convert_array: Convert an Array into an R vector

In nanoarrow: Interface to the 'nanoarrow' 'C' Library

Convert an Array into an R vector

Description

Converts array to the type specified by to. This is a low-level interface; most users should use as.data.frame() or as.vector() unless finer-grained control is needed over the conversion. This function is an S3 generic dispatching on to: developers may implement their own S3 methods for custom vector types.

Usage

convert_array(array, to = NULL, ...)

Arguments

array	A nanoarrow_array.
to	A target prototype object describing the type to which array should be converted, or NULL to use the default conversion as returned by infer_nanoarrow_ptype(). Alternatively, a function can be passed to perform an alternative calculation of the default ptype as a function of array and the default inference of the prototype.
...	Passed to S3 methods

Details

Note that unregistered extension types will by default issue a warning. Use options(nanoarrow.warn_unregistered_extension = FALSE) to disable this behaviour.

Conversions are implemented for the following R vector types:

• logical(): Any numeric type can be converted to logical() in addition to the bool type. For numeric types, any non-zero value is considered TRUE.

• integer(): Any numeric type can be converted to integer(); however, a warning will be signaled if the any value is outside the range of the 32-bit integer.

• double(): Any numeric type can be converted to double(). This conversion currently does not warn for values that may not roundtrip through a floating-point double (e.g., very large uint64 and int64 values).

• character(): String and large string types can be converted to character(). The conversion does not check for valid UTF-8: if you need finer-grained control over encodings, use to = blob::blob().

• factor(): Dictionary-encoded arrays of strings can be converted to factor(); however, this must be specified explicitly (i.e., convert_array(array, factor())) because arrays arriving in chunks can have dictionaries that contain different levels. Use convert_array(array, factor(levels = c(...))) to materialize an array into a vector with known levels.

• Date: Only the date32 type can be converted to an R Date vector.

• hms::hms(): Time32 and time64 types can be converted to hms::hms().

• difftime(): Time32, time64, and duration types can be converted to R difftime() vectors. The value is converted to match the units() attribute of to.

• blob::blob(): String, large string, binary, and large binary types can be converted to blob::blob().

• vctrs::list_of(): List, large list, and fixed-size list types can be converted to vctrs::list_of().

• matrix(): Fixed-size list types can be converted to matrix(ptype, ncol = fixed_size).

• data.frame(): Struct types can be converted to data.frame().

• vctrs::unspecified(): Any type can be converted to vctrs::unspecified(); however, a warning will be raised if any non-null values are encountered.

In addition to the above conversions, a null array may be converted to any target prototype except data.frame(). Extension arrays are currently converted as their storage type.

Value

An R vector of type to.

Examples

array <- as_nanoarrow_array(data.frame(x = 1:5))
str(convert_array(array))
str(convert_array(array, to = data.frame(x = double())))

nanoarrow documentation built on Aug. 9, 2025, 1:07 a.m.