Dynamic SQL Query in R (WHERE) - sql

I am trying out some dynamic SQL queries using R and the postgres package to connect to my DB.
Unfortunately I get an empty data frame if I execute the following statement:
x <- "Mean"
query1 <- dbGetQuery(con, statement = paste(
"SELECT *",
"FROM name",
"WHERE statistic = '",x,"'"))
I believe that there is a syntax error somewhere in the last line. I already changed the commas and quotation marks in every possible way, but nothing seems to work.
Does anyone have an idea how I can construct this SQL Query with a dynamic WHERE Statement using a R variable?

You should use paste0 instead of paste which is producing wrong results or paste(..., collapse='') which is slightly less efficient (see ?paste0 or docs here).
Also you should consider preparing your SQL statement in separated variable. In such way you can always easily check what SQL is being produced.
I would use this (and I am using this all the time):
x <- "Mean"
sql <- paste0("select * from name where statistic='", x, "'")
# print(sql)
query1 <- dbGetQuery(con, sql)
In case I have SQL inside a function I always add debug parameter so I can see what SQL is used:
function get_statistic(x=NA, debug=FALSE) {
sql <- paste0("select * from name where statistic='", x, "'")
if(debug) print(sql)
query1 <- dbGetQuery(con, sql)
query1
}
Then I can simply use get_statistic('Mean', debug=TRUE) and I will see immediately if generated SQL is really what I expected.

The Problem The problem may be that you have spaces around Mean:
x <- "Mean"
s <- paste(
"SELECT *",
"FROM name",
"WHERE statistic = '",x,"'")
giving:
> s
[1] "SELECT * FROM name WHERE statistic = ' Mean '"
Corrected Version Instead try:
s <- sprintf("select * from name where statistic = '%s'", x)
giving:
> s
[1] "select * from name where statistic = 'Mean'"
gsubfn You could also try this:
library(gsubfn)
fn$dbGetQuery(con, "SELECT *
FROM name
WHERE statistic = '$x'")

Try this:
require(stringi)
stri_paste("SELECT * ",
"FROM name ",
"WHERE statistic = '",x,"'",collapse="")
## [1] "SELECT * FROM name WHERE statistic = 'Mean'"
or use concatenate operator %+%
"SELECT * FROM name WHERE statistic ='" %+% x %+% "'"
## [1] "SELECT * FROM name WHERE statistic ='mean'"

A newer way to do this is with the glue package, part of the tidyverse. It is described as "An implementation of interpreted string literals, inspired by Python's Literal String Interpolation."
Using glue, you would do:
library(glue)
library(DBI)
x <- "Mean"
query1 <- glue_sql("
SELECT *
FROM name
WHERE statistic = ({x})
", .con = con)
dbGetQuery(con, query1)
It's a great package due to its flexibility. For example, let's say you wanted to import mean, median and mode statistics. Then you would add an asterisk to the call like so:
x <- c("Mean", "Median", "Mode")
query2 <- glue_sql("
SELECT *
FROM name
WHERE statistic = ({x*})
", .con = con)
dbGetQuery(con, query2)

Related

Get the results sets of a parametrized query `rbind`ed *and* directly in the database using R's `DBI`

