feat(r/sedonadb): Add basic DataFrame API with sd_select(), sd_transmute(), and sd_filter()

[paleolimbot]

This PR implements sd_select(), sd_transmute(), and sd_filter() wrapping the expression translation implemented in #468. The supported expressions are still very minimal but this establishes the first API we can expose in this way.

I chose to do this instead of just implementing dplyr::transmute() and dplyr::filter() because those functions have other arguments and perhaps the expectation of exact compatibility. The sd_...() versions have the added benefit of converting to a SedonaDB data frame for you and usually it's a good idea for this to be explicit (particularly for now).

This doesn't support aggregate expressions in the arguments, which does work in SQL and in dplyr. I took a stab at translating the DataFusion assembler of SELECT statements and it does work but is a bit more complicated and needs more testing than I have time to put together right now ( https://gist.github.com/paleolimbot/de220c55c96e721a50a4752397f1cbf9 ).

The next step is to add blanket support for all functions in the sedona-specific function registry so that we can do geo stuff.

Also, sd_join() would be particularly useful to expose the (arguably) most useful part of SedonaDB as an engine.

library(sedonadb)

nc <- sf::read_sf(system.file("shape/nc.shp", package = "sf"))

nc |> 
  sd_select(AREA:CNTY_ID)
#> ┌─────────┬───────────┬─────────┬─────────┐
#> │   AREA  ┆ PERIMETER ┆  CNTY_  ┆ CNTY_ID │
#> │ float64 ┆  float64  ┆ float64 ┆ float64 │
#> ╞═════════╪═══════════╪═════════╪═════════╡
#> │   0.114 ┆     1.442 ┆  1825.0 ┆  1825.0 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.061 ┆     1.231 ┆  1827.0 ┆  1827.0 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.143 ┆      1.63 ┆  1828.0 ┆  1828.0 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │    0.07 ┆     2.968 ┆  1831.0 ┆  1831.0 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.153 ┆     2.206 ┆  1832.0 ┆  1832.0 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.097 ┆      1.67 ┆  1833.0 ┆  1833.0 │
#> └─────────┴───────────┴─────────┴─────────┘
#> Preview of up to 6 row(s)

nc |> 
  sd_transmute(AREA, PERIMETER)
#> ┌─────────┬───────────┐
#> │   AREA  ┆ PERIMETER │
#> │ float64 ┆  float64  │
#> ╞═════════╪═══════════╡
#> │   0.114 ┆     1.442 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.061 ┆     1.231 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.143 ┆      1.63 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │    0.07 ┆     2.968 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.153 ┆     2.206 │
#> ├╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┼╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌╌┤
#> │   0.097 ┆      1.67 │
#> └─────────┴───────────┘
#> Preview of up to 6 row(s)

nc |> 
  sd_filter(CNTY_ID == 1825)
#> ┌─────────┬───────────┬───┬─────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┐
#> │   AREA  ┆ PERIMETER ┆ … ┆ NWBIR79 ┆                 geometry                 │
#> │ float64 ┆  float64  ┆   ┆ float64 ┆                 geometry                 │
#> ╞═════════╪═══════════╪═══╪═════════╪══════════════════════════════════════════╡
#> │   0.114 ┆     1.442 ┆ … ┆    19.0 ┆ MULTIPOLYGON(((-81.4727554321289 36.234… │
#> └─────────┴───────────┴───┴─────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘
#> Preview of up to 6 row(s)

^{Created on 2026-01-23 with reprex v2.1.1}

[jiayuasu]

why do we need sd_ prefix if we already have sedonadb:::?

[paleolimbot]

why do we need sd_ prefix if we already have sedonadb:::?

Autocomplete!

...probably a better example would be just sd_ where it lists all the functions for you. It's pretty common for R packages to do this since we don't have Python style import xxx from xxx as xxx and it's reasonably easy to end up with name conflicts.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR implements basic DataFrame manipulation functions (sd_select(), sd_transmute(), and sd_filter()) for the SedonaDB R package, wrapping the expression translation system introduced in a previous PR. These functions provide a familiar dplyr-like API for column selection, transformation, and row filtering.

Changes:

• Added three new exported functions (sd_select(), sd_transmute(), sd_filter()) in R/dataframe.R with corresponding Rust implementations
• Updated documentation to consistently describe .data parameter as "A sedonadb_dataframe or an object that can be coerced to one"
• Added comprehensive test coverage for the new DataFrame API functions

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
r/sedonadb/R/dataframe.R	Implements sd_select(), sd_transmute(), and sd_filter() functions with expression translation support
r/sedonadb/src/rust/src/dataframe.rs	Adds Rust methods select() and filter() to InternalDataFrame for expression-based operations
r/sedonadb/src/rust/src/expression.rs	Makes exprs() method public to support DataFrame operations
r/sedonadb/tests/testthat/test-dataframe.R	Adds test cases for the three new DataFrame functions
r/sedonadb/R/000-wrappers.R	Auto-generated wrapper functions for new Rust methods
r/sedonadb/src/rust/api.h	Auto-generated C API declarations
r/sedonadb/src/init.c	Auto-generated C initialization code
r/sedonadb/NAMESPACE	Exports new functions
r/sedonadb/man/*.Rd	Documentation files for new and updated functions

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