[R] Import Access MDB on line

[Raphael Saldanha]

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 12:16 PM, Barry Rowlingson
<b.rowlingson at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Raphael Saldanha
> <saldanha.plangeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >  I would like
> > to import this dataset direct into R, without saving the file on disk
> > (for using the most updated file),
>
>  You don't really have much choice - I'm certain that the mdb-tools
> won't read from a remote ftp server and I suspect RODBC won't either.
>
>
> > I don't know if I have the mdb-tool on my system, may is this. If so,
> > how should I install this?
>
> sudo apt-get install mdbtools
>
Af>  should get you what you need to Hmisc to work. It works for me - but
> you do have to download the data file. It won't work via an FTP
> connection.
>
>  One possibility is to set up an FTP-based file system - basically an
> operating system 'hook' that presents the FTP site as if it was a
> local set of files. Have a look under the 'connect to server' options
> on the ubuntu menus.
>
>  The real solution would be for the data to be supplied from a
> database server at their end, and you could get the latest data using
> RMySQL or whatever.

After this, I will probably host the database, but I will ask if the
IBGE can host the database in another format (maybe CSV) on a http
link. The IBGE is a great user of R, a maybe will support this effort.

>
>  Note that I can't find any geographic coordinate info in the mdb you
> referenced - if this is, as I suspect, an ESRI Geodatabase, then you
> won't be able to get polygons or point locations.
>

Indeed, I tried to open the database with ArcGIS and this is not a
Geodatabase, so I have contacted the IBGE asking informations.

Thanks for all the help!

> Barry



--
Regards,

Raphael Saldanha
saldanha.plangeo at gmail.com