[Rd] pseudo dataframes with RODBC

[John Fox]

Dear R-devel list members,

For several years, I've maintained for my private use and for demonstrations
a set of functions [e.g., for indexing, with(), summary(), etc.] that employ
the RODBC package and a database to provide a "pseudo" data frame. Row
"indexes" can be specified as SQL queries. I know that the idea isn't
original, and I haven't done anything with these functions because I
expected that others would develop something better, but as near as I can
tell that hasn't happened yet. 

I wonder (1) whether there's sufficient interest to warrant building these
functions into a package, and (2) whether people with more knowledge of SQL
databases would be interested in improving and adding to what I've done. 

The functions can be found at
<http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Courses/R-course/Fox-odbc-functions.R>.
I've tested them (at various times) only with PostgreSQL, MySQL, and
MS/Access under Windows, but I don't see why they shouldn't work generally.

Regards,
 John

--------------------------------
John Fox, Professor
Department of Sociology
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4M4
905-525-9140x23604
http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox