ENH: to_sql() add parameter "method" to control insertions method (#8…

doc/source/io.rst

@@ -4989,6 +4989,54 @@ with respect to the timezone.
 timezone aware or naive. When reading ``TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE`` types, pandas
 will convert the data to UTC.
 
+.. _io.sql.method:
+
+Insertion Method
+++++++++++++++++
+
+.. versionadded:: 0.24.0
+
+The parameter ``method`` controls the SQL insertion clause used.
+Possible values are:
+
+- ``'default'``: Uses standard SQL ``INSERT`` clause (one per row).
+- ``'multi'``: Pass multiple values in a single ``INSERT`` clause.
+  It uses a *special* SQL syntax not supported by all backends.
+  This usually provides better performance for analytic databases
+  like *Presto* and *Redshift*, but has worse performance for
+  traditional SQL backend if the table contains many columns.
+  For more information check the SQLAlchemy `documention
+  <http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/core/dml.html#sqlalchemy.sql.expression.Insert.values.params.*args>`__.
+- callable with signature ``(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter)``:
+  This can be used to implement a more performant insertion method based on
+  specific backend dialect features.
+
+Example of a callable using PostgreSQL `COPY clause
+<https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/sql-copy.html>`__::
+
+  # Alternative to_sql() *method* for DBs that support COPY FROM
+  import csv
+  from io import StringIO
+
+  def psql_insert_copy(table, conn, keys, data_iter):
+      # gets a DBAPI connection that can provide a cursor
+      dbapi_conn = conn.connection
+      with dbapi_conn.cursor() as cur:
+          s_buf = StringIO()
+          writer = csv.writer(s_buf)
+          writer.writerows(data_iter)
+          s_buf.seek(0)
+
+          columns = ', '.join('"{}"'.format(k) for k in keys)
+          if table.schema:
+              table_name = '{}.{}'.format(table.schema, table.name)
+          else:
+              table_name = table.name
+
+          sql = 'COPY {} ({}) FROM STDIN WITH CSV'.format(
+              table_name, columns)
+          cur.copy_expert(sql=sql, file=s_buf)
+
 Reading Tables
 ''''''''''''''
 

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.rst

@@ -373,6 +373,7 @@ Other Enhancements
 - :meth:`DataFrame.between_time` and :meth:`DataFrame.at_time` have gained the an ``axis`` parameter (:issue:`8839`)
 - The ``scatter_matrix``, ``andrews_curves``, ``parallel_coordinates``, ``lag_plot``, ``autocorrelation_plot``, ``bootstrap_plot``, and ``radviz`` plots from the ``pandas.plotting`` module are now accessible from calling :meth:`DataFrame.plot` (:issue:`11978`)
 - :class:`IntervalIndex` has gained the :attr:`~IntervalIndex.is_overlapping` attribute to indicate if the ``IntervalIndex`` contains any overlapping intervals (:issue:`23309`)
+- :func:`pandas.DataFrame.to_sql` has gained the ``method`` argument to control SQL insertion clause (:issue:`8953`)
 
 .. _whatsnew_0240.api_breaking:
 

pandas/core/generic.py

@@ -2386,7 +2386,7 @@ def to_msgpack(self, path_or_buf=None, encoding='utf-8', **kwargs):
                                   **kwargs)
 
     def to_sql(self, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
-               index_label=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None):
+               index_label=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None, method='default'):
         """
         Write records stored in a DataFrame to a SQL database.
 
@@ -2424,6 +2424,17 @@ def to_sql(self, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
             Specifying the datatype for columns. The keys should be the column
             names and the values should be the SQLAlchemy types or strings for
             the sqlite3 legacy mode.
+        method : {'default', 'multi', callable}, default 'default'
+            Controls the SQL insertion clause used:
+
+            * 'default': Uses standard SQL ``INSERT`` clause (one per row).
+            * 'multi': Pass multiple values in a single ``INSERT`` clause.
+            * callable with signature ``(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter)``.
+
+            Details and a sample callable implementation can be found in the
+            section :ref:`insert method <io.sql.method>`.
+
+            .. versionadded:: 0.24.0
 
         Raises
         ------
@@ -2505,7 +2516,7 @@ def to_sql(self, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
         from pandas.io import sql
         sql.to_sql(self, name, con, schema=schema, if_exists=if_exists,
                    index=index, index_label=index_label, chunksize=chunksize,
-                   dtype=dtype)
+                   dtype=dtype, method=method)
 
     def to_pickle(self, path, compression='infer',
                   protocol=pkl.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL):

pandas/io/sql.py

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from datetime import date, datetime, time
+from functools import partial
 import re
 import warnings
 
@@ -395,7 +396,7 @@ def read_sql(sql, con, index_col=None, coerce_float=True, params=None,
 
 
 def to_sql(frame, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
-           index_label=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None):
+           index_label=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None, method='default'):
     """
     Write records stored in a DataFrame to a SQL database.
 
