[R] RODBC Error Code 202 on Mac OS X 10.6

[Marc Schwartz]

On Apr 25, 2012, at 10:03 AM, julia.jacobson at arcor.de wrote:

> Hello everybody out there using the RODBC package,
> 
> On my linux (unixODBC) and windows machines, I can successfully use the RODBC package to connect to a PostgreSQL databse.
> On my Mac Book running Mac OS X 10.6 (Intel 64bit architecture), I get the error "code 202" and message "?????" when I try to establish an connection by using
>> con <- odbcConnect(dsn="MyDataSource",UID="Me",pwd="secret")
> Could anyone please hint me towards additional diagnostics I can run to pin down the problem?
> I have the latest versions of unixODBC and psqlODBC installed from Macports.
> They seem to be okay, because
> $isql dsn uid pwd
> works fine to connect to the database.
> 
> Thanks in advance for your help,
> Julia


Anytime Fink or MacPorts comes into the picture, I get uncontrollable shakes...never had good luck with them when I moved to OSX from Linux three years ago and they really screwed up my MacBook Pro, conflicting with all kinds of stuff. If I needed something, I always go to the upstream source.

I can't seem to locate an error code 202 in any ODBC documentation. Is the above a direct copy and paste of the _complete_ error message?

That being said, do you know if the MacPorts installs are 32 bit, 64 bit or both? The entire tool chain, including unixODBC, the ODBC driver and R must all be of the same architecture, or you get conflicts. Check to see which version of R you are running by using:

  .Machine$sizeof.pointer

If it comes back with 8, you are running 64 bit R, if 4, then 32 bit R. 

Runnning:

  vignette("RODBC")

will bring up additional installation and other relevant details on using RODBC, including pointers to Actual Technologies:

  http://www.actualtech.com/products.php

which provides relatively inexpensive commercial ODBC drivers for OSX and which is what I use to access Oracle on OSX, using RODBC. You would want:

  http://www.actualtech.com/product_opensourcedatabases.php

They are easy to install and configure and also provide the ODBC Manager app, which replaces the no longer included Apple ODBC Administrator app.

Also, you should post this query (now follow ups) to R-SIG-DB, as that list is focused on DB access related issues:

  https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-db

Regards,

Marc Schwartz