The package gdsfmt provides a high-level R interface to CoreArray Genomic Data Structure (GDS) data files, which are portable across platforms and include hierarchical structure to store multiple scalable array-oriented data sets with metadata information. It is suited for large-scale datasets, especially for data which are much larger than the available random-access memory. The package gdsfmt offers the efficient operations specifically designed for integers with less than 8 bits, since a single genetic/genomic variant, like single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), usually occupies fewer bits than a byte. Data compression and decompression are also supported with relatively efficient random access.
To install the package gdsfmt, you need a current version (>=2.14.0) of R. After installing R you can run the following commands from the R command shell to install the package gdsfmt.
Install the package from Bioconductor repository:
if (!requireNamespace("BiocManager", quietly=TRUE))
install.packages("BiocManager")
BiocManager::install("gdsfmt")
Install the development version from Github (for developers/testers only):
The install_github()
approach requires that you build
from source, i.e. make
and compilers must be installed on
your system – see the R
FAQ for your operating system; you may also need to install
dependencies manually.
An empty GDS file can be created by createfn.gds()
:
Now, a file handle associated with “test.gds” is saved in the R variable gfile.
The GDS file can contain a hierarchical structure to store multiple
GDS variables (or GDS nodes) in the file, and various data types are
allowed (see the document of add.gdsn()
) including integer,
floating-point number and character.
add.gdsn(gfile, "int", val=1:10000)
add.gdsn(gfile, "double", val=seq(1, 1000, 0.4))
add.gdsn(gfile, "character", val=c("int", "double", "logical", "factor"))
add.gdsn(gfile, "logical", val=rep(c(TRUE, FALSE, NA), 50), visible=FALSE)
add.gdsn(gfile, "factor", val=as.factor(c(NA, "AA", "CC")), visible=FALSE)
add.gdsn(gfile, "bit2", val=sample(0:3, 1000, replace=TRUE), storage="bit2")
# list and data.frame
add.gdsn(gfile, "list", val=list(X=1:10, Y=seq(1, 10, 0.25)))
add.gdsn(gfile, "data.frame", val=data.frame(X=1:19, Y=seq(1, 10, 0.5)))
folder <- addfolder.gdsn(gfile, "folder")
add.gdsn(folder, "int", val=1:1000)
add.gdsn(folder, "double", val=seq(1, 100, 0.4), visible=FALSE)
Users can display the file content by typing gfile
or
print(gfile)
:
## File: /tmp/RtmpI8iaGG/Rbuild6f5317d9377/gdsfmt/vignettes/test.gds (1.1K)
## + [ ]
## |--+ int { Int32 10000, 39.1K }
## |--+ double { Float64 2498, 19.5K }
## |--+ character { Str8 4, 26B }
## |--+ bit2 { Bit2 1000, 250B }
## |--+ list [ list ] *
## | |--+ X { Int32 10, 40B }
## | \--+ Y { Float64 37, 296B }
## |--+ data.frame [ data.frame ] *
## | |--+ X { Int32 19, 76B }
## | \--+ Y { Float64 19, 152B }
## \--+ folder [ ]
## \--+ int { Int32 1000, 3.9K }
print(gfile, ...)
has an argument all to
control the display of file content. By default, all=FALSE; if
all=TRUE, to show all contents in the file including hidden
variables or folders. The GDS variables logical,
factor and folder/double are hidden.
