kdb+ Plugin

With the DolphinDB kdb+ plugin, you can load the kdb+ tables on your disk into DolphinDB as in-memory tables. This plugin can be used to load all types of Q data structures in DolphinDB. There are two load options: through the loadTable method or the loadFile method.

The DolphinDB kdb+ plugin has the branches release 200 and release130. Each plugin version corresponds to a DolphinDB server version. You're looking at the plugin documentation for release200. If you use a different DolphinDB server version, please refer to the corresponding branch of the plugin documentation.

Install Precompiled Plugin

Configure the Environment

Install kdb+

kdb+ installation is only required for the loadTable() method.

Download a 64-bit kdb+ personal edition from the official website.

Install zlib

The plugin requires zlib for data decompression.

Ubuntu

sudo apt install zlib1g

CentOS

yum install -y zlib zlib-devel

Load Plugin

Download the precompiled plugin and library files at DolphinDBPlugin/kdb/. Enter the following command in DolphinDB to load the plugin:

loadPlugin("/path/to/plugin/PluginKDB.txt")

(Optional) Manually Compile Plugin

Linux

cd /path/to/plugins/kdb
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

After compilation, refer to the description in Load Plugin to load the plugin in DolphinDB.

Methods

kdb::connect

Syntax

connect(host, port, usernamePassword)

Arguments

host: the IP address where the kdb+ database is running.
port: the port that the kdb+ database is listening on.
usernamePassword: a STRING indicating the username and password for the kdb+ database you're connecting to. Specify the value in this format: "username:password". If the kdb+ database does not require authentication, leave this parameter empty or specify an arbitrary string.

Details

Establish a connection to the kdb+ server. Return a connection handle.

If the connection fails, an exception is thrown. Possible causes are:

The username or password is wrong;
The port number for the server does not exist;
Timeout

Examples

Suppose the username and password ("admin:123456") are stored in ../passwordfiles/usrs, and the kdb+ server and DolphinDB server are both on the same machine:

kdb+ shell:

q -p 5000 -U ../passwordfiles/usrs   # note that "-U" must be capitalized

DolphinDB shell:

handle = kdb::connect("127.0.0.1", 5000, "admin:123456")

If the kdb+ database you're connecting to does not require authentication:

handle = kdb::connect("127.0.0.1", 5000)

kdb::loadTable

Syntax

loadTable(handle, tablePath, symPath)

Arguments

handle: the connection handle returned by kdb::loadTable
tablePath is a STRING indicating the path to the kdb+ table you're loading. It must be the directories of column files of a splayed table, partitioned table or segmented table.
symPath: is a STRING indicating the path to the sym file for the table. Leave this parameter empty only when the table does not contain an enumerated column of type symbol.

Note: It is recommended to separate the paths with a slash ("/"), instead of a backslash ("".)

Details

Load data from a connected kdb+ database as an in-memory table in DolphinDB.

In kdb+, symbols containing few distinctive values are saved as integers in sym files through enumeration to reduce storage requirements. Therefore, to load a table containing an enumerated column of type symbol, the system must load the associated sym file first.

Examples

// the table contains an enumerated symbol column
DATA_DIR="/path/to/data/kdb_sample"
Txns = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns", DATA_DIR + "/sym")

// there's no symbol data in the splayed table, or the symbol column is not enumerated in a single table
DATA_DIR="/path/to/data/kdb_sample"
Txns = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns", DATA_DIR)

kdb::loadFile

Syntax

loadFile(tablePath, symPath)

Arguments

tablePath: tablePath is a STRING indicating the path to the kdb+ table you're loading. If it's a splayed table, partitioned table or segmented table, specify the directory of column files. If it's a single object, specify the object file.
symPath: is a STRING indicating the path to the sym file for the table. Leave this parameter empty only when the table does not contain an enumerated column of type symbol.

Note: It is recommended to separate the paths with a slash ("/"), instead of a backslash ("".)

Details

Directly read the specified kdb+ data files on disk and load the file data to DolphinDB as an in-memory table.

In kdb+, symbols containing few distinctive values are saved as integers in sym files through enumeration to reduce storage requirements. Therefore, to load a table containing an enumerated column of type symbol, the system must load the associated sym file first.

Examples

//the table contains an enumerated symbol column
DATA_DIR="/path/to/data/kdb_sample"
Txns = kdb::loadFile(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns", DATA_DIR + "/sym")


//there's no symbol data in the splayed table, or the symbol column is not enumerated in a single table
DATA_DIR="/path/to/data/kdb_sample"
Txns = kdb::loadFile(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns", DATA_DIR)

kdb::close

Syntax

close(handle)

Arguments

handle: the connection handle returned by kdb::loadTable

Details

Close the connection to the kdb+ server.

