[R] RODBC to query an Oracle table

[Jim Porzak]

Hi Megan,

Marc's hint is the R way, which is needed with your original SELECT.

OTOH, it may be more efficient to move the WHERE clause into the
SELECT. Something like

select plotnum, sampyear, sptype
   from density
 where sampyear=1995
   AND plotnum=1
   AND sptype IN ('S', 'H')

should work if I understand your intent.

Then you have a smaller data frame on which to work in R.

BTW, I always write & test my SQL using a database tool such as
DvVisualizer http://www.dbvis.com/, my current favorite.

That way you can develop (& debug) you SELECT's in a SQL aware
environment before using them in R. If the query is at all
non-trivial, I tend to save it in text form from DbViz and point to it
in R with something like:

query <- readChar(paste(path2sql, "MySelect.sql", sep = ""), nchars = 999999)
Usage <- dbGetQuery(conn, query)


HTH,
Jim Porzak
Responsys, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimporzak


On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 7:44 AM, Megan J Bellamy <bellammj at gov.ns.ca> wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I am having trouble running a count function in R using RODBC to query a table I created in Oracle. It may very well be that my SQL coding is incorrect; I just started learning it. But if someone could point me in the right direction or tell me if I am going about this the correct way that would be greatly appreciated! The script I have right now is:
>
> >require(RODBC)
> >channel<-odbcConnect("MeganXE")
> >stbl<-sqlQuery(channel, 'select plotnum, sampyear, sptype from density')
> >sqlQuery(channel, 'select count (sampyear, plotnum, sptype) from stbl where sampyear=1995 AND plotnum=1 AND sptype='S' OR sptype='H')
>
> I get this error: unexpected symbol in "sqlQuery(channel...)"
>
> I would like R to return a count of how many records satisfy the condition of being sampled in 1995 and in plot number 1, where the species type is either softwood or hardwood (S or H). Any help with this would be great.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Megan
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.