Using R's DBI, I need to:
run a parametrized query with different parameters (i.e. a vector of parameters);
get the results sets concatenated (i.e. rbinded as per R terminology or unioned as per SQL terminology);
and get the resulting table in the database for further manipulation.
dbBind/dbGetquery fullfils requirements 1 and 2, but I then need to write the resulting data frame to the database using dbWriteTable, which is ineficient:
library(DBI)
con <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), ":memory:")
dbWriteTable(con, "iris", iris)
res <- dbGetQuery(con,
"select * from iris where Species = ?",
params = list(c("setosa", "versicolor")))
dbWriteTable(con, "mytable", res)
Conversely, dbExecute fulfils requirement 3, but I don't think it has the "rbind feature". Of course, this throw an error because the table would get overwritten:
dbExecute(con,
"create table mytable as select * from iris where Species = ?",
params = list(c("setosa", "versicolor")))
What is the most efficient/recommended way of doing so?
Notes:
I am not the DBA and can only access the database through R.
My example is too trivial and could be achieved in a single query. My use case really requires a parametrized query to be run multiple times with different parameters.
I have to use Oracle, but I am interested in a solution even if it don't works with Oracle.
1) Create the table with the first parameter and then insert each of the others into it.
library(RSQLite)
con <- dbConnect(SQLite())
dbWriteTable(con, "iris", iris)
parms <- c("setosa", "versicolor")
dbExecute(con, "create table mytable as
select * from iris where Species = ?",
params = parms[1])
for (p in parms[-1]) {
dbExecute(con, "insert into mytable
select * from iris where Species = ?",
params = p)
}
# check
res <- dbGetQuery(con, "select * from mytable")
str(res)
2) Alternately generate the text of an SQL statement to do it all. sqldf pulls in RSQLite and gsubfn which supplies fn$ that enables the text substitution.
library(sqldf)
con <- dbConnect(SQLite())
dbWriteTable(con, "iris", iris)
parms <- c("setosa", "versicolor")
parmString <- toString(sprintf("'%s'", parms))
fn$dbExecute(con, "create table mytable as
select * from iris where Species in ($parmString)")
# check
res <- dbGetQuery(con, "select * from mytable")
str(res)
3) A variation of (2) is to insert the appropriate number of question marks.
library(sqldf)
con <- dbConnect(SQLite())
dbWriteTable(con, "iris", iris)
params <- list("setosa", "versicolor")
quesString <- toString(rep("?", length(params)))
fn$dbExecute(con, "create table mytable as
select * from iris where Species in ($quesString)", params = params)
# check
res <- dbGetQuery(con, "select * from mytable")
str(res)
Based on #r2evans comment and #G.Grothendieck answer, instead of query/download/combine/upload, I used a parameterized query that inserts directly into a table.
First, I created the table with the appropriate columns to collect the results:
library(DBI)
con <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), ":memory:")
create_table <-
"CREATE TABLE warpbreaks2 (
breaks real,
wool text,
tension text
)"
dbExecute(con, create_table)
Then I executed an INSERT INTO step:
dbWriteTable(con, "warpbreaks", warpbreaks)
insert_into <-
"INSERT INTO warpbreaks2
SELECT warpbreaks.breaks,
warpbreaks.wool,
warpbreaks.tension
FROM warpbreaks
WHERE tension = ?"
dbExecute(con, insert_into, params = list(c("L", "M")))
This is a dummy example for illustration purpose. It could be achieve more directly with e.g.:
direct_query <-
"CREATE TABLE warpbreaks3 AS
SELECT *
FROM warpbreaks
WHERE tension IN ('L', 'M')"
dbExecute(con, direct_query )

Run SQL script from R with variables defined in R

I have an SQL script which I need to run using R Studio. However, my SQL script has one variable that is defined in my R environment. I am using dbGetQuery; however, I do not know (and I didn't find a solution) how to pass these variables.
library(readr)
library(DBI)
library(odbc)
library(RODBC)
#create conection (fake one here)
con <- odbcConnect(...)
dt = Sys.Date()
df = dbGetQuery(.con, statement = read_file('Query.sql'))
The file 'Query.sql' makes reference to dt. How do I make the file recognize my variable dt?
There are several options, but my preferred is "bound parameters".
If, for instance, your 'Query.sql' looks something like
select ...
from MyTable
where CreatedDateTime > ?
The ? is a place-holder for a binding.
Then you can do
con <- dbConnect(...) # from DBI
df = dbGetQuery(con, statement = read_file('Query.sql'), params = list(dt))
With more parameters, add more ?s and more objects to the list, as in
qry <- "select ... where a > ? and b < ?"
newdat <- dbGetQuery(con, qry, params = list(var1, var2))
If you need a SQL IN clause, it gets a little dicey, since it doesn't bind things precisely like we want.
candidate_values <- c(2020, 1997, 1996, 1901)
qry <- paste("select ... where a > ? and b in (", paste(rep("?", length(candidate_values)), collapse=","), ")")
qry
# [1] "select ... where a > ? and b in ( ?,?,?,? )"
df <- dbGetQuery(con, qry, params = c(list(avar), as.list(candidate_values)))

