[R-sig-DB] Postgresql Options for Mac OS X

[Prasenjit Kapat]

Hi,

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 6:18 PM, Neil Tiffin <neilt using neiltiffin.com> wrote:
> In trying to figure out how the best way to access a postgresql database
> from R on Mac OS X. Currently my database has 88 million rows (9 GB) and is
> growing so I am looking for a stable interface.  The following options seem
> to be available:
>
> 1. RdbiPgSQL_1.18.1
> 2. RPostgreSQL_0.1-4
> 3. TSPostgreSQL_2009.3-2
>
> These packages seemed to be obsolete and no longer supported/recommended:
>
> 4. RPgSQL 1.0
> 5. Rdbi 0.1.2
>
> Results
> ======
> #1 relies on #5 and has an older connection syntax.
> #2 appears relatively new and has not reached 1.0 status yet.  For someone
> used to libpq the interface is very familiar.
> #3 relies on #2 and not sure what it adds as the docs did not install
> correctly, nor are they accessible from CRAN.
> All 3 packages compiled and installed on Mac OS X even though #2 and #3
> reported failures in CRAN.
> Have not tried to actually use them yet.
>
> Conclusion
> =========
> Use #2 even though it does not seem very mature.
>
> Questions
> ========
> Is this a good summary of the state of accessing postgresql from R or have I
> missed something?
>
> Is RPostgreSQL being used anyplace and is it stable?

Yes, I do use it on a regular basis. Though there are some quirks here
and there with the functions, they are usable. Often I have found
myself writing small wrapper functions around the ones provided with
RPostgreSQL for my special needs. I have never tried the other options
so no comments on them. But I remember, some time back, reading the
documentations and then finally settling on RPostgreSQL for its
clarity in implementation and function usage.

I use it completely under Linux to Linux connections, so any Mac OSX
specific issues will be hidden from me.

Finally, I should also mention that my usage is primarily like this:
extract relevant/subset of records (and fields) from the database and
work inside R with that. I have never tried any complicated/fancy
database coding, though, in principle it should work, Dirk might
confirm.

-- 
Prasenjit