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

[Phil Spector]

Stephen -
    You can modify your path on the fly with Sys.setenv:

Sys.setenv(PATH=paste(Sys.getenv('PATH'),'/sw/bin',sep=':'))

should make executables installed in /sw/bin available to R.

                                         - Phil Spector
                                          Statistical Computing Facility
                                          Department of Statistics
                                          UC Berkeley
                                          spector at stat.berkeley.edu


On Fri, 14 Aug 2009, stephen sefick wrote:

> Frank,
> I have tried to use this package, but because I am using fink to
> install packages the mdbtools binary they are not accessible by the
> function from within R.  I checked this by just trying to call it with
> the system function and R returned /bin/sh not found.  I can access
> the binary from the terminal, so the /sw/bin directory where mdbtools
> is located is in my PATH- at least at a terminal.
> thanks for the help,
>
> Stephen Sefick
>
> On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 11:27 AM, Frank E Harrell
> Jr<f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
>> The R Hmisc package interfaces these tools - see its mdb.get function.
>>
>> Frank
>>
>>
>> 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
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
>>                     Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Stephen Sefick
>
> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are
> so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and
> make us feel like gods.  We are mammals, and have not exhausted the
> annoying little problems of being mammals.
>
> 								-K. Mullis
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.