## File: /tmp/RtmpI8iaGG/Rbuild6f5317d9377/gdsfmt/vignettes/test.gds (64.6K)
## + [ ]
## |--+ int { Int32 10000, 39.1K }
## |--+ double { Float64 2498, 19.5K }
## |--+ character { Str8 4, 26B }
## |--+ logical { Int32,logical 150, 600B } *
## |--+ factor { Int32,factor 3, 12B } *
## |--+ bit2 { Bit2 1000, 250B }
## |--+ list [ list ] *
## | |--+ X { Int32 10, 40B }
## | \--+ Y { Float64 37, 296B }
## |--+ data.frame [ data.frame ] *
## | |--+ X { Int32 19, 76B }
## | \--+ Y { Float64 19, 152B }
## \--+ folder [ ]
## |--+ int { Int32 1000, 3.9K }
## \--+ double { Float64 248, 1.9K } *
The asterisk indicates attributes attached to a GDS variable. The attributes can be used in the R environment to interpret the variable as logical, factor, data.frame or list.
index.gdsn()
can locate the GDS variable by a
path:
## + int { Int32 10000, 39.1K }
## + list/Y { Float64 37, 296B }
## + folder/int { Int32 1000, 3.9K }
Array-oriented data sets can be written to the GDS file. There are three possible ways to write data to a GDS variable.
Users could pass an R variable to the function
add.gdsn()
directly. show()
provides the
preview of GDS variable.
## + I1 { Int32 3x5, 60B }
## Preview:
## 1 4 7 10 13
## 2 5 8 11 14
## 3 6 9 12 15
Users can specify the arguments start and count to write a subset of data. -1 in count means the size of that dimension, and the corresponding element in start should be 1. The values in start and cound should be in the dimension range.
## + I1 { Int32 3x5, 60B }
## Preview:
## 1 4 7 10 13
## 0 0 0 0 0
## 3 6 9 12 15
Users can append new data to an existing GDS variable.
## + I1 { Int32 3x8, 96B }
## Preview:
## 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22
## 0 0 0 0 0 17 20 23
## 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24
Users could call assign.gdsn()
to replace specific
values, subset or reorder the data variable.
## + mat { Int32 6x8, 192B }
## Preview:
## 1 7 13 19 25 31 37 43
## 2 8 14 20 26 32 38 44
## 3 9 15 21 27 33 39 45
## 4 10 16 22 28 34 40 46
## 5 11 17 23 29 35 41 47
## 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48
## + mat { Int32 6x8, 192B }
## Preview:
## 1 7 NA 19 25 31 NA 43
## 2 8 NA 20 26 32 NA 44
## 3 NA 15 21 27 33 NA 45
## 4 NA 16 22 28 34 NA 46
## 5 NA 17 23 29 NA 41 47
## 6 NA 18 24 30 NA 42 48
## + mat { Int32 3x4, 48B }
## Preview:
## 7 19 31 43
## NA 21 33 45
## NA 23 NA 47
# initialize and subset
n <- add.gdsn(gfile, "mat", matrix(1:48, 6), replace=TRUE)
assign.gdsn(n, seldim=list(c(4,2,6,NA), c(5,6,NA,2,8,NA,4)))
show(n)
## + mat { Int32 4x7, 112B }
## Preview:
## 28 34 NA 10 46 NA 22
## 26 32 NA 8 44 NA 20
## 30 36 NA 12 48 NA 24
## NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
# initialize and sort into descending order
n <- add.gdsn(gfile, "mat", matrix(1:48, 6), replace=TRUE)
assign.gdsn(n, seldim=list(6:1, 8:1))
show(n)
## + mat { Int32 6x8, 192B }
## Preview:
## 48 42 36 30 24 18 12 6
## 47 41 35 29 23 17 11 5
## 46 40 34 28 22 16 10 4
## 45 39 33 27 21 15 9 3
## 44 38 32 26 20 14 8 2
## 43 37 31 25 19 13 7 1
1) When the size of dataset is larger than the
system memory, users can not add a GDS variable via
add.gdsn()
directly. If the dimension is pre-defined, users
can specify the dimension size in add.gdsn()
to allocate
data space. Then call write.gdsn()
to write a small subset
of data space.
