documentation built on June 22, 2026, 9:08 a.m.