Alternative of SQL Server sp_execute_external_script to allow mixing of SQL and R language
Have you allready got frustrated of Microsoft sp_execute_external_script (aka Machine Learning Services) and limited support of allowing setting any version of R language ?
If the answer is yes this post is for you...
Usually you have to wait for a new version of SQL Server that hopefully supports the latest version of R.
I 've created a stored procedure ( based on the old xp_cmdshell ) that allows running R scripts in whatever version you like.
First I explained how to install it and then how you can use it.
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Download and install an R language runtime version on your SQL Server machine from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/
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Once you've installed R make sure you install the following packages:
- install.packages("tidyverse")
- install.packages("DBI")
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Open an SQL Client and open install_execute_rscript.sql.
Modify the following variables to match your environement
- @rscriptexe : path to Rscript.exe (eg: 'C:"Program Files"\R\R-4.1.2\bin\Rscript.exe' ) The login used for SQL Server should be allowed execution.
- @rscriptfile: path to main script that wraps R SQL execution (eg: 'D:\Temp\execute_external_rscript.R' )
- @output_folder: name of temporary folder used to dump temp files used by the script. (eg: 'D:\Temp'). The login used for SQL should have access to this folder.
- @conn_input: connection string to be used for the input query. (eg: 'driver={SQL Server};server=SQLSERVER;database=StackOverflow2010;trusted_connection=true') Make sure the login used for SQL Server has access to the configured SQL Server
- @conn_output: connection string to be used for storing the table containing output results. (eg: 'driver={SQL Server};server=SQLSERVER;database=TMP;trusted_connection=true') Make sure the login used for SQL Server has access to the configured SQL Server
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Execute install_execute_rscript.sql.
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Copy execute_external_rscript.R in configured @rscriptfile path.
The execute_rscript stored procedure has the following params:
@sql: input sql query representing input dataset.
@rscript: R script to be executed in the current context.
eg: library (lubridate) ;
.tbinput %>%
mutate (CurrentDate = today ())
The input dataset is accessible from R script via **.tbinput** variable.
The output of the R script should be in the tibble form so we can output a table back to SQL.
@output_table: Output table name to store the output dataset return from the script.
- the table name used to store the output dataset
- If NULL the script will be executed but the output wont be stored as table
- If'AUTO' the table name is uniquely generated and the table name is retured in @output_table variable
@drop_output_table: Controls the persistance of the output table (default 1)
- If @drop_output_table = 1 output table is droped.
- If @drop_output_table = 0 output table is kept.
@script_output Controls additional script shell output (default 0)
- If @script_output = 1 shows additional shell output.
- If @script_output = 0 suppress shell output.
---- input data and append an R calculated column
exec master..execute_rscript @sql = 'select cast ([ClosedDate] as date ) as [ClosedDate] ,
count (*) as Cnt ,
max (Score) as Score ,
sum (cast (ViewCount as bigint ) ) as ViewCount
from [StackOverflow2010].[dbo].[Posts]
group by cast ([ClosedDate] as date )',
@rscript = 'library (lubridate) ;
.tbinput %>%
mutate (CurrentDate = today ()) ' ,
@output_table = 'tmp_out'
---in order to type the results use WITH RESULT SETS
exec master..execute_rscript @sql = 'select cast ([ClosedDate] as date ) as [ClosedDate] ,
count (*) as Cnt ,
max (Score) as Score ,
sum (cast (ViewCount as bigint ) ) as ViewCount
from [StackOverflow2010].[dbo].[Posts]
group by cast ([ClosedDate] as date )',
@rscript = '.tbinput %>%
summarise(correlation = cor(ViewCount , Score)) ' ,
@output_table = 'tmp_out'
WITH RESULT SETS ( (correlation float ));
--- execute as script with no table output and activate script output
exec master..execute_rscript @rscript = 'print (sessionInfo () )' ,
@script_output = 1
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