@@ -429,6 +430,17 @@ def to_sql(frame, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
         Optional specifying the datatype for columns. The SQL type should
         be a SQLAlchemy type, or a string for sqlite3 fallback connection.
         If all columns are of the same type, one single value can be used.
+    method : {'default', 'multi', callable}, default 'default'
+        Controls the SQL insertion clause used:
+
+        - 'default': Uses standard SQL ``INSERT`` clause (one per row).
+        - 'multi': Pass multiple values in a single ``INSERT`` clause.
+        - callable with signature ``(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter)``.
+
+        Details and a sample callable implementation can be found in the
+        section :ref:`insert method <io.sql.method>`.
+
+        .. versionadded:: 0.24.0
     """
     if if_exists not in ('fail', 'replace', 'append'):
         raise ValueError("'{0}' is not valid for if_exists".format(if_exists))
@@ -443,7 +455,7 @@ def to_sql(frame, name, con, schema=None, if_exists='fail', index=True,
 
     pandas_sql.to_sql(frame, name, if_exists=if_exists, index=index,
                       index_label=index_label, schema=schema,
-                      chunksize=chunksize, dtype=dtype)
+                      chunksize=chunksize, dtype=dtype, method=method)
 
 
 def has_table(table_name, con, schema=None):
@@ -568,8 +580,29 @@ def create(self):
         else:
             self._execute_create()
 
-    def insert_statement(self):
-        return self.table.insert()
+    def _execute_insert(self, conn, keys, data_iter):
+        """Execute SQL statement inserting data
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        conn : sqlalchemy.engine.Engine or sqlalchemy.engine.Connection
+        keys : list of str
+           Column names
+        data_iter : generator of list
+           Each item contains a list of values to be inserted
+        """
+        data = [dict(zip(keys, row)) for row in data_iter]
+        conn.execute(self.table.insert(), data)
+
+    def _execute_insert_multi(self, conn, keys, data_iter):
+        """Alternative to _execute_insert for DBs support multivalue INSERT.
+
+        Note: multi-value insert is usually faster for analytics DBs
+        and tables containing a few columns
+        but performance degrades quickly with increase of columns.
+        """
+        data = [dict(zip(keys, row)) for row in data_iter]
+        conn.execute(self.table.insert(data))
 
     def insert_data(self):
         if self.index is not None:
@@ -612,11 +645,18 @@ def insert_data(self):
 
         return column_names, data_list
 
-    def _execute_insert(self, conn, keys, data_iter):
-        data = [dict(zip(keys, row)) for row in data_iter]
-        conn.execute(self.insert_statement(), data)
+    def insert(self, chunksize=None, method='default'):
+
+        # set insert method
+        if method == 'default':
+            exec_insert = self._execute_insert
+        elif method == 'multi':
+            exec_insert = self._execute_insert_multi
+        elif callable(method):
+            exec_insert = partial(method, self)
+        else:
+            raise ValueError('Invalid parameter `method`: {}'.format(method))
 
-    def insert(self, chunksize=None):
         keys, data_list = self.insert_data()
 
         nrows = len(self.frame)
@@ -639,7 +679,7 @@ def insert(self, chunksize=None):
                     break
 
                 chunk_iter = zip(*[arr[start_i:end_i] for arr in data_list])
-                self._execute_insert(conn, keys, chunk_iter)
+                exec_insert(conn, keys, chunk_iter)
 
     def _query_iterator(self, result, chunksize, columns, coerce_float=True,
                         parse_dates=None):
@@ -1085,7 +1125,8 @@ def read_query(self, sql, index_col=None, coerce_float=True,
     read_sql = read_query
 
     def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
-               index_label=None, schema=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None):
+               index_label=None, schema=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None,
+               method='default'):
         """
         Write records stored in a DataFrame to a SQL database.
 
@@ -1115,7 +1156,17 @@ def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
             Optional specifying the datatype for columns. The SQL type should
             be a SQLAlchemy type. If all columns are of the same type, one
             single value can be used.
+        method : {'default', 'multi', callable}, default 'default'
+            Controls the SQL insertion clause used:
+
+            * 'default': Uses standard SQL ``INSERT`` clause (one per row).
+            * 'multi': Pass multiple values in a single ``INSERT`` clause.
+            * callable with signature ``(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter)``.
+
+            Details and a sample callable implementation can be found in the
+            section :ref:`insert method <io.sql.method>`.
 
