Data type mapping

The lists below shows the available data types and their mappings.

Note: Because the data types used are slightly different in Spotfire and the data function engines, the conversion processes done when sending data back and forth can result in a loss of precision for very large values.

Data dimensions


Spotfire data	Spotfire® Enterprise Runtime for R (a/k/a TERR™) / R data
Value	Vector of length 1 (list for timeDate)
Column	Vector (list for timeDate)
Data table	data.frame

Data types sent from Spotfire and accepted into TERR


Spotfire data type	Class for TERR and R
Real	numeric
Integer	integer
LongInteger	numeric
SingleReal	numeric
Currency	numeric
String	character encoded as UTF-8
DateTime	POSIXct with time zone UTC
Date	POSIXct with time zone UTC
Time	POSIXct with time zone UTC giving time on date 1/1/1970
Boolean	logical
Binary	raw

A POSIXct or POSIXlt received from the TERR engine or an open-source R engine is always stored as DateTime in Spotfire.
Open-source R factors are sent from Spotfire Statistics Services as strings.
TERR factors are sent from TERR as strings.
Other data types than the ones described above are not supported.

Data types sent from TERR (as an SBDF file) and imported into Spotfire


Spotfire data type by TERR	Data type imported into Spotfire
logical	Boolean
integer	Integer (32 bit)
numeric	Real
character	String
factor	String
POSIXct or POSIXlt	DateTime
difftime	TimeSpan
raw	Binary

For more information about exporting TERR/R data in an SBDF data type into Spotfire, see the TERR library reference SpotfireData::exportDataToSBDF.
For more information about importing the contents of an SBDF from Spotfire, see the TERR library reference SpotfireData::importDataFromSBDF.
For more information about getting setting SBDF data types, see the TERR library reference SpotfireData::setSBDFExportTypes.
Note: Exporting an SBDF that contains empty String columns causes an error with Pandas and Numpy. For information about how to export empty String columns, see "Troubleshooting Empty String errors in SBDF exports" in the guide Python Data Functions in Spotfire.

Data types sent from Spotfire and received by Python and Pandas


Data type exported from Spotfire	Data type received by Python	Pandas column dtype
Real	float	float64
Integer	int	Int32
LongInteger	int	Int64
SingleReal	float	float32
Currency	decimal.Decimal	object
String	str	object
DateTime	datetime.datetime	object
Date	datetime.date	object
Time	datetime.time	object
Boolean	bool	object
Binary	bytes	object

Spotfire columns map in Python to Pandas Series type.
Spotfire tables map in Python to Pandas DataFrame type.

Data types sent from Python and imported into Spotfire


Data type sent by Python	Data type imported into Spotfire
int	LongInteger
float	Real
decimal.Decimal	Currency
datetime.date	Date
datetime.datetime	DateTime
datetime.time	Time
datetime.timedelta
bool	Boolean
str	String
bytes	Binary

Support for invalid values

All numeric invalid values in Spotfire are represented as NAs in the TERR, and open-source R engines. There is no special support for invalid values of other types; they become valid default values in the TERR, and open-source R engines.

Calling conventions for functions

The names of the data function input arguments must match the names of the TERR, and open-source R function arguments.

For functions that return only one value (not a list of values), the single data function output parameter will be matched to the value.

For functions returning a list of values, the data function output parameters must match the names of the list elements.

Concerning R

R is available under separate open source software license terms and is not part of Spotfire. As such, R is not within the scope of your license for Spotfire. R is not supported, maintained, or warranted in any way by Cloud Software Group, Inc. Download and use of R is solely at your own discretion and subject to the free open source license terms applicable to R.