## + I2 { Int32 100x2000, 781.2K }
for (i in 1:2000)
{
write.gdsn(n2, seq.int(100*(i-1)+1, length.out=100),
start=c(1,i), count=c(-1,1))
}
show(n2)
## + I2 { Int32 100x2000, 781.2K }
## Preview:
## 1 101 201 301 401 501 .. 199401 199501 199601 199701 199801 199901
## 2 102 202 302 402 502 .. 199402 199502 199602 199702 199802 199902
## 3 103 203 303 403 503 .. 199403 199503 199603 199703 199803 199903
## 4 104 204 304 404 504 .. 199404 199504 199604 199704 199804 199904
## 5 105 205 305 405 505 .. 199405 199505 199605 199705 199805 199905
## 6 106 206 306 406 506 .. 199406 199506 199606 199706 199806 199906
## ......
## 95 195 295 395 495 595 .. 199495 199595 199695 199795 199895 199995
## 96 196 296 396 496 596 .. 199496 199596 199696 199796 199896 199996
## 97 197 297 397 497 597 .. 199497 199597 199697 199797 199897 199997
## 98 198 298 398 498 598 .. 199498 199598 199698 199798 199898 199998
## 99 199 299 399 499 599 .. 199499 199599 199699 199799 199899 199999
## 100 200 300 400 500 600 .. 199500 199600 199700 199800 199900 200000
2) Call append.gdsn()
to append new
data when the initial size is ZERO. If a compression algorithm is
specified in add.gdsn()
(e.g., compress=“ZIP”),
users should call append.gdsn()
instead of
write.gdsn()
, since data has to be compressed
sequentially.
## + I3 { Int32 100x0 ZIP, 0B }
for (i in 1:2000)
{
append.gdsn(n3, seq.int(100*(i-1)+1, length.out=100))
}
readmode.gdsn(n3) # finish writing with the compression algorithm
## + I3 { Int32 100x2000 ZIP(34.6%), 270.2K }
## + I3 { Int32 100x2000 ZIP(34.6%), 270.2K }
## Preview:
## 1 101 201 301 401 501 .. 199401 199501 199601 199701 199801 199901
## 2 102 202 302 402 502 .. 199402 199502 199602 199702 199802 199902
## 3 103 203 303 403 503 .. 199403 199503 199603 199703 199803 199903
## 4 104 204 304 404 504 .. 199404 199504 199604 199704 199804 199904
## 5 105 205 305 405 505 .. 199405 199505 199605 199705 199805 199905
## 6 106 206 306 406 506 .. 199406 199506 199606 199706 199806 199906
## ......
## 95 195 295 395 495 595 .. 199495 199595 199695 199795 199895 199995
## 96 196 296 396 496 596 .. 199496 199596 199696 199796 199896 199996
## 97 197 297 397 497 597 .. 199497 199597 199697 199797 199897 199997
## 98 198 298 398 498 598 .. 199498 199598 199698 199798 199898 199998
## 99 199 299 399 499 599 .. 199499 199599 199699 199799 199899 199999
## 100 200 300 400 500 600 .. 199500 199600 199700 199800 199900 200000
gfile <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
add.gdsn(gfile, "I1", val=matrix(1:20, nrow=4))
add.gdsn(gfile, "I2", val=1:100)
closefn.gds(gfile)
read.gdsn()
can load all data to an R variable in
memory.
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5]
## [1,] 1 5 9 13 17
## [2,] 2 6 10 14 18
## [3,] 3 7 11 15 19
## [4,] 4 8 12 16 20
A subset of data can be specified via the arguments start
and count in the R function read.gdsn
. Or specify
a list of logical vectors in readex.gdsn()
.
## [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,] 6 10 14
## [2,] 7 11 15
## [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,] NA 10 14
## [2,] 7 11 NA
## [,1] [,2] [,3]
## [1,] 2 10 18
## [2,] 3 11 19
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
## [1,] 5 NA 9 1 9 1
## [2,] 8 NA 12 4 12 4
## [3,] 7 NA 11 3 11 3
## [4,] NA NA NA NA NA NA
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6]
## [1,] 5 -1 9 1 9 1
## [2,] 8 -1 12 4 12 4
## [3,] 7 -1 11 3 11 3
## [4,] -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
A user-defined function can be applied marginally to a GDS variable
via apply.gdsn()
. margin=1 indicates applying the
function row by row, and margin=2 for applying the function
column by column.
