How to read data from Microsoft Access .accdb database files into R?

Question

The RODBC documentation suggests it is possible, but I am not sure how to read data from a Microsoft Access (the new .accdb format) file with this package into R (on Debian GNU/Linux). The vignette talks about drivers, but I do not quite understand how I can see which drivers are installed, and in particular, if I have a driver installed for me to access those .accdb files.

What code do you use to read data from .accdb files? And please indicate what platform you are on and if you had to install a special driver.

Answer 1

To import a post-2007 Microsoft Access file (.accdb) into R, you can use the RODBC package.

For an .accdb file called "foo.accdb" with the following tables, "bar" and "bin", stored on the desktop of John Doe's computer:

library(RODBC)    #loads the RODBC package
dta <- odbcConnectAccess2007("C:/Users/JohnDoe/Desktop/foo.accdb")   #specifies the file path
df1 <- sqlFetch(dta, "bar")   #loads the table called 'bar' in the original Access file
df2 <- sqlFetch(dta, "bin")   #loads the table called 'bin' in the original Access file

Answer 2

The title of the page you linked, RODBC: ODBC Database Access, may be misleading. Access doesn't mean MS Access; in that title access means connectivity. RODBC is an ODBC manager for R. It serves as the mediator to provide communication between R and the ODBC driver for your target database. So for GNU/Linux, you would still need an ODBC driver for MS Access database files ... RODBC doesn't provide one.

However, I don't know of any free (as in freedom and/or beer) MS Access ODBC drivers for Linux. Easysoft sells one, but it's not cheap. There may be offerings from other vendors, too; I haven't looked.

It might be easier to use a Windows machine to export your ACCDB to a format R can use. Or run R on Windows instead of Linux.