Examples

kdb::close(handle)

A Complete Example

loadPlugin("/home/DolphinDBPlugin/kdb/build/PluginKDB.txt")
go
// connect to the kdb+ database
handle = kdb::connect("127.0.0.1", 5000, "admin:123456")

// specify the file path
DATA_DIR="/home/kdb/data/kdb_sample"

// Load data to DolphinDB through loadTable
Daily = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Daily/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Minute = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Minute", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Ticks = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Ticks/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Orders = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Orders", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Syms = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Syms/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Txns = kdb::loadTable(handle, DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
kdb::close(handle)

// DolphinDB Load data to DolphinDB by reading disk files
Daily2 = kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Daily", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Minute2= kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Minute/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Ticks2 = kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Ticks/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Orders2 = kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Orders/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Syms2 = kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Syms/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")
Txns2 = kdb::loadFile(DATA_DIR + "/2022.06.17/Txns/", DATA_DIR + "/sym")

Load Options

`loadTable`

For this option, call the plugin methods in the following sequence: connect() → loadTable() → close()

Note:

Please make sure that the table to be loaded doesn't contain nested columns.
The tablePath parameter of loadTable must be a single object file, or the directory of column files for a splayed table, partitioned table or segmented table.

`loadFile`

For this option, you only need to call the loadFile() method.

Note:

This method cannot read the file of a single object.
This method only reads data compressed by gzip.
Please make sure that the table to be loaded doesn't contain nested columns.
The tablePath parameter of loadFile must be the directories of column files of a splayed table, partitioned table or segmented table.

Loading Different Types of kdb+ Tables

single object

A single object can only be loaded using the loadTable() method. For example:

The directory structure:
path/to/data
├── sym
└── table_name

handle = kdb::connect("127.0.0.1", 5000, "username:password");
table = kdb::loadTable(handle, "path/to/data/table_name", "path/to/data/sym");

splayed table

A splayed table can be loaded using the loadTable() method or the loadFile() method.

If the table is not compressed, or used gzip compression algorithm as it is written to disk, it is recommended to use loadFile() for higher efficiency.

For example:

The directory structure:
path/to/data
├── sym
└── table_name
    ├── date
    ├── p
    └── ti

handle = kdb::connect("127.0.0.1", 5000, "username:password");
table1 = kdb::loadTable(handle, "path/to/data/table_name/", "path/to/data/sym");
table2 = kdb::loadTable("path/to/data/table_name/", "path/to/data/sym");

partitioned table

Currently, we don't support loading an entire partitioned table or database by specifying the root directory. Alternatively, you can specify the tablePath parameter as the path to the table in each partition to load the tables separately, then combine them into a complete partitioned table in DolphinDB through script.

For example:

the directory structure:
path/to/data
├── sym
├── 2019.01.01
│   └── table_name
│       ├── p
│       └── ti
├── 2019.01.02
│   └── table_name
│       ├── p
│       └── ti
└── 2019.01.03
    └── table_name
        ├── p
        └── ti

// get the information on all files under the directory
fileRes=files("path/to/data");

// delete the sym files and read the data files
delete from fileRes where filename='sym';
name='table_name';
files = exec filename from fileRes;

// create an in-memory table and specify its schema
table=table(10:0,`p`ti`date, [SECOND,DOUBLE,DATE])

// load the data in each partition
for (file in files) {
        t = kdb::loadFile("path/to/data" +'/' + file +'/' + tablename + '/');

        // add a column indicating the partition name to the loaded data
        addColumn(t, ["date"],[DATE])
        length=count(t)
        newCol=take(date(file), length)
        replaceColumn!(t, "date", newCol)

        // append the data to the in-memory table
        table.append!(t);
}

segmented table

A segmented table can be loaded to DolphinDB in the same way as a partitioned table. See the last bullet point.

Data Type Conversion


kdb+	DolphinDB	Size	Note
boolean	BOOL	1
guid	UUID	16
byte	CHAR	1	There is no byte type in DolphinDB. Byte data is converted to CHAR of the same length.
short	SHORT	2
int	INT	4
long	LONG	8
real	FLOAT	4
float	DOUBLE	8
char	CHAR	1	There will be no conversion as a null char ("") is treated as a space (" ") in kdb+.
symbol	SYMBOL	4
timestamp	NANOTIMESTAMP	8
month	MONTH	4
data	DATE	4
datetime	TIMESTAMP	8
timespan	NANOTIME	8
minute	MINUTE	4
second	SECOND	4
time	TIME	4