+            .. versionadded:: 0.24.0
         """
         if dtype and not is_dict_like(dtype):
             dtype = {col_name: dtype for col_name in frame}
@@ -1131,7 +1182,7 @@ def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
                          if_exists=if_exists, index_label=index_label,
                          schema=schema, dtype=dtype)
         table.create()
-        table.insert(chunksize)
+        table.insert(chunksize, method=method)
         if (not name.isdigit() and not name.islower()):
             # check for potentially case sensitivity issues (GH7815)
             # Only check when name is not a number and name is not lower case
@@ -1442,7 +1493,8 @@ def _fetchall_as_list(self, cur):
         return result
 
     def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
-               index_label=None, schema=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None):
+               index_label=None, schema=None, chunksize=None, dtype=None,
+               method='default'):
         """
         Write records stored in a DataFrame to a SQL database.
 
@@ -1471,7 +1523,17 @@ def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
             Optional specifying the datatype for columns. The SQL type should
             be a string. If all columns are of the same type, one single value
             can be used.
+        method : {'default', 'multi', callable}, default 'default'
+            Controls the SQL insertion clause used:
+
+            * 'default': Uses standard SQL ``INSERT`` clause (one per row).
+            * 'multi': Pass multiple values in a single ``INSERT`` clause.
+            * callable with signature ``(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter)``.
+
+            Details and a sample callable implementation can be found in the
+            section :ref:`insert method <io.sql.method>`.
 
+            .. versionadded:: 0.24.0
         """
         if dtype and not is_dict_like(dtype):
             dtype = {col_name: dtype for col_name in frame}
@@ -1486,7 +1548,7 @@ def to_sql(self, frame, name, if_exists='fail', index=True,
                             if_exists=if_exists, index_label=index_label,
                             dtype=dtype)
         table.create()
-        table.insert(chunksize)
+        table.insert(chunksize, method)
 
     def has_table(self, name, schema=None):
         # TODO(wesm): unused?

pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py

@@ -375,12 +375,16 @@ def _read_sql_iris_named_parameter(self):
         iris_frame = self.pandasSQL.read_query(query, params=params)
         self._check_iris_loaded_frame(iris_frame)
 
-    def _to_sql(self):
+    def _to_sql(self, method='default'):
         self.drop_table('test_frame1')
 
-        self.pandasSQL.to_sql(self.test_frame1, 'test_frame1')
+        self.pandasSQL.to_sql(self.test_frame1, 'test_frame1', method=method)
         assert self.pandasSQL.has_table('test_frame1')
 
+        num_entries = len(self.test_frame1)
+        num_rows = self._count_rows('test_frame1')
+        assert num_rows == num_entries
+
         # Nuke table
         self.drop_table('test_frame1')
 
@@ -434,6 +438,25 @@ def _to_sql_append(self):
         assert num_rows == num_entries
         self.drop_table('test_frame1')
 
+    def _to_sql_method_callable(self):
+        check = []  # used to double check function below is really being used
+
+        def sample(pd_table, conn, keys, data_iter):
+            check.append(1)
+            data = [dict(zip(keys, row)) for row in data_iter]
+            conn.execute(pd_table.table.insert(), data)
+        self.drop_table('test_frame1')
+
+        self.pandasSQL.to_sql(self.test_frame1, 'test_frame1', method=sample)
+        assert self.pandasSQL.has_table('test_frame1')
+
+        assert check == [1]
+        num_entries = len(self.test_frame1)
+        num_rows = self._count_rows('test_frame1')
+        assert num_rows == num_entries
+        # Nuke table
+        self.drop_table('test_frame1')
+
     def _roundtrip(self):
         self.drop_table('test_frame_roundtrip')
         self.pandasSQL.to_sql(self.test_frame1, 'test_frame_roundtrip')
@@ -1193,7 +1216,7 @@ def setup_connect(self):
             pytest.skip(
                 "Can't connect to {0} server".format(self.flavor))
 
-    def test_aread_sql(self):
+    def test_read_sql(self):
         self._read_sql_iris()
 
     def test_read_sql_parameter(self):
@@ -1217,6 +1240,12 @@ def test_to_sql_replace(self):
     def test_to_sql_append(self):
         self._to_sql_append()
 
+    def test_to_sql_method_multi(self):
+        self._to_sql(method='multi')
+
+    def test_to_sql_method_callable(self):
+        self._to_sql_method_callable()
+
     def test_create_table(self):
         temp_conn = self.connect()
         temp_frame = DataFrame(