An introductory comparison of using the two languages.
R was made especially for data analysis and graphics. SQL was made especially for databases. They are allies.
The data structure in R that most closely matches a SQL table is a data frame. The terms rows and columns are used in both. Read more →
Several packages on CRAN provide (or relate to) interfaces between databases and R. Here is a summary, mostly in the words of the package descriptions. Remember that package names are case-sensitive.
The packages that talk about being DBI-compliant are referring to the DBI package (see below in “Other SQL”).
dbConnect: Provides a graphical user interface to connect with databases that use MySQL.
RMySQL: The current version complies with the database interface definition as implemented in the package DBI 0.2-2.
TSMySQL: TSMySQL provides a MySQL interface for TSdbi. Comprehensive examples of all the TS* packages are provided in the vignette Guide.pdf with the TSdata package. Read more →
