[R] Has anyone created diagrammatic representations of Access/ODBC databases using R?

[Chris Evans]

Many thanks Paul, 

That looks very good and certainly the end result is absolutely along the lines I was hoping to find.  I will read that article thoroughly and it will clearly teach me a lot about the graphics you used there.  

I was really hoping that someone might have wrapped something like that up to create some higher level functions that might do that sort of thing _and_, (perhaps someone else!), might have written some things that collect information about Access database structures, and/or the connectedness of data frames created with merge statements that would generate the information in a form that lends itself.

I know I'm dreaming of the stars but, as you're showing, there are stellar people using R and it struck me that others might have had similar dreams and perhaps had put code together they might be willing to share!

Very best to you, and to all r-helpers!

Chris

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Murrell" <paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz>
> To: "Chris Evans" <chrishold at psyctc.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, 8 March, 2017 19:34:25
> Subject: Re: [R] Has anyone created diagrammatic representations of Access/ODBC databases using R?

> Hi
> 
> Do you mean something like this ... ?
> 
> https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~paul/R/Diagram/diagram.pdf
> 
> Paul
> 
> On 09/03/17 03:37, Chris Evans wrote:
>> I have been on a fair old learning curve handling a fairly complex
>> Access database with my beloved, if sometimes tantaslising, R. I've
>> been using RODBC to do this and, despite the database not being all
>> that well designed, the power of R and RODBC has been fantastic (of
>> course). Huge thanks to R team and the RODBC team.
>>
>> Now I'd really like to generate some diagrammatic representations of
>> the data structure: entity relationship models, UML representation
>> ... anything like that would be wonderful. I can see three ways of
>> approaching this and any one, two or three would be a huge help for
>> me: 1) something that reads the tables and any queries from an Access
>> DB through RODBC and generates a map of them where the queries
>> indicate the relationships between the tables 2) something that reads
>> through the global environment and any merge() commands in my code to
>> see and map the data frames and how one was created by merges of
>> others 3) something that I use to spell out the structure textually
>> and it takes this and maps it.
>>
>> I have done some searching around with Rseek and raw google and found
>> two things. My #3 above is done by the CityPlot package but the mix
>> of CSV and text files used to create the maps looks tough to learn. I
>> suspect I ought to be able to use the package data.tree to do
>> something along the lines I want and perhaps more easily than by
>> learning the data structures behind CityPlot. Those are the only
>> things I've found However, both those options look like learning
>> curves that will take me time I can't justify for the plots. I'd love
>> to have the plots but I know I can get on with the real work without
>> them.
>>
>> However, it occurred to me that there may be someone on the list who
>> may already have done something like this and might be willing to
>> share their tools, tricks, experiences: hence this post!
>>
>> TIA,
>>
>>
>> Chris
>>
>>
>> [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
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> 
> --
> Dr Paul Murrell
> Department of Statistics
> The University of Auckland
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