Utility

Querying across files with Apache Drill

Globbing, implicit columns, and the power of SQL

Edward Visel

16 minute read

When I first used Apache Drill several years ago, it was one of those “holy crap this is amazing” moments. Moreover, every time since that I’ve thought “Oh, Drill could be really useful here” and spun it up, that thought has been quickly followed by “holy crap this is amazing” all over again. It’s just delightful. I keep thinking I should try out alternatives like Presto (which has two branches now) or Apache Impala, but I always start by spinning up Drill for comparison and never quite make it…

match.arg

A weird function that can help you write better functions

Edward Visel

9 minute read

Lately I’ve been working with a lot of people whose first language is not R, which has given me more of an appreciation for R’s oddities. Some in retrospect were probably ill-advised, like partial matching with $: