Call Rust Code from R using the extendr Crate • rextendr

Installation

To install release version from CRAN, run:

install.packages("rextendr")

or use remotes

remotes::install_cran("rextendr")

You can also install rextendr from r-universe:

install.packages('rextendr', repos = c('https://extendr.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Latest development version can be installed from GitHub:

remotes::install_github("extendr/rextendr")

To execute Rust code, you will also need to set up a working Rust toolchain. See the installation instructions for libR-sys for help. If you can successfully build libR-sys you’re good.

Usage

Basic use example:

library(rextendr)

# create a Rust function
rust_function("fn add(a:f64, b:f64) -> f64 { a + b }")

# call it from R
add(2.5, 4.7)
#> [1] 7.2

Something more sophisticated:

library(rextendr)

# Rust function that computes a sum of integer or double vectors, preserving the type

rust_function(
  "fn get_sum(x : Either<Integers, Doubles>) -> Either<Rint, Rfloat> {
      match x {
          Either::Left(x) => Either::Left(x.iter().sum()),
          Either::Right(x) => Either::Right(x.iter().sum()),
      }
  }",
  use_dev_extendr = TRUE,                        # Use development version of extendr from GitHub
  features = "either",                           # Enable support for Either crate
  extendr_fn_options = list(use_try_from = TRUE) # Enable advanced type conversion
)

x <- 1:5
y <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

tibble::tibble(
  Name = c("x", "y"),
  Data = list(x, y),
  Types = purrr::map_chr(Data, typeof),
  Sum = purrr::map(Data, get_sum),
  SumRaw = purrr::flatten_dbl(Sum),
  ResultType = purrr::map_chr(Sum, typeof)
)
#> # A tibble: 2 × 6
#>   Name  Data      Types   Sum       SumRaw ResultType
#>   <chr> <list>    <chr>   <list>     <dbl> <chr>     
#> 1 x     <int [5]> integer <int [1]>     15 integer   
#> 2 y     <dbl [5]> double  <dbl [1]>     15 double

The package also enables a new chunk type for knitr, extendr, which compiles and evaluates Rust code. For example, a code chunk such as this one:

```{extendr}
rprintln!("Hello from Rust!");

let x = 5;
let y = 7;
let z = x*y;

z
```

would create the following output in the knitted document:

rprintln!("Hello from Rust!");

let x = 5;
let y = 7;
let z = x*y;

z
#> Hello from Rust!
#> [1] 35

Call Rust code from R

Installation

Usage

See also