Knowledge scientists working in Python or R sometimes purchase knowledge by means of REST APIs. Each environments present libraries that aid you make HTTP calls to REST endpoints, then remodel JSON responses into dataframes. However that’s by no means so simple as we’d like. If you’re studying a number of knowledge from a REST API, it’s essential to do it a web page at a time, however pagination works in a different way from one API to the following. So does unpacking the ensuing JSON buildings. HTTP and JSON are low-level requirements, and REST is a loosely-defined framework, however nothing ensures absolute simplicity, by no means thoughts consistency throughout APIs.
What if there have been a approach of studying from APIs that abstracted all of the low-level grunt work and labored the identical approach all over the place? Excellent news! That’s precisely what Steampipe does. It’s a device that interprets REST API calls straight into SQL tables. Listed below are three examples of questions you could ask and reply utilizing Steampipe.
Study sooner. Dig deeper. See farther.
1. Twitter: What are current tweets that point out PySpark?
Right here’s a SQL question to ask that query:
choose
id,
textual content
from
twitter_search_recent
the place
question = 'pyspark'
order by
created_at desc
restrict 5;Right here’s the reply:
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
| id | textual content >
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
| 1526351943249154050 | @dump Tenho trabalhando bastante com Spark, mas especificamente o PySpark. Vale a pena usar um >
| 1526336147856687105 | RT @MitchellvRijkom: PySpark Tip ⚡ >
| | >
| | When to make use of what StorageLevel for Cache / Persist? >
| | >
| | StorageLevel decides how and the place knowledge must be s… >
| 1526322757880848385 | Resolve challenges and exceed expectations with a profession as a AWS Pyspark Engineer. https://t.co/>
| 1526318637485010944 | RT @JosMiguelMoya1: #pyspark #spark #BigData curso completo de Python y Spark con PySpark >
| | >
| | https://t.co/qf0gIvNmyx >
| 1526318107228524545 | RT @money_personal: PySpark & AWS: Grasp Massive Knowledge With PySpark and AWS >
| | #ApacheSpark #AWSDatabases #BigData #PySpark #100DaysofCode >
| | -> http… >
+---------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>The desk that’s being queried right here, twitter_search_recent, receives the output from Twitter’s /2/tweets/search/current endpoint and formulates it as a desk with these columns. You don’t need to make an HTTP name to that API endpoint or unpack the outcomes, you simply write a SQL question that refers back to the documented columns. A kind of columns, question, is particular: it encapsulates Twitter’s question syntax. Right here, we’re simply on the lookout for tweets that match PySpark however we might as simply refine the question by pinning it to particular customers, URLs, sorts (is:retweet, is:reply), properties (has:mentions, has_media), and so on. That question syntax is similar regardless of the way you’re accessing the API: from Python, from R, or from Steampipe. It’s loads to consider, and all it’s best to actually need to know when crafting queries to mine Twitter knowledge.
2. GitHub: What are repositories that point out PySpark?
Right here’s a SQL question to ask that query:
choose
title,
owner_login,
stargazers_count
from
github_search_repository
the place
question = 'pyspark'
order by stargazers_count desc
restrict 10;Right here’s the reply:
+----------------------+-------------------+------------------+
| title | owner_login | stargazers_count |
+----------------------+-------------------+------------------+
| SynapseML | microsoft | 3297 |
| spark-nlp | JohnSnowLabs | 2725 |
| incubator-linkis | apache | 2524 |
| ibis | ibis-project | 1805 |
| spark-py-notebooks | jadianes | 1455 |
| petastorm | uber | 1423 |
| awesome-spark | awesome-spark | 1314 |
| sparkit-learn | lensacom | 1124 |
| sparkmagic | jupyter-incubator | 1121 |
| data-algorithms-book | mahmoudparsian | 1001 |
+----------------------+-------------------+------------------+This seems to be similar to the primary instance! On this case, the desk that’s being queried, github_search_repository, receives the output from GitHub’s /search/repositories endpoint and formulates it as a desk with these columns.
In each instances the Steampipe documentation not solely reveals you the schemas that govern the mapped tables, it additionally offers examples (Twitter, GitHub) of SQL queries that use the tables in varied methods.
Notice that these are simply two of many out there tables. The Twitter API is mapped to 7 tables, and the GitHub API is mapped to 41 tables.
3. Twitter + GitHub: What have homeowners of PySpark-related repositories tweeted these days?
To reply this query we have to seek the advice of two completely different APIs, then be part of their outcomes. That’s even more durable to do, in a constant approach, while you’re reasoning over REST payloads in Python or R. However that is the type of factor SQL was born to do. Right here’s one technique to ask the query in SQL.
