R Language sqldf Basic Usage Examples
Example
sqldf() from the package sqldf allows the use of SQLite queries to select and manipulate data in R. SQL queries are entered as character strings.
To select the first 10 rows of the "diamonds" dataset from the package ggplot2, for example:
data("diamonds")
head(diamonds)
# A tibble: 6 x 10 carat cut color clarity depth table price x y z <dbl> <ord> <ord> <ord> <dbl> <dbl> <int> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> 1 0.23 Ideal E SI2 61.5 55 326 3.95 3.98 2.43 2 0.21 Premium E SI1 59.8 61 326 3.89 3.84 2.31 3 0.23 Good E VS1 56.9 65 327 4.05 4.07 2.31 4 0.29 Premium I VS2 62.4 58 334 4.20 4.23 2.63 5 0.31 Good J SI2 63.3 58 335 4.34 4.35 2.75 6 0.24 Very Good J VVS2 62.8 57 336 3.94 3.96 2.48
require(sqldf)
sqldf("select * from diamonds limit 10")
carat cut color clarity depth table price x y z 1 0.23 Ideal E SI2 61.5 55 326 3.95 3.98 2.43 2 0.21 Premium E SI1 59.8 61 326 3.89 3.84 2.31 3 0.23 Good E VS1 56.9 65 327 4.05 4.07 2.31 4 0.29 Premium I VS2 62.4 58 334 4.20 4.23 2.63 5 0.31 Good J SI2 63.3 58 335 4.34 4.35 2.75 6 0.24 Very Good J VVS2 62.8 57 336 3.94 3.96 2.48 7 0.24 Very Good I VVS1 62.3 57 336 3.95 3.98 2.47 8 0.26 Very Good H SI1 61.9 55 337 4.07 4.11 2.53 9 0.22 Fair E VS2 65.1 61 337 3.87 3.78 2.49 10 0.23 Very Good H VS1 59.4 61 338 4.00 4.05 2.39
To select the first 10 rows where for the color "E":
sqldf("select * from diamonds where color = 'E' limit 10")
carat cut color clarity depth table price x y z 1 0.23 Ideal E SI2 61.5 55 326 3.95 3.98 2.43 2 0.21 Premium E SI1 59.8 61 326 3.89 3.84 2.31 3 0.23 Good E VS1 56.9 65 327 4.05 4.07 2.31 4 0.22 Fair E VS2 65.1 61 337 3.87 3.78 2.49 5 0.20 Premium E SI2 60.2 62 345 3.79 3.75 2.27 6 0.32 Premium E I1 60.9 58 345 4.38 4.42 2.68 7 0.23 Very Good E VS2 63.8 55 352 3.85 3.92 2.48 8 0.23 Very Good E VS1 60.7 59 402 3.97 4.01 2.42 9 0.23 Very Good E VS1 59.5 58 402 4.01 4.06 2.40 10 0.23 Good E VS1 64.1 59 402 3.83 3.85 2.46
Notice in the example above that quoted strings within the SQL query are quoted using '' if the overall query is quoted with "" (this also works in reverse).
Suppose that we wish to add a new column to count the number of Premium cut diamonds over 1 carat:
sqldf("select count(*) from diamonds where carat > 1 and color = 'E'")
count(*) 1 1892
Results of created values can also be returned as new columns:
sqldf("select *, count(*) as cnt_big_E_colored_stones from diamonds where carat > 1 and color = 'E' group by clarity")
carat cut color clarity depth table price x y z cnt_big_E_colored_stones 1 1.30 Fair E I1 66.5 58 2571 6.79 6.75 4.50 65 2 1.28 Ideal E IF 60.7 57 18700 7.09 6.99 4.27 28 3 2.02 Very Good E SI1 59.8 59 18731 8.11 8.20 4.88 499 4 2.03 Premium E SI2 61.5 59 18477 8.24 8.16 5.04 666 5 1.51 Ideal E VS1 61.5 57 18729 7.34 7.40 4.53 158 6 1.72 Very Good E VS2 63.4 56 18557 7.65 7.55 4.82 318 7 1.20 Ideal E VVS1 61.8 56 16256 6.78 6.87 4.22 52 8 1.55 Ideal E VVS2 62.5 55 18188 7.38 7.40 4.62 106
If one would be interested what is the max price of the diamond according to the cut:
sqldf("select cut, max(price) from diamonds group by cut")
cut max(price)
1 Fair 18574
2 Good 18788
3 Ideal 18806
4 Premium 18823
5 Very Good 18818
