[R] Managing Data [Summary]
Andrew Perrin
andrew_perrin at unc.edu
Mon Feb 25 17:33:22 CET 2002
The alternative I tend to use involves storing data in an external
database (in my case, PostgreSQL) and using a database driver (e.g.,
RPgSQL) to bring them in as needed.
Sorry to muddy the waters-
Andy
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin at unc.edu - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
269 Hamilton Hall, CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA
On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Magill, Brett wrote:
> A while ago I asked about data management approaches in R. I was asked by
> several people to post a summary of the responses and alas I am just getting
> around to doing it. I received several comments, both on and off list.
> Below is a compilation of these responses. Hope this is as helpful to
> others as it was to me.
>
> Best,
>
> Brett
>
>
> 1. Frank Harrell recommended a section, "Operating in S", from his text
> which can be found at:
> http://hesweb1.med.virginia.edu/biostat/s/doc/splus.pdf
>
>
> 2. Jon Baron says that he does not use the files R stores at all, instead
> following the procedures outlined in the beginning of his text:
> http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~baron/rpsych.htm
>
> This approach involves "...involves keeping raw data in separate files, each
> with a name (supposedly a useful mnemonic), such as cba1.data, and scripts
> in other separate files, such as cba1.R." A script is written to read,
> transform, manipulate, and analyze data.
>
> Jim Lemon uses a similar approach but adds "Just to forestall any confusion,
> I noticed that [Jon Baron] didn't mention using read.table() or scan() in
> the *.R file of commands to read in the data each time the script is run.
> That way you never trash your data, and any data edits you do outside of R
> are reflected in the next run of the script."
>
>
> 3. David Brahm offers another approach, a package he developed called g.data
> available at:
> http://cran.us.r-project.org/src/contrib/PACKAGES.html#g.data
>
> David says that this approach will be most intuitive to S-plus users. The
> package "...manages data in R in a manner very similar to the way S-Plus
> does. You assign 'permanent' objects to a particular position in your
> search path (usually pos=2), then save all objects in that position with a
> call to g.data.save()."
>
>
>
> Brett A. Magill, Evaluation Associate
> Research and Product Development
> Health, Safety and Community Services
> American Red Cross
> magillb at usa.redcross.org
>
>
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