[Pytables-users] dates and space

2013-08-05 Thread Oleksandr Huziy
Hi Pytables users and developers:

I have a few questions to which I could not find the answer in the
documentation. Thank you in advance for any help.

1. If I store dates in Pytables, does it mean I could write queries like
table.where('date.month == 5')? Is there a common way to pass from python's
datetime to pytable's datetime and inversely?

2. I have several variables stored in the same file in a separate table for
each variable. And I use separate columns year, month, day, hour, minute,
second  - to mark the time for a record (the records are not necessarily
ordered in time) and this is for each variable. I was thinking to put all
the variables in the same table and put missing values for the variables
which do not have outputs for a given time step. Is it possible to put None
as a default value into a table (so I could easily filter dummy rows).
But then again the data comes in chunks, does this mean I would have to
check if a row with the same date already exist for a different variable?


I don't really like the ideas in 2, which are intended to save space, but
maybe all I need is a good compression level? Can somebody advise me on
this?



Cheers
--
Oleksandr (Sasha) Huziy
--
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Re: [Pytables-users] dates and space

2013-08-05 Thread Anthony Scopatz
On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Oleksandr Huziy guziy.sa...@gmail.comwrote:

 Hi Pytables users and developers:

 I have a few questions to which I could not find the answer in the
 documentation. Thank you in advance for any help.

 1. If I store dates in Pytables, does it mean I could write queries like
 table.where('date.month == 5')? Is there a common way to pass from python's
 datetime to pytable's datetime and inversely?


Hello Sasha,

Pytables times are the actual based off of C time, not Python's date times.
 This is because they use the HDF5 time types.  So unfortunately you can't
write queries like the one above.  (You'd need to talk to numexpr about
getting that kind of query implemented ~_~.)

Instead I would suggest that you store your times as Float64Atoms and
Float64Cols and then use arithmetic to figure out the query:

table.where((x / 3600 / 24)%12 == 5)

This is not perfect...


 2. I have several variables stored in the same file in a separate table
 for each variable. And I use separate columns year, month, day, hour,
 minute, second  - to mark the time for a record (the records are not
 necessarily ordered in time) and this is for each variable. I was thinking
 to put all the variables in the same table and put missing values for the
 variables which do not have outputs for a given time step. Is it possible
 to put None as a default value into a table (so I could easily filter dummy
 rows).


It is not possible to use None since that is a Python object of a
different type than the other integers you are trying to stick in the
column.  I would suggest that you use values with no actual meaning.  If
you are using normal ints you can use -1 to represent missing values.  If
you are using unsigned ints you have to pick other values, like 13 for
month on the Julian calendar.


 But then again the data comes in chunks, does this mean I would have to
 check if a row with the same date already exist for a different variable?


No you wouldn't you can store the same data multiple times in different
rows.


 I don't really like the ideas in 2, which are intended to save space, but
 maybe all I need is a good compression level? Can somebody advise me on
 this?


Compression would definitely help here since the date numbers are all
fairly similar.  Probably even a compression level of 1 would work.  Keep
in mind that sometime using compression actually speeds things up (see the
starving CPU problem).  You might just need to experiment with a few
different compression level to see how things go. 0, 1, 5, 9 gives you a
good spread.

Be Well
Anthony





 Cheers
 --
 Oleksandr (Sasha) Huziy


 --
 Get your SQL database under version control now!
 Version control is standard for application code, but databases havent
 caught up. So what steps can you take to put your SQL databases under
 version control? Why should you start doing it? Read more to find out.
 http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=49501711iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
 ___
 Pytables-users mailing list
 Pytables-users@lists.sourceforge.net
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pytables-users


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Version control is standard for application code, but databases havent 
caught up. So what steps can you take to put your SQL databases under 
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Re: [Pytables-users] dates and space

2013-08-05 Thread Jeff Reback
Here is a pandas solution for doing just this (which uses PyTables under the 
hood):