R - Dataframe values inside mysql query in R

In R - Is it possible to make a mysql query with a IN, where the values in that IN are from a DataFrame column?
EXAMPLE of what I'm trying to do:
Directory = read.csv("worlddirectory.csv", header = TRUE, sep = ",",stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
Active_Customers = Directory[(Directory$Status == "Active"),]
PhoneNumbers = dbGetQuery(DBConnection,
"
Select
db.phonenumbers,
db.names
from
database db
where
db.country IN
(
Active_Customers$Country
);"
As we can see here, the expected statement looks like:
WHERE column_name IN (value1, value2, ...);
We can use paste with the argument collapse=", " to obtain the desired format. I think this should work:
PhoneNumbers = dbGetQuery(DBConnection,
paste0("SELECT db.phonenumbers, db.names ",
"FROM database db ",
"WHERE db.country IN (",
paste(Active_Customers$Country,collapse=", "),");"))
Example:
Active_Customers <- data.frame(Country=c("NL","BE","US"))
paste0("SELECT db.phonenumbers, db.names ",
"FROM database db ",
"WHERE db.country IN (",
paste(Active_Customers$Country,collapse=", "),");")
Output:
[1] "SELECT db.phonenumbers, db.names FROM database db WHERE db.country IN (NL, BE, US);"
Hope this helps!

Specifying an SQL where statement based on a string in R (using rodbc)

This is my first attempt at using R to access data from within MS Access using ODBC.
The following query works:
id <- levels(assetid)[assetid[,1]][12]
qry <- "SELECT DriverName FROM Data WHERE ID = 'idofinterest'"
sqlQuery(con, qry)
However, I would like to know if there is a way to use the variable "id" in the "qry" statement (without using paste)? I have seen some statements on the web with $ and % signs - however I haven't had any success in using them.
Thanks.
Why don't you want to use paste? Anyway, sprintf is an alternative means of string munging.
qry <- sprintf("SELECT DriverName FROM Data WHERE ID = '%s'", id)
sqlQuery(con, qry)
Try fn$ from the gsubfn package :
> library(gsubfn)
> id <- "abc"
> fn$identity("SELECT DriverName FROM Data WHERE ID = '$id'")
[1] "SELECT DriverName FROM Data WHERE ID = 'abc'"

Error in using variables in SQL statements [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to use a variable name in a SQL statement?
(5 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
Im extracting some data from a table using sql select statment in R,
query <- "select * from MyTable where TimeCol='6/29/2012 21:05' ";
result <- fn$sqldf(query);
The above code gives correct results, but when the time value is saved in variable, it doesn't works
mytime <- "6/29/2012 21:05";
query <- "select * from MyTable where TimeCol = $mytime"; # OR
query <- "select * from MyTable where TimeCol = $[mytime]"; # OR
query <- "select * from MyTable where TimeCol = '$[mytime]' ";
result <- fn$sqldf(query);
None of the above three lines is working
View(result) it gives the error: invalid 'x' argument
$[] and $() are not valid syntax and the quotes that were around the time string in the first instance of query in the post are missing in the subsequent instances so a correct version would be:
library(sqldf)
mytime <- "6/29/2012 21:05"
MyTable <- data.frame(TimeCol = mytime)
query <- "select * from MyTable where TimeCol = '$mytime' "
fn$sqldf(query)
Although the answer I linked to in a comment uses a different function to query the data.frame, the principle is the same: paste the variable to the rest of your select string, ensuring quotes are included when necessary (using shQuote), then pass that character string to your sql querying function of choice.
query <- paste0("select * from MyTable where TimeCol = ", shQuote(mytime))
result <- fn$sqldf(query)
The semicolons at the ends of your lines probably aren't necessary.
As Joran mentions in a comment, sprintf could also be used (perhaps with a gain in readability in case there are many variable components in your query string):
sprintf("select * from MyTable where %s = '%s'", "TimeCol", mytime)
# [1] "select * from MyTable where TimeCol = '6/29/2012 21:05'"