## [1] 1 5 9 13 17
## [1] 2 6 10 14 18
## [1] 3 7 11 15 19
## [1] 4 8 12 16 20
## [1] 1 2 3 4
## [1] 5 6 7 8
## [1] 9 10 11 12
## [1] 13 14 15 16
## [1] 17 18 19 20
To create a simple GDS file,
gfile <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
n1 <- add.gdsn(gfile, "I1", val=1:100)
n2 <- add.gdsn(gfile, "I2", val=matrix(1:20, nrow=4))
gfile
## File: /tmp/RtmpI8iaGG/Rbuild6f5317d9377/gdsfmt/vignettes/test.gds (224B)
## + [ ]
## |--+ I1 { Int32 100, 400B }
## \--+ I2 { Int32 4x5, 80B }
apply.gdsn()
can be used to export a GDS variable to a
text file. If the GDS variable is a vector,
fout <- file("text.txt", "wt")
apply.gdsn(n1, 1, FUN=cat, as.is="none", file=fout, fill=TRUE)
close(fout)
scan("text.txt")
## [1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
## [19] 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
## [37] 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54
## [55] 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72
## [73] 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
## [91] 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100
The arguments file and fill are defined in the
function cat()
.
If the GDS variable is a matrix:
fout <- file("text.txt", "wt")
apply.gdsn(n2, 1, FUN=cat, as.is="none", file=fout, fill=4194304)
close(fout)
readLines("text.txt")
## [1] "1 5 9 13 17" "2 6 10 14 18" "3 7 11 15 19" "4 8 12 16 20"
The number 4194304 is the maximum number of columns on a line used in printing vectors.
permdim.gdsn()
can be used to transpose an array by
permuting its dimensions. Or apply.gdsn()
allows that the
data returned from the user-defined function FUN is directly
written to a target GDS node target.node, when
as.is=“gdsnode” and target.node are both given. Little
c in R is a generic function which combines its arguments, and
it passes all data to the target GDS node in the following code:
n.t <- add.gdsn(gfile, "transpose", storage="int", valdim=c(5,0))
# apply the function over rows of matrix
apply.gdsn(n2, margin=1, FUN=c, as.is="gdsnode", target.node=n.t)
# matrix transpose
read.gdsn(n.t)
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4]
## [1,] 1 2 3 4
## [2,] 5 6 7 8
## [3,] 9 10 11 12
## [4,] 13 14 15 16
## [5,] 17 18 19 20
In computing, floating point is a method of representing an approximation of a real number in a way that can support a trade-off between range and precision, which can be represented exactly is of the following form “significand × 2exponent”. A packed real number in GDS format is defined as “int × scale + offset”, where int can be a 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit signed interger. In some cases, the strategy of packed real numbers can significantly improve the compression ratio for real numbers.
