What is R Interactive and how do you load it?

R GUI is an interactive window from R Foundation.

When you install Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3 or install Microsoft R Client you can bring up R Interactive within Visual Studio IDE. This is really very nice and you have the full access to intellisense that makes it very easy to use the interface. You would really appreciate if you had the experience of using the Open Source R.

Here are some screen shots of its usage in Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3. You launch R Interactive from R Tools menu in Visual Studio 2015 Community Update 3.

This brings up the message that you have logged into your Microsoft Account.

If you are logged in you get to display the R Interactive pane as shown.
 

This looks similar to the one from Open Source, but wait. You can load the library RODBC straight away and you get the functions that you can use, thanks to intellisense.

 

Now I try to establish an ODBC connection to my SQL Server 2016, voila, again intellisense to the rescue. In Open Source you have to look up some documents to get these.

OK, I have a User DSN to my SQL Server 2016 called 'HSQL' and I try to call.

Well, I have the full details of my User DSN.

This is the way to go if you are interested in productivity.

More in my future posts on this blog and the other:
http://hodentekMSSS.blogspot.com

Read the posts related to this post here:


http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-is-needed-to-leverage-r-from.html

http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-are-user-dsn-system-dsn-and-file.html

http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2016/08/viewing-tables-on-sql-server-2016.html

http://hodentekmsss.blogspot.com/2016/07/you-need-this-to-connect-to-sql-server.html

Can you modify a UserDSN?

Yes, You can.

In my previous post I described the procedure to create a UserDSN. While creating the DSN, I had opted for the 'master' as the default database.

Herein, I show how to change the database that DSN connects to from its present option('master') to another user database, 'AdventureWorks 2014' on the same server instance.

We start with the ODBC DataSource Administrator by brining it up from start as shown.

Mod_Odbc_00

Click HSQL, the DSN we want to modify and click Configure.

The Microsoft SQL Server DSN Configuration window is displayed.

Mod_Odbc_01

Click Next.

Accept the default, 'With Integrated Windows authentication' and click Next.

Mod_Odbc_02

The next windows where you need to change the database appears.

Mod_Odbc_03

Place ccheck mark for 'Change the default database to:'. Click on the handle for this field and change from master to AdventureWorks2014 as shown.

Mod_Odbc_04
After making this change, click Next. In the window that is dispalyed click Finish.

The summary screen of the choices are displayed as shown.

Mod_Odbc_05

You can test the connecctivity using the Test Data Source....button. Click OK.

Now your DSN is connecting to 'AdventureWorks2014'

How are User DSN, System DSN and File DSN are different?

ODBC User data source stores information needed to connect to the data source that is targeted for connection.

DSN is needed to connect to a data source and it stands for Data Source Name.
User DSN:
Only visible to the user who created it and can only be used on the computer on which it is created.

System DSN:
It is available for all users of the computer on which it is created including NT Services.

File DSN:
It can be shared by users who have the same drivers installed on their computer.

Obviously File DSN is more portable than User DSN

How do you create a DSN?

All Windows installations have what is called a ODBC Data Source Administrator, a program to create, maintain or modify data source access that use SQL as a data source standard language.

Search ODBC Data Source on our desktop.