[R] Loading mdb

[Phil Spector]

Josh -
     There are two ways that I know of to use Access in R on 
Windows:

  1)  odbcConnectAccess or odbcConnectAccess2007 in the ODBC package
and
  2)  Configuring the Access ODBC connector in
         Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Data Sources(ODBC)
      and using connectODBC in the ODBC package.

To configure the Access ODBC connector in the Data Sources task, 
click "Add", scroll down and click on "Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)"
Give it a Data Source Name (with no spaces), an optional Description,
then click on "Select" for the database choice, and navigate to your 
database.  You should then be able to pass the Data Source Name you chose
to the odbcConnect function, and use the result in the odbcQuery to make
SQL queries to your data base.

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






On Tue, 22 Mar 2011, ROLL Josh F wrote:

> I am getting into some more posts about having to have mdb-tools installed on my system (Windows XP) and have located the download but its not an executable install file and it looks like from what you said these tools are for non-windows based systems anyhow?
>
> Is the mdb.get function the only tool to read in mdb's from MS Access?  I feel like it should be easier than this?  Thoughts?
>
> Thanks Phil
>
>
> JR
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phil Spector [mailto:spector at stat.berkeley.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:01 PM
> To: ROLL Josh F
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] Loading mdb
>
> I believe that you are misinterpreting the error message.
> The mdb-get function relies on external programs named "mdb-tables" and "mdb-schema" to do its work.  Those programs must be installed on your computer (and in directories in your search path), for the function to work.
> I don't know what operating system you are using, but the mdb tools are designed for non-Windows systems.
>
> 					- Phil Spector
> 					 Statistical Computing Facility
> 					 Department of Statistics
> 					 UC Berkeley
> 					 spector at stat.berkeley.edu
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, 22 Mar 2011, LCOG1 wrote:
>
>> Well im thoroughly frustrated after 25 minutes of checking and
>> rechecking my path.  What do i not know about loading a mdb that is
>> keeping me from loading my data.
>>
>> i have loaded the Hmisc library and pointed it too my data using
>> mdb.get and continue to get the following error.
>>
>> Error in system(paste("mdb-tables -1", file), intern = TRUE) :
>>  'mdb-tables' not found
>>
>> Which i realize is saying that its not reading any tables within the
>> mdb or not able to find any mdb at all at that location.
>>
>> the command i use is simply:
>>
>> RawInv.data..<-mdb.get('T:/Models/LandUse/GenericLandSupplyModel/Proje
>> cts/2008BaseYear/EugeneUGB/Reporting/Summary.mdb')
>>
>> There is definitely a mdb in that location and the path is definitely
>> correct.  Its an MS Access mdb with 4 tables.  When i open the said
>> mdb i have to hit enter at a password window but no password is
>> required.  Could this be hanging up R from reading it?  I have
>> typically used dbf and csv or txt for import formats and am not real
>> familiar with mdb but i realize how elementary this question is but i
>> have spent 25 minutes now.  What am i missing.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> JR
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> View this message in context:
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>> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>>
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>