## [1] 0.579 0.298 0.213 0.050 0.343 0.284
gfile <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
add.gdsn(gfile, "N1", val=val)
add.gdsn(gfile, "N2", val=val, compress="ZIP", closezip=TRUE)
add.gdsn(gfile, "N3", val=val, storage="float")
add.gdsn(gfile, "N4", val=val, storage="float", compress="ZIP", closezip=TRUE)
add.gdsn(gfile, "N5", val=val, storage="packedreal16", scale=0.001, offset=0)
add.gdsn(gfile, "N6", val=val, storage="packedreal16", scale=0.001, offset=0, compress="ZIP", closezip=TRUE)
gfile
## File: /tmp/RtmpI8iaGG/Rbuild6f5317d9377/gdsfmt/vignettes/test.gds (775.1K)
## + [ ]
## |--+ N1 { Float64 50000, 390.6K }
## |--+ N2 { Float64 50000 ZIP(24.8%), 96.7K }
## |--+ N3 { Float32 50000, 195.3K }
## |--+ N4 { Float32 50000 ZIP(46.8%), 91.4K }
## |--+ N5 { PackedReal16 50000, 97.7K }
## \--+ N6 { PackedReal16 50000 ZIP(76.1%), 74.3K }
Variable | Type | Compression Method | Size | Ratio | Machine epsilon1 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
N1 | 64-bit floating-point number | — | 400.0 KB | 100.0% | 0 |
N2 | 64-bit floating-point number | zlib | 99.0 KB | 24.8% | 0 |
N3 | 32-bit floating-point number | — | 200.0 KB | 50.0% | 9.94e-09 |
N4 | 32-bit floating-point number | zlib | 93.5 KB | 23.4% | 9.94e-09 |
N5 | 16-bit packed real number | — | 100.0 KB | 25.0% | 0 |
N6 | 16-bit packed real number | zlib | 76.1 KB | 19.0% | 0 |
1: the relative error due to rounding in floating point arithmetic.
set.seed(100)
# 10,000,000 random 0,1 sequence of 32-bit integers
val <- sample.int(2, 10*1000*1000, replace=TRUE) - 1L
table(val)
## val
## 0 1
## 4999138 5000862
# cteate a GDS file
f <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
# compression algorithms (LZMA_ra:32K is the lower bound of LZMA_ra)
compression <- c("", "ZIP.max", "ZIP_ra.max:16K", "LZ4.max", "LZ4_ra.max:16K", "LZMA", "LZMA_ra:32K")
# save
for (i in 1:length(compression))
print(add.gdsn(f, paste0("I", i), val=val, compress=compression[i], closezip=TRUE))
# close the file
closefn.gds(f)
cleanup.gds("test.gds")
# open the GDS file
f <- openfn.gds("test.gds")
# 10,000 random positions
set.seed(1000)
idx <- sample.int(length(val), 10000)
# enumerate each compression method
dat <- vector("list", length(compression))
for (i in seq_len(length(compression)))
{
cat("Compression:", compression[i], "\n")
n <- index.gdsn(f, paste0("I", i))
print(system.time({
dat[[i]] <- sapply(idx, FUN=function(k) read.gdsn(n, start=k, count=1L))
}))
}
# check
for (i in seq_len(length(compression)))
stopifnot(identical(dat[[i]], dat[[1L]]))
# close the file
closefn.gds(f)
Compression Method | Raw | ZIP | ZIP_ra | LZ4 | LZ4_ra | LZMA | LZMA_ra |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Data Size (MB) | 38.1 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
Compression Percent | 100% | 5.08% | 5.42% | 7.39% | 7.60% | 3.65% | 3.78% |
Reading Time (second) | 0.21 | 202.64 | 2.97 | 84.43 | 0.84 | 462.1 | 29.7 |
Sparse array is supported in gdsfmt since v1.24.0. Only non-zero
values and indicies are stored in a GDS file, and reading a gds node of
sparse matrix returns a dgCMatrix
object defined in the
package Matrix.
