Learn about R customizations.

Admins and users with the Has SpotIQ privilege can run an R script.

The R language is an open source programming language used for statistical computing. As such, knowledgable users can use R to perform sophisticated analysis in a ThoughtSpot environment.

This section explains the feature and how to use it. It is not meant as an R primer. To learn more about R and how to use it, visit the R Project for Statistical Computing.

Understand R script requirements in ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot provides R running as a service within a ThoughtSpot cluster. Permissions are restricted. This means the R script does not have permission to issue system commands.

The ThoughtSpot cluster has pre-installed the basic R packages. If your script requires a specific package, you must request your ThoughtSpot cluster admin to install the package on your behalf.

ThoughtSpot internally transforms and binds an R script prior to sending it to the cluster’s R service. The system expects each script to have a well-defined structure, following this format:

####R SCRIPT####
<Fill script body>
####COLUMN BINDINGS (ONE PER LINE)####
<Fill column bindings here>

The scripts contains the column bindings with the answer results appearing as parameters in the R script. For each .param n in R your script, you must provide a corresponding binding. The following pseudo code illustrates an R script in a form suitable for ThoughtSpot:

####R SCRIPT####
df <- data.frame(.param0,.param1, ...);
...
write.csv(..., file=#output_file#, ...);

Notice that .param0 refers to first column in column binding and .param1 refers to the second. Should you need a third binding, you would use .param2 and so forth.

The output of the script is either PNG or CSV. This example script uses #output_csv# to emit data in a CSV (tabular) format. Use #output_png# to emit data in PNG format.

Presently, error reporting is limited for R scripts in SpotIQ. You should validate your R script independent of your ThoughtSpot environment. After you are sure it is free of syntax or other errors, you can try the script in ThoughtSpot.

Try a Custom Analysis with R

This example illustrates how to run an R analysis on data that has a sales column and a zip code column.

  1. Sign in to ThoughtSpot and go to the Search bar.
  2. Use Choose Sources to locate a source with sales and zip code data. This example uses Sporting Goods Retail Worksheet data.

  3. Enter sales store zip code in the search bar.

    If your source contains the proper data, you should see something similar to the following:

  4. Click the View R analysis icon View R Analysis icon.

  5. Enter this sample script in the field.

     ####R SCRIPT####
 library(ggplot2)
 set.seed(20)
 df <- data.frame(.param0, .param1)
 cluster <- kmeans(df[1:2], 3, nstart = 20)
 cluster$cluster <- as.factor(cluster$cluster)
 png(file=#output_file#,width=400,height=350,res=72)
 print(ggplot(df, aes(.param0, .param1, color = cluster$cluster)) + geom_point())

    This script binds .param0 to Sales and .param1 to the Store Zip Code column.

    You can see from the script that the output should be PNG (#output_png#).

  6. For Select column(s) for R analysis, make sure that both Sales and Store Zip Code columns are selected.

  7. For Output Filetype, make sure PNG is selected as the output format.

  8. Click Run Analysis.

    SpotIQ runs your analysis in the background.

  9. When the analysis is completed, you should see the results in PNG format similar to the following:

You can run another R script directly on this result to get CSV results. Try this on your own. Here is the script to give you CSV output:

###R SCRIPT####
set.seed(20);
df <- data.frame(.param0,.param1);
cluster <- kmeans(df[1:2], 3, nstart = 20);
df$Cluster <- as.factor(cluster$cluster);
colnames(df)[1] <- 'Sales';
colnames(df)[2] <- 'Zip Code';
write.csv(df, file=#output_file#, row.names=FALSE);

Syntax help in the dialog

Use the i icon to see help for the R syntax.