-- discover pyspark repos
with github_repos as (
choose
title,
owner_login,
stargazers_count
from
github_search_repository
the place
question = 'pyspark' and title ~ 'pyspark'
order by stargazers_count desc
restrict 50
),
-- discover twitter handles of repo homeowners
github_users as (
choose
u.login,
u.twitter_username
from
github_user u
be part of
github_repos r
on
r.owner_login = u.login
the place
u.twitter_username just isn't null
),
-- discover corresponding twitter customers
choose
id
from
twitter_user t
be part of
github_users g
on
t.username = g.twitter_username
)
-- discover tweets from these customers
choose
t.author->>'username' as twitter_user,
'https://twitter.com/' || (t.author->>'username') || '/standing/' || t.id as url,
t.textual content
from
twitter_user_tweet t
be part of
twitter_userids u
on
t.user_id = u.id
the place
t.created_at > now()::date - interval '1 week'
order by
t.writer
restrict 5Right here is the reply:
+----------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------->
| twitter_user | url | textual content >
+----------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+------------------------------------->
| idealoTech | https://twitter.com/idealoTech/standing/1524688985649516544 | Can you discover inventive soluti>
| | | >
| | | Be a part of our @codility Order #API Challe>
| | | >
| | | #idealolife #codility #php >
| idealoTech | https://twitter.com/idealoTech/standing/1526127469706854403 | Our #ProductDiscovery workforce at idealo>
| | | >
| | | Assume you may clear up it? 😎 >
| | | ➡️ https://t.co/ELfUfp94vB https://t>
| ioannides_alex | https://twitter.com/ioannides_alex/standing/1525049398811574272 | RT @scikit_learn: scikit-learn 1.1 i>
| | | What's new? You possibly can examine the releas>
| | | >
| | | pip set up -U… >
| andfanilo | https://twitter.com/andfanilo/standing/1524999923665711104 | @edelynn_belle Thanks! Typically it >
| andfanilo | https://twitter.com/andfanilo/standing/1523676489081712640 | @juliafmorgado Good luck on the reco>
| | | >
| | | My recommendation: energy by it + a lifeless>
| | | >
| | | I hated my first few quick movies bu>
| | | >
| | | Wanting ahead to the video 🙂When APIs frictionlessly change into tables, you may dedicate your full consideration to reasoning over the abstractions represented by these APIs. Larry Wall, the creator of Perl, famously mentioned: “Simple issues must be straightforward, onerous issues must be doable.” The primary two examples are issues that must be, and are, straightforward: every is simply 10 strains of easy, straight-ahead SQL that requires no wizardry in any respect.
The third instance is a more durable factor. It might be onerous in any programming language. However SQL makes it doable in a number of good methods. The answer is manufactured from concise stanzas (CTEs, Frequent Desk Expressions) that type a pipeline. Every section of the pipeline handles one clearly-defined piece of the issue. You possibly can validate the output of every section earlier than continuing to the following. And you are able to do all this with essentially the most mature and widely-used grammar for choice, filtering, and recombination of information.
Do I’ve to make use of SQL?
No! For those who like the thought of mapping APIs to tables, however you’d fairly cause over these tables in Python or R dataframes, then Steampipe can oblige. Underneath the covers it’s Postgres, enhanced with international knowledge wrappers that deal with the API-to-table transformation. Something that may connect with Postgres can connect with Steampipe, together with SQL drivers like Python’s psycopg2 and R’s RPostgres in addition to business-intelligence instruments like Metabase, Tableau, and PowerBI. So you should utilize Steampipe to frictionlessly eat APIs into dataframes, then cause over the information in Python or R.
However should you haven’t used SQL on this approach earlier than, it’s value a glance. Contemplate this comparability of SQL to Pandas from rewrite your SQL queries in Pandas.
| SQL | Pandas |
|---|---|
| choose * from airports | airports |
| choose * from airports restrict 3 | airports.head(3) |
| choose id from airports the place ident = ‘KLAX’ | airports[airports.ident == ‘KLAX’].id |
| choose distinct sort from airport | airports.sort.distinctive() |
| choose * from airports the place iso_region = ‘US-CA’ and sort = ‘seaplane_base’ | airports[(airports.iso_region == ‘US-CA’) & (airports.type == ‘seaplane_base’)] |
| choose ident, title, municipality from airports the place iso_region = ‘US-CA’ and sort = ‘large_airport’ | airports[(airports.iso_region == ‘US-CA’) & (airports.type == ‘large_airport’)][[‘ident’, ‘name’, ‘municipality’]] |
We are able to argue the deserves of 1 type versus the opposite, however there’s no query that SQL is essentially the most common and widely-implemented technique to specific these operations on knowledge. So no, you don’t have to make use of SQL to its fullest potential so as to profit from Steampipe. However you may discover that you just need to.