# create a GDS file
f <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
set.seed(1000)
m <- matrix(sample(c(0:2), 56, replace=T), nrow=4)
(n <- add.gdsn(f, "sparse", m, storage="sp.int"))
## + sparse { SparseInt32 4x14, 266B }
## 4 x 14 sparse Matrix of class "dgCMatrix"
##
## [1,] 2 2 1 . 2 2 . 1 2 1 . 1 . 2
## [2,] 1 . . . 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 . 1 1
## [3,] 2 1 1 1 . . 2 2 2 2 . . 2 1
## [4,] . 1 . 1 1 1 . 2 . 2 1 2 2 2
## [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10] [,11] [,12] [,13] [,14]
## [1,] 2 2 1 0 2 2 0 1 2 1 0 1 0 2
## [2,] 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 1
## [3,] 2 1 1 1 0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 2 1
## [4,] 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 2 0 2 1 2 2 2
Users can create hash function digests (e.g., md5, sha1, sha256, sha384, sha512) to verify data integrity, and md5 is the default digest algorithm. For example,
# create a GDS file
f <- createfn.gds("test.gds")
n <- add.gdsn(f, "raw", rnorm(1115), compress="ZIP", closezip=TRUE)
digest.gdsn(n, action="add")
## md5
## "73ff4a35fd00dac70998570ed654a834"
## File: /tmp/RtmpI8iaGG/Rbuild6f5317d9377/gdsfmt/vignettes/test.gds (8.6K)
## + [ ]
## \--+ raw { Float64 1115 ZIP.def(96.1%), 8.4K } *< md5: 73ff4a35fd00dac70998570ed654a834
Reopen the file and verify data integrity:
## [1] "73ff4a35fd00dac70998570ed654a834"
## md5 sha1 sha256 sha384 sha512 md5_r sha1_r sha256_r
## TRUE NA NA NA NA NA NA NA
## sha384_r sha512_r
## NA NA
If the R package crayon is installed
in the R environment, print()
can display the context of
GDS file with different colours. For example, on MacOS,
Users can disable crayon terminal output by
options(gds.crayon=FALSE)
,
File: 1KG_autosome_phase3_shapeit2_mvncall_integrated_v5_20130502_genotypes.gds (3.4G)
+ [ ] *
|--+ sample.id { VStr8 2504 ZIP_ra(27.15%), 5.4K }
|--+ snp.id { Int32 81271745 ZIP_ra(34.58%), 112.4M }
|--+ snp.rs.id { VStr8 81271745 ZIP_ra(38.67%), 193.1M }
|--+ snp.position { Int32 81271745 ZIP_ra(39.73%), 129.1M }
|--+ snp.chromosome { VStr8 81271745 ZIP_ra(0.10%), 190.2K }
|--+ snp.allele { VStr8 81271745 ZIP_ra(17.05%), 57.3M }
|--+ genotype { Bit2 2504x81271745 ZIP_ra(5.66%), 2.9G } *
\--+ snp.annot [ ]
|--+ qual { Float32 81271745 ZIP_ra(0.10%), 316.1K }
\--+ filter { VStr8 81271745 ZIP_ra(0.15%), 592.0K }
## R version 4.4.2 (2024-10-31)
## Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
## Running under: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS
##
## Matrix products: default
## BLAS: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openblas-pthread/libblas.so.3
## LAPACK: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/openblas-pthread/libopenblasp-r0.3.26.so; LAPACK version 3.12.0
##
## locale:
## [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 LC_NUMERIC=C
## [3] LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8 LC_COLLATE=C
## [5] LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
## [7] LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8 LC_NAME=C
## [9] LC_ADDRESS=C LC_TELEPHONE=C
## [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C
##
## time zone: Etc/UTC
## tzcode source: system (glibc)
##
## attached base packages:
## [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base
##
## other attached packages:
## [1] Matrix_1.7-1 gdsfmt_1.43.1
##
## loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
## [1] digest_0.6.37 R6_2.5.1 fastmap_1.2.0 xfun_0.49
## [5] lattice_0.22-6 maketools_1.3.1 cachem_1.1.0 knitr_1.49
## [9] htmltools_0.5.8.1 rmarkdown_2.29 buildtools_1.0.0 lifecycle_1.0.4
## [13] cli_3.6.3 grid_4.4.2 sass_0.4.9 jquerylib_0.1.4
## [17] compiler_4.4.2 sys_3.4.3 tools_4.4.2 evaluate_1.0.1
## [21] bslib_0.8.0 yaml_2.3.10 crayon_1.5.3 jsonlite_1.8.9
## [25] rlang_1.1.4