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slcr: R Interface to Altair SLC

Overview

The slcr package provides an R interface to Altair SLC, enabling users to execute SLC code and transfer data between R and SLC environments. This document outlines the installation, configuration, and usage of the package.

Installation

You can install the development version of slcr from GitHub:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("sol-eng/slcr")

Prerequisites

  • R (>= 4.0.0)
  • Altair SLC (>= 2026)
  • Python module slc from Altair SLC installation

Configuration

Before using the package, you need to configure the Python path where Altair SLC is installed. Let’s demonstrate the configuration options:

# Method 1: Before loading the package
options(slc.pythonpath = "/path/to/altair/slc/python")
library(slcr)

# Method 2: In your .Rprofile
# Add this line to your .Rprofile file:
options(slc.pythonpath = "/path/to/altair/slc/python")

The default path is /opt/altair/slc/2026/python if no custom path is specified.

Basic Usage

Let’s walk through some basic examples of using the package:

# Load the package
library(slcr)

# Initialize a connection
conn <- slc_init()

# Execute SLC code
slc_submit("proc print data=sashelp.class;", conn)

Data Transfer Examples

Here’s how to transfer data between R and SLC:

# Create sample data
df <- data.frame(
  x = 1:10,
  y = letters[1:10],
  z = rnorm(10)
)

# Write R data frame to SLC
write_slc_data(df, "mydata", conn)

# Read SLC dataset back into R
result <- read_slc_data("mydata", conn)

# View the results
head(result)

Core Functions

The package provides four main functions:

  1. slc_init(): Initialize SLC connection
    • Returns a connection object used by other functions
    • Automatically configures Python environment
  2. slc_submit(): Execute SLC code
    • Accepts SLC code as a character string
    • Returns execution results
  3. write_slc_data(): Write R data frames to SLC
    • Converts R data frames to SLC datasets
    • Handles data type conversion automatically
  4. read_slc_data(): Read SLC datasets into R
    • Converts SLC datasets to R data frames
    • Preserves data types where possible

Error Handling

The package includes robust error handling. Here’s an example:

# Example with error handling
tryCatch(
  {
    conn <- slc_init()
    slc_submit("proc print data=nonexistent;", conn)
  },
  error = function(e) {
    message("An error occurred: ", e$message)
  }
)

Contributing

Contributions to the package are welcome! Here’s how you can contribute:

  1. Report issues on GitHub
  2. Submit pull requests
  3. Suggest new features
  4. Improve documentation

License

This package is released under the MIT License.

Session Info 

R version 4.5.1 (2025-06-13)
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Running under: Rocky Linux 9.3 (Blue Onyx)

Matrix products: default
BLAS/LAPACK: FlexiBLAS OPENBLAS-OPENMP;  LAPACK version 3.9.0

locale:
 [1] LC_CTYPE=C.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C           LC_TIME=C.UTF-8       
 [4] LC_COLLATE=C.UTF-8     LC_MONETARY=C.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=C.UTF-8   
 [7] LC_PAPER=C.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C              LC_ADDRESS=C          
[10] LC_TELEPHONE=C         LC_MEASUREMENT=C.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C   

time zone: UTC
tzcode source: system (glibc)

attached base packages:
[1] stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets  methods   base     

loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
 [1] compiler_4.5.1    fastmap_1.2.0     cli_3.6.5         tools_4.5.1      
 [5] htmltools_0.5.8.1 yaml_2.3.10       rmarkdown_2.29    knitr_1.50       
 [9] jsonlite_2.0.0    xfun_0.54         digest_0.6.37     rlang_1.1.6      
[13] evaluate_1.0.5