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Analyze CockroachDB Data in R


Create data visualizations and use high-performance statistical functions to analyze CockroachDB data in Microsoft R Open.

Access CockroachDB data with pure R script and standard SQL. You can use the CData ODBC Driver for CockroachDB and the RODBC package to work with remote CockroachDB data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to CockroachDB data and visualize CockroachDB data in R.

Install R

You can complement the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open (MRO).

Connect to CockroachDB as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to CockroachDB follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

Set the following to connect to CockroachDB.

  • Server: The host name or IP address of the server.
  • Port: The port number of the CockroachDB server. If not specified, the default port is 26257.
  • Database: The name of the Cockroach database. If not specified, you connect to the user's default database.
  • User: The Cockroach DB user account used to authenticate.
  • Password: The password used to authenticate the user.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for CockroachDB in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData CockroachDB Source] Driver = CData ODBC Driver for CockroachDB Description = My Description User = root Password = root Database = system Server = localhost Port = 26257

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Load the RODBC Package

To use the driver, download the RODBC package. In RStudio, click Tools -> Install Packages and enter RODBC in the Packages box.

After installing the RODBC package, the following line loads the package:

library(RODBC)

Note: This article uses RODBC version 1.3-12. Using Microsoft R Open, you can test with the same version, using the checkpoint capabilities of Microsoft's MRAN repository. The checkpoint command enables you to install packages from a snapshot of the CRAN repository, hosted on the MRAN repository. The snapshot taken Jan. 1, 2016 contains version 1.3-12.

library(checkpoint) checkpoint("2016-01-01")

Connect to CockroachDB Data as an ODBC Data Source

You can connect to a DSN in R with the following line:

conn <- odbcConnect("CData CockroachDB Source")

Schema Discovery

The driver models CockroachDB APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

sqlTables(conn)

Execute SQL Queries

Use the sqlQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the CockroachDB API.

orders <- sqlQuery(conn, "SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'", believeNRows=FALSE, rows_at_time=1)

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:

View(orders)

Plot CockroachDB Data

You can now analyze CockroachDB data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function:

par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2)) barplot(orders$ShipCity, main="CockroachDB Orders", names.arg = orders$ShipName, horiz=TRUE)

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the CockroachDB ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

CockroachDB Icon CockroachDB ODBC Driver

The CockroachDB ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from CockroachDB, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access CockroachDB data like you would a database - read, write, and update CockroachDB NewSQLDB, etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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