[R] reading in mdb and outputting to sql (GIS application)

[stephen sefick]

Frank,
I have tried to use this package, but because I am using fink to
install packages the mdbtools binary they are not accessible by the
function from within R.  I checked this by just trying to call it with
the system function and R returned /bin/sh not found.  I can access
the binary from the terminal, so the /sw/bin directory where mdbtools
is located is in my PATH- at least at a terminal.
thanks for the help,

Stephen Sefick

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 11:27 AM, Frank E Harrell
Jr<f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
> The R Hmisc package interfaces these tools - see its mdb.get function.
>
> Frank
>
>
> Marc Schwartz wrote:
>>
>> On Aug 14, 2009, at 10:29 AM, stephen sefick wrote:
>>
>>> I have a geodatabase and would like to import it into GRASS, but it is
>>> in .mbf.  I use mac and linux, and don't have access to access on the
>>> machines that I normally use.  I do have access to access at school,
>>> but I would like to find a way around this if possible.  Any thoughts,
>>> comments, or suggestions would be welcome.
>>> thanks,
>>
>> I think that on Linux and OSX, from an open source perspective, the only
>> option is to use MDB Tools, though I have seen mixed reports of success,
>> including some threads in the R-Help archives. It also appears that there
>> has been no development on the package for about 5 years, as the current
>> version (0.6pre1) dates from 2004. That may suggest limited, if any,
>> compatibility with recent versions of Access file formats.
>>
>> You can download the source tarball here:
>>
>>  http://sourceforge.net/projects/mdbtools/
>>
>> For OSX, it is available via MacPorts:
>>
>>  http://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/databases/mdbtools/Portfile
>>
>> and for major Linux distributions, there are typically pre-compiled
>> binaries available via the standard repos and installation tools (eg. yum
>> and apt-get).
>>
>> There was also some work by the OO.org folks a while back to embed MDB
>> Tools in OpenOffice, but I am not aware of the current state of the project
>> or if it is even active any longer.
>>
>> There is a commercial option from Actual Technologies:
>>
>>  http://www.actualtechnologies.com/product_access.php
>>
>> which appears to provide an ODBC driver for Access on OSX. The page
>> focuses on the use of either Excel or FileMaker Pro with the driver.
>> However, you may be able to get it to work with RODBC.
>>
>> I use Actual's ODBC driver for Oracle on OSX via RODBC, since Oracle has
>> not seen fit to provide a free one as they do for Linux and have been very
>> pleased. It was easy to install and configure, so take that for what it's
>> worth.
>>
>> HTH,
>>
>> Marc Schwartz
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
>
> --
> Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
>                     Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University
>



-- 
Stephen Sefick

Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are
so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and
make us feel like gods.  We are mammals, and have not exhausted the
annoying little problems of being mammals.

								-K. Mullis