[R] How to reformat data from database into data.frame?

[Mark Dalphin]

I'm trying to find a clever way to re-map data from a database
query into a data.frame.

Querying a database often returns a table (data.frame) like this:

GeneID	 MethodID   Value
6	 1	    123
6	 2	    456
6	 3	    987
7	 1	    234
7	 3	    432
8	 2	    190
8	 3	    34
8	 1	    864	    

Note that GeneID=7 doesn't have a value for MethodID=2.

Note that GeneID=8 doesn't have the MethodID in any particular order
and, in fact, there doesn't need to be an order to the GeneID, although
I can force ordering as part of my SQL query.

I want to reformat this into a data.frame with multiple columns:

       Value	   Value     Value
GeneID Method1	   Method2   Method3
6      123	   456	     987
7      234	   NA	     432
8      864	   190	     34

Is there an elegant way to do this type of reformating in R?

Thanks.
Mark

-- 
Mark Dalphin                          email: mdalphin at amgen.com
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