# create a frame
In [45]: df = DataFrame(randn(1000,2),index=date_range('2101',periods=1000))

In [53]: df
Out[53]: 
class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'
DatetimeIndex: 1000 entries, 2000-01-01 00:00:00 to 2002-09-26 00:00:00
Freq: D
Data columns (total 2 columns):
0    1000  non-null values
1    1000  non-null values
dtypes: float64(2)

# store it as a table
In [46]: store = pd.HDFStore('test.h5',mode='w')

In [47]: store.append('df',df)

# select out the index (a datetimeindex in this case)
In [48]: c = store.select_column('df','index')

# get the coordinates of matching index
In [49]: coords = c[pd.DatetimeIndex(c).month==5]

# select those rows
In [51]: from pandas.io.pytables import Coordinates

In [50]: store.select('df',where=Coordinates(coords.index,None,None))
Out[50]: 
class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'
DatetimeIndex: 93 entries, 2000-05-01 00:00:00 to 2002-05-31 00:00:00
Data columns (total 2 columns):
0    93  non-null values
1    93  non-null values
dtypes: float64(2)




 From: Anthony Scopatz scop...@gmail.com
To: Discussion list for PyTables pytables-users@lists.sourceforge.net 
Sent: Monday, August 5, 2013 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Pytables-users] dates and space
 


On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 1:38 PM, Oleksandr Huziy guziy.sa...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Pytables users and developers:


I have a few questions to which I could not find the answer in the 
documentation. Thank you in advance for any help.


1. If I store dates in Pytables, does it mean I could write queries like 
table.where('date.month == 5')? Is there a common way to pass from python's 
datetime to pytable's datetime and inversely?

Hello Sasha, 

Pytables times are the actual based off of C time, not Python's date times.  
This is because they use the HDF5 time types.  So unfortunately you can't write 
queries like the one above.  (You'd need to talk to numexpr about getting that 
kind of query implemented ~_~.)

Instead I would suggest that you store your times as Float64Atoms and 
Float64Cols and then use arithmetic to figure out the query:

table.where((x / 3600 / 24)%12 == 5) 

This is not perfect...
 
2. I have several variables stored in the same file in a separate table for 
each variable. And I use separate columns year, month, day, hour, minute, 
second  - to mark the time for a record (the records are not necessarily 
ordered in time) and this is for each variable. I was thinking to put all the 
variables in the same table and put missing values for the variables which do 
not have outputs for a given time step. Is it possible to put None as a default 
value into a table (so I could easily filter dummy rows).


It is not possible to use None since that is a Python object of a different 
type than the other integers you are trying to stick in the column.  I would 
suggest that you use values with no actual meaning.  If you are using normal 
ints you can use -1 to represent missing values.  If you are using unsigned 
ints you have to pick other values, like 13 for month on the Julian calendar.
 
But then again the data comes in chunks, does this mean I would have to check 
if a row with the same date already exist for a different variable?

No you wouldn't you can store the same data multiple times in different rows.
 
I don't really like the ideas in 2, which are intended to save space, but maybe 
all I need is a good compression level? Can somebody advise me on this?


Compression would definitely help here since the date numbers are all fairly 
similar.  Probably even a compression level of 1 would work.  Keep in mind that 
sometime using compression actually speeds things up (see the starving CPU 
problem).  You might just need to experiment with a few different compression 
level to see how things go. 0, 1, 5, 9 gives you a good spread.

Be Well
Anthony
 






Cheers
--
Oleksandr (Sasha) Huziy   
--
Get your SQL database under version control now!
Version control is standard for application code, but databases havent
caught up. So what steps can you take to put your SQL databases under
version control? Why should you start doing it? Read more to find out.
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=49501711iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk
___
Pytables-users mailing list
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--
Get your SQL database under version control now!
Version control is standard for application code, but databases havent 
caught up. So what steps can you take to put your SQL databases under 
version control? Why should you start doing it? Read more to find out.
http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=49501711iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk