Fast DataFrames for Ruby

[dang]

Recent and related:

Modern Polars: A comparison of the Polars and Pandas dataframe libraries - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34275818 - Jan 2023 (62 comments)

Also:

Polars: Fast DataFrame library for Rust and Python - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29584698 - Dec 2021 (124 comments)

Polars: Rust DataFrames Based on Apache Arrow - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23768227 - July 2020 (1 comment)

[pelasaco]

I think its really interesting such gems offering a ruby layer on top of rust libs. One issue that I have with that is - and maybe it's my ignorance - but is that necessary to bundle the original lib as https://github.com/ankane/polars-ruby/tree/master/ext/polars ? I can imagine that makes easier to avoid breakage, or with C extensions, because you dont have some dependency manager around, but couldn't we sort it with Cargo? For instance, having the version locked and it could download (and cache) the dependency when necessary?

[ssaunier_]

ankane’s gems are truly something.

[petepete]

Blazer is a particular favourite of mine. A former colleague taught herself SQL from zero knowledge by looking at and piecing together bits of other reports, experimenting with familiar (interesting) data and going on to build dashboards her team loved.

If we'd have just given the team a locked down Data Studio/PowerBI report none of that would have happened. Encouraging people to peek under the hood can be a huge benefit.

[BilalBudhani]

came here to say this.

[pantsforbirds]

polars is a really great library. Cool to see it expanding into so many languages too.

[tsaoyu]

https://xorbits.io/benchmark

[tecleandor]

https://www.pola.rs/benchmarks.html

[oofbey]

I'm trying to imagine why somebody would start a data analytics project in ruby.

[vidarh]

Having done financial modelling and data analytics in Ruby: Because I like Ruby, all the other backend code in those projects was in Ruby, and most projects don't rely on data volumes where the lack of something like Polars is an issue to begin with.

Most people don't have large datasets (even many people who think they have large datasets). Some do, or require more complex supporting libraries, and I get that Ruby then often isn't practical for them, and that's fine.

But it's nice to know I now have one more option reducing my need to consider another language.

[looopTools]

- Because some like it better than Python/Julia/<INSERT NEXT language>. - Because they want data analytics in a ruby application - Because Ruby is awesome

[dajonker]

Because you already have a Ruby project and you want add analytics to it?

[jay-barronville]

Other than the lack of library/tools comparable to Python (hence projects like this one), why not?

[swalsh]

Honestly I used Ruby about 6 years ago, but have been a python guy ever since. That said I believe Ruby's main advantage is its metaprogramming capabilities. You can build powerful DSLs in Ruby pretty quickly. Adding analytics to that could be useful in certain cases.

I'd like to see spark bindings first though before I would seriously consider it.

[peoplefromibiza]

and why not?

[nurettin]

Presumably to use polars.

[claudiug]

I'm trying to imagine why somebody would start writing so hateful comment on hn. how empty the soul of that human can be?