[R] reading in mdb and outputting to sql (GIS application)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

The AT Access driver works reasonably well: it is described in the 
current RODBC manual.

On Fri, 14 Aug 2009, Marc Schwartz wrote:

> On Aug 14, 2009, at 10:29 AM, stephen sefick wrote:
>
>> I have a geodatabase and would like to import it into GRASS, but it is
>> in .mbf.  I use mac and linux, and don't have access to access on the
>> machines that I normally use.  I do have access to access at school,
>> but I would like to find a way around this if possible.  Any thoughts,
>> comments, or suggestions would be welcome.
>> thanks,
>
> I think that on Linux and OSX, from an open source perspective, the only 
> option is to use MDB Tools, though I have seen mixed reports of success, 
> including some threads in the R-Help archives. It also appears that there has 
> been no development on the package for about 5 years, as the current version 
> (0.6pre1) dates from 2004. That may suggest limited, if any, compatibility 
> with recent versions of Access file formats.
>
> You can download the source tarball here:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/mdbtools/
>
> For OSX, it is available via MacPorts:
>
> http://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/databases/mdbtools/Portfile
>
> and for major Linux distributions, there are typically pre-compiled binaries 
> available via the standard repos and installation tools (eg. yum and 
> apt-get).
>
> There was also some work by the OO.org folks a while back to embed MDB Tools 
> in OpenOffice, but I am not aware of the current state of the project or if 
> it is even active any longer.
>
> There is a commercial option from Actual Technologies:
>
> http://www.actualtechnologies.com/product_access.php
>
> which appears to provide an ODBC driver for Access on OSX. The page focuses 
> on the use of either Excel or FileMaker Pro with the driver. However, you may 
> be able to get it to work with RODBC.
>
> I use Actual's ODBC driver for Oracle on OSX via RODBC, since Oracle has not 
> seen fit to provide a free one as they do for Linux and have been very 
> pleased. It was easy to install and configure, so take that for what it's 
> worth.
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595