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Analyze DB2 Data in R
Create data visualizations and use high-performance statistical functions to analyze DB2 data in Microsoft R Open.
Access DB2 data with pure R script and standard SQL. You can use the CData ODBC Driver for DB2 and the RODBC 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 data and visualize DB2 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 DB2 as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to DB2 follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.
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.
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 DB2 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 DB2 Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for DB2
Description = My Description
Server = 10.0.1.2
Port = 50000
User = admin
Password = admin
Database = test
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 DB2 Data as an ODBC Data Source
You can connect to a DSN in R with the following line:
conn <- odbcConnect("CData DB2 Source")
Schema Discovery
The driver models DB2 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 DB2 API.
orders <- sqlQuery(conn, "SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId", believeNRows=FALSE, rows_at_time=1)
You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:
View(orders)
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:
par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2))
barplot(orders$Freight, main="DB2 Orders", names.arg = orders$OrderName, horiz=TRUE)
Ready to get started?
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IBM DB2 ODBC Driver
The IBM DB2 ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from IBM DB2, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.
Access IBM DB2 data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.
