Sharing data among Python, R, Java, Javascript in Jupyter notebook

This will be the conclusion of my journey of exploring polyglot data visualization. As a scientific software engineer, there are many chances to cope with various kinds of environments where scientists are keen on. Personally, I prefer to using javascript because it is platform agnostic.

I have one post how to communicate between python and javascript/java thanks to BeakerX extension.

AutoTranslation from Python to Javascript in Jupyter

HongKee Moon ・ Feb 24 ・ 1 min read

#jupyter #beakerx #python #javascript

Today we take a look at how to exchange data between R and Python cells in Jupyter. The summary figure shows how to share data among R, Python, Java, Javascript in Jupyter notebook.

rpy2 (https://rpy2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)

rpy2 is designed to facilitate the use of R by Python programmers. R objects are exposed as instances of python classes and R functions as bound methods to those objects.

In order to use rpy2 in jupyter notebooks, we need to install them first. Please, refer https://rpy2.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overview.html#installation.

Then, enable it with load_ext magic in the jupyter cell.

%load_ext rpy2.ipython

For the convenience, let's put this extension in ipython_config.py file which is located in ~/.ipython/profile_defaults. If there is no config file in the location, please, create ipython_config.py. Then, paste the below content.

c.IPKernelApp.extensions = [
    'rpy2.ipython'
]

Now you can freely use the magics provided by rpy2. Let's check the output of pi from R.

import rpy2.robjects as robjects
pi = robjects.r['pi']
pi[0]

1. Create a dataframe in Python
   

   import pandas as pd
   python_df = pd.DataFrame({'A': [2, 3, 5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 2, 5, 9],
                             'B': [4, 2, 4, 6, 2, 4, 6, 7, 3, 5]})
   
   print(python_df)
   

2. Use the dataframe in R with -i flag in the R magic
   

   %%R -i python_df
   # Pass the specific dataframe to R using the -i option
   
   plot(python_df, main="Plotting a Python Dataframe in R",
       col="red", pch=12)
   

3. Export R variables with -o flag in the R magic
   

   %%R -o model -o coef
   # R to Python
   
   model <- lm(B ~ A, data=python_df)
   coef <- model$coefficients
   

4. Use the exported R variables with rpy2
   

   import rpy2.robjects as robjects
   
   print(model)
   print(type(model))
   
   print(dict(model.items()))
   

Normally, the exported R dataframe is automatically translated as a panda's dataframe in Python.

%%R -o cars_df

cars_df <- mtcars

# print(cars_df)
from beakerx import *
from beakerx.object import beakerx

beakerx.pandas_display_default()
cars_df

However, there is no direct way from R to Java/Javascript now. Hopefully, BeakerX team will provide the auto-translation feature for R sooner or later.

Here is the gist including all the snippets shown in the article.

Happy coding!