6/6/2019 RSQLite

RSQLite
Hadley Wickham

RSQLite is the easiest way to use a database from R because the package itself contains SQLite; no
external software is needed. This vignette will walk you through the basics of using a SQLite database.
RSQLite is a DBI-compatible interface which means you primarily use functions defined in the DBI
package, so you should always start by loading DBI, not RSQLite:

library(DBI)

Creating a new database

To create a new SQLite database, you simply supply the filename to dbConnect():

mydb <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), "my-db.sqlite")

dbDisconnect(mydb)
unlink("my-db.sqlite")

If you just need a temporary database, use either "" (for an on-disk database) or ":memory:" or
"file::memory:" (for a in-memory database). This database will be automatically deleted when you
disconnect from it.

mydb <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), "")

dbDisconnect(mydb)

Loading data

You can easily copy an R data frame into a SQLite database with dbWriteTable():

mydb <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), "")

dbWriteTable(mydb, "mtcars", mtcars)
dbWriteTable(mydb, "iris", iris)
dbListTables(mydb)
#> [1] "iris" "mtcars"

Queries

Issue a query with dbGetQuery():

dbGetQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM mtcars LIMIT 5')

#> mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
#> 1 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
#> 2 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
#> 3 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1

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#> 4 21.4 6 258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1

#> 5 18.7 8 360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2

Not all R variable names are valid SQL variable names, so you may need to escape them with ":

dbGetQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" < 4.6')

#> Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#> 1 4.4 2.9 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 2 4.3 3.0 1.1 0.1 setosa
#> 3 4.4 3.0 1.3 0.2 setosa
#> 4 4.5 2.3 1.3 0.3 setosa
#> 5 4.4 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa

If you need to insert the value from a user into a query, don’t use paste()! That makes it easy for a
malicious attacker to insert SQL that might damager your database or reveal sensitive information.
Instead, use a parameterised query:

dbGetQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" < :x',

params = list(x = 4.6))
#> Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
#> 1 4.4 2.9 1.4 0.2 setosa
#> 2 4.3 3.0 1.1 0.1 setosa
#> 3 4.4 3.0 1.3 0.2 setosa
#> 4 4.5 2.3 1.3 0.3 setosa
#> 5 4.4 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa

This is a little more typing, but much much safer.

Batched queries

If you run a query and the results don’t fit in memory, you can use dbSendQuery(), dbFetch() and
dbClearResults() to retrieve the results in batches. By default dbFetch() will retrieve all available rows: use
n to set the maximum number of rows to return.

rs <- dbSendQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM mtcars')

while (!dbHasCompleted(rs)) {
df <- dbFetch(rs, n = 10)
print(nrow(df))
}
#> [1] 10
#> [1] 10
#> [1] 10
#> [1] 2
dbClearResult(rs)

Multiple parameterised queries

You can use the same approach to run the same parameterised query with different parameters. Call
dbBind() to set the parameters:

rs <- dbSendQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" < :x')

dbBind(rs, param = list(x = 4.5))
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nrow(dbFetch(rs))
#> [1] 4
dbBind(rs, param = list(x = 4))
nrow(dbFetch(rs))
#> [1] 0
dbClearResult(rs)

You can also pass multiple parameters in one call to dbBind():

rs <- dbSendQuery(mydb, 'SELECT * FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" = :x')

dbBind(rs, param = list(x = seq(4, 4.4, by = 0.1)))
nrow(dbFetch(rs))
#> [1] 4
dbClearResult(rs)

Statements

DBI has new functions dbSendStatement() and dbExecute(), which are the counterparts of dbSendQuery()
and dbGetQuery() for SQL statements that do not return a tabular result, such as inserting records into a
table, updating a table, or setting engine parameters. It is good practice, although currently not enforced,
to use the new functions when you don’t expect a result.

dbExecute(mydb, 'DELETE FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" < 4')

#> [1] 0
rs <- dbSendStatement(mydb, 'DELETE FROM iris WHERE "Sepal.Length" < :x')
dbBind(rs, param = list(x = 4.5))
dbGetRowsAffected(rs)
#> [1] 4
dbClearResult(rs)

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