[ARROW-16777] [R] printing data in Table/RecordBatch print method

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Component/s: Python, R
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/32110
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Thomas Mock
• Created: 07/Jun/22 13:45
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 11:46

Description

Related to ARROW-16776 but after a brief discussion with Neal Richardson, he requested that I split the improvement request into separate issues.

When working with Arrow datasets/tables, I often find myself wanting to interactively print or "see" the results of a query or the first few rows of the data without having to fully collect into memory.

It would be ideal to lazily print some data with Table/RecordBatch print methods, however, currently, the print methods return schema without data.

IE:

``` r
library(dplyr)
library(arrow)

mtcars %>% arrow::write_parquet("mtcars.parquet")
car_ds <- arrow::open_dataset("mtcars.parquet")

car_ds
#> FileSystemDataset with 1 Parquet file
#> mpg: double
#> cyl: double
#> disp: double
#> hp: double
#> drat: double
#> wt: double
#> qsec: double
#> vs: double
#> am: double
#> gear: double
#> carb: double
#>
#> See $metadata for additional Schema metadata

car_ds %>%
compute()
#> Table
#> 32 rows x 11 columns
#> $mpg <double>
#> $cyl <double>
#> $disp <double>
#> $hp <double>
#> $drat <double>
#> $wt <double>
#> $qsec <double>
#> $vs <double>
#> $am <double>
#> $gear <double>
#> $carb <double>
#>
#> See $metadata for additional Schema metadata
```

Issue Links

• Blocked: ARROW-16776 [R] dplyr::glimpse method for arrow table and datasets
• is duplicated by: ARROW-14697 [R] Improved print methods for Arrow tabulars