mirror of
https://github.com/lancedb/lancedb.git
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Brendan Clement
ac2db48af6
SQL is unavailable in the embedded library and varies on a deployment, which serves it only when its Flight SQL endpoint is enabled and reachable, and the SDK has to be told where that is. The page's opening badge goes. The SDKs page declares both offerings. Neither SDK aggregates or joins, so the parity tables no longer say they do, and views can be created through the SDKs on a deployment. Pages that said vector search has no SQL form now point to the version-dependent SQL form, and COPY, which newer deployment versions refuse, is marked as such in the reference.
108 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
108 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "SDKs"
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sidebarTitle: "SDKs"
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description: "The language clients — Python, TypeScript, Rust — and what stays true across all of them."
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icon: code-compare
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keywords: ["python", "typescript", "rust", "java", "sdk", "rest", "api reference"]
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availability:
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oss: available
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enterprise: available
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summary: >-
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The Python, TypeScript and Rust SDKs work with embedded databases and,
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through `db://`, with Enterprise deployments; the Java SDK reaches
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deployments only. What each can do differs by language and connection.
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---
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A language SDK is the primary way to work with LanceDB: create and manage
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tables, write and query data, build indexes, run feature engineering. The same
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table API works whether you're connected to an embedded database or an
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Enterprise deployment -- application code moves between the two by changing
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the connection URI.
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## Officially supported SDKs {#supported-sdks}
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Python, TypeScript and Rust are supported against both embedded and deployed
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LanceDB.
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="python" /> [Python](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/python/python/) | Full-featured Python client with pandas and numpy integration |
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| <Icon icon="square-js" /> [TypeScript](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/js/) | A TypeScript wrapper around the Rust library, built with `napi-rs` |
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| <Icon icon="rust" /> [Rust](https://docs.rs/lancedb/latest/lancedb/index.html) | Native Rust library with persistent storage and high performance |
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Not every SDK covers the same surface, though:
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| | Python | TypeScript |
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| --- | :---: | :---: |
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| Create and manage catalog objects | yes | yes |
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| Insert, merge, update, delete | yes | yes |
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| Filter, project | yes | yes |
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| Vector search | yes | yes |
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| Full-text search | yes | yes |
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| Feature engineering, jobs | yes | partly |
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| Runs against a local database | yes | yes |
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Neither SDK aggregates or joins, and TypeScript has no methods for
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[functions](/management/function). Reach those with SQL on a deployment
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instead -- see [SQL](/basics/sql).
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## REST API {#rest}
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<Badge color="red">Enterprise</Badge> A deployment implements the
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[Lance REST Namespace](/basics/lance#enterprise), so the catalog is reachable
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over HTTP by anything that speaks it -- see the
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[REST API reference](/api-reference/rest).
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="java" /> [Java](https://lancedb.github.io/lancedb/java/java/) | REST API Enterprise SDK in Java |
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## Community SDKs {#community-sdks}
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Contributed by the community rather than supported by LanceDB, so feature parity
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and release cadence vary.
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| Reference | Description |
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|:--------------|-------------------|
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| <Icon icon="golang" /> [Go](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/lancedb/lancedb-go/pkg/lancedb) | Community-contributed Go SDK |
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| <Icon icon="gem" /> [Ruby](https://github.com/scientist-labs/lancelot) | Community-contributed Ruby bindings |
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| <Icon icon="swift" /> [Swift](https://github.com/RyanLisse/LanceDbSwiftKit) | Community-contributed Swift SDK |
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| <Icon icon="R" /> [R](https://github.com/CathalByrneGit/lancedb) | Community-contributed R package |
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| <Icon icon="flutter" /> [Flutter](https://github.com/Alexcn/flutter_lancedb) | Community-contributed Flutter bindings |
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For any other language, [SQL](/basics/sql) on a deployment reaches the same
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tables without a LanceDB-specific SDK at all.
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## Python multiprocessing {#multiprocessing}
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<Warning>
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Do not use `fork` as the start method with Python's `multiprocessing` module.
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Lance is multi-threaded internally, and `fork` with alive threads is unsafe --
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use `spawn` instead. See
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[this discussion](https://discuss.python.org/t/concerns-regarding-deprecation-of-fork-with-alive-threads/33555)
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for why.
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</Warning>
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## What stays the same {#invariants}
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Whichever you pick:
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- **Types are Arrow types.** A vector column is a `FixedSizeList<Float32>`
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everywhere, not a SQL type mapped onto storage. See
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[Functions and types](/sql/functions).
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- **Reads are Arrow.** Nothing is serialized into language objects on the way out
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unless you convert it.
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- **The catalog is one catalog.** A table created from TypeScript is visible to
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Python and to SQL immediately -- there is no per-language namespace.
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## What to read next {#next}
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<CardGroup cols={2}>
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<Card title="SQL" icon="table-list" href="/basics/sql">
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The same tables, reached by any Flight SQL client -- and the one way in for a language with no SDK.
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</Card>
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<Card title="Agentic Skills" icon="robot" href="/basics/agentic-skills">
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Give a coding agent a current reference to this same API surface.
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</Card>
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</CardGroup>
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