[R] Database

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On 29/02/2012 12:45, R. Michael Weylandt wrote:
> I don't use Access but my general impression is that the advantages it
> brings will be similar to those brought by any other database:
> performance rather than ability -- they are both Turing complete after
> all, after some trickery on the SQL end.
>
> Databases allow much larger data sets than R currently does and often

But not much larger in Access than 64-bit R allows: Access is a pretty 
limited system.

> allow faster queries -- some would argue the SQL syntax is clearer for
> some subsetting operations, but that's perhaps a function of
> familiarity. For the task you describe, it should be elementary in
> both platforms and I'd just use whichever one the data was already in.
> For more substantive data analysis, you almost certainly want to use
> R.
>
> Others with Access experience (or more SQL) can add more.

Access does not bring the performance benefits of more advanced DBMS 
engines: on Windows I would certainly recommend using SQL Server Express 
(or whatever it is currently called) instead.  If you want to use a DBMS 
to supplement R (as per the R Data Import/Export manual) I would use 
MySQL or SQLite.


> Michael
>
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 6:06 PM, Trying To learn again
> <tryingtolearnagain at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I´m new using Access. I see that many things that you can do on Access you
>> can do on CRAN R but not on contrary.
>>
>> My question is: Is there any manual with examples comparing how to do data
>> base analysis on access and making the same on CRAN R?
>>
>> Imagine I want to compare two columns "Name" of two different data bases. I
>> want to see if there are "identical" names on both files.

'files'?  Where are the data?  If you mean different tables in one 
Access database then I would still do this in R via RODBC.

>> It is better to use Access? Or it is better to use cran r (importing data
>> and work on CRAN R)?
>>
>> This is only an example.
>>
>> I know CRAN R is more specialized on statistics and data analysis but I ´m
>> trying not to learn Access and SQL so on.

In which case you can simply use RODBC to import tables to R and work there.

>> I cannot explain better I hope you comprehed me.
>>
>>         [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>>
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>
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-- 
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