[Rd] Utilizing the internet module

[Jeffrey Horner]

Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Feb 2006, Jeffrey Horner wrote:
[...]
>> On a related note, how do I serialize() an R object to a database 
>> table column of type BLOB? I've tried using RODBC but was 
>> unsuccessfully (see R-sig-DB in Feb archive). I've also looked into 
>> RMySQL/DBI but I don't think it's supported yet.
> 
> 
> Since BLOB is not a standard SQL type (AFAIK), ODBC seems not to support 
> it.
> 

It's not standard, per se, but many ODBC drivers and many databases 
(Oracle, MS SQL Server, MySQL, Postgresql, Access, ...) support such a 
type. In fact, the structured query language standards SQL92 and SQL99 
define the type BIT and BIT VARYING to hold arbitrary bit strings, which 
I think is some sort of endorsement for this type.

-- 
Jeffrey Horner       Computer Systems Analyst         School of Medicine
615-322-8606         Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University