[R-SIG-Mac] Reading a MySQL table into R

[Marc Schwartz]

On Jan 31, 2011, at 1:56 PM, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> On Mon, 31 Jan 2011, Marc Schwartz wrote:
> 
>> On Jan 31, 2011, at 12:56 PM, Luca Meyer wrote:
>> 
>>> Hello,
>>> 
>>> I should first mention that I am not familiar with database management tools, nor with database solutions for Mac OS X.
>>> 
>>> I currently have some data sitting on a MySQL Server version 5.0.51a-24+lenny4 I access through a web site using phpMyAdmin - 2.11.5.1. That is, the database is sitting remotely and I have to access the table containing the data several times during each day.
>>> 
>>> How can I read this data into a R data.frame without having to use phpMyAdmin to download a csv file to my machine and then import it from there? Is there some SQL query I can run directly from R into MySQL?
>>> 
>>> I have been looking at RMySQL, am I on the right track? Or should I be looking at something else?
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Luca
>> 
>> 
>> Luca,
>> 
>> There are essentially two methods:
>> 
>> 1. RMySQL
> 
> And, I should add, you need a matching 32- or 64-bit libmysqlclient
> library for your version of R, which means you will need to install MySQL locally even to use a remote server.


Good points, which I was unaware of, as I don't use R with MySQL, although I do have it installed locally on my MacBook Pro for use with WordPress via phpMyAdmin.


>> 2. RODBC (also on CRAN), which would allow you to connect to MySQL via an ODBC driver, which is available from:
>> 
>> http://www.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/
>> 
>> Be aware that for the second option, you will need to obtain the correct 32 or 64 bit version of the ODBC driver, depending upon which version of R you are running on your Mac when you want to connect to the server.
> 
> (same as RMySQL ....  There is also an Actual Technologies driver.)


Right. I was going to point out the AT driver (http://www.actualtech.com/product_opensourcedatabases.php), but unless there are advantages to the AT driver @ $34.95 U.S., the MySQL driver is free.

I did not have the free option with Oracle unfortunately...

Regards,

Marc


>> If you elect to use RODBC, Prof. Ripley has created a very helpful vignette, which can be read after installation by using:
>> 
>> vignette("RODBC")
> 
> Or online as
> http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/RODBC/vignettes/RODBC.pdf
> 
>> Lastly, for detailed assistance on R and databases, there is the r-sig-db list. More info here:
>> 
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-db
>> 
>> HTH,
>> 
>> Marc Schwartz
> 
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595