Analyze DB2 Data in R

Access DB2 data with pure R script and standard SQL on any machine where R and Java can be installed. You can use the CData JDBC Driver for DB2 and the RJDBC package to work with remote DB2 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 DB2 and visualize DB2 data by calling standard R functions.

Install R

You can match the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running open R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open 3.2.3, which is preconfigured to install packages from the Jan. 1, 2016 snapshot of the CRAN repository. This snapshot ensures reproducibility.

Load the RJDBC Package

To use the driver, download the RJDBC package. After installing the RJDBC package, the following line loads the package:

Connect to DB2 as a JDBC Data Source

You will need the following information to connect to DB2 as a JDBC data source:

• Driver Class: Set this to cdata.jdbc.db2.DB2Driver
• Classpath: Set this to the location of the driver JAR. By default this is the lib subfolder of the installation folder.

The DBI functions, such as dbConnect and dbSendQuery, provide a unified interface for writing data access code in R. Use the following line to initialize a DBI driver that can make JDBC requests to the CData JDBC Driver for DB2:

You can now use DBI functions to connect to DB2 and execute SQL queries. Initialize the JDBC connection with the dbConnect function.

Set the following properties to connect to DB2:

• Server: Set this to the name of the server running DB2.
• Port: Set this to the port the DB2 server is listening on.
• Database: Set this to the name of the DB2 database.
• User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
• Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

You will also need to install the corresponding DB2 driver:

• Windows: Install the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET.

  On Windows, installing the IBM Data Server Provider is sufficient, as the installation registers it in the machine.config.

• Java: Install the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC.

  In the Java version, place the IBM Data Server Driver JAR in the www\WEB-INF\lib\ folder for this application.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the DB2 JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

Below is a sample dbConnect call, including a typical JDBC connection string:

Schema Discovery

The driver models DB2 APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:

Execute SQL Queries

You can use the dbGetQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the DB2 API:

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

Plot DB2 Data

You can now analyze DB2 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: