dbTableFromDSV: Create a table from a delimiter separated values (DSV) text...

In RSQLite.toolkit: Load Data in SQLite from Tabular Files

Create a table from a delimiter separated values (DSV) text file

Description

The dbTableFromDSV() function reads the data from a DSV file and copies it to a table in a SQLite database. If table does not exist, it will create it.

The dbTableFromDSV() function reads the data from a DSV file and copies it to a table in a SQLite database. If table does not exist, it will create it.

Usage

dbTableFromDSV(
  input_file,
  dbcon,
  table_name,
  header = TRUE,
  sep = ",",
  dec = ".",
  grp = "",
  id_quote_method = "DB_NAMES",
  col_names = NULL,
  col_types = NULL,
  col_import = NULL,
  drop_table = FALSE,
  auto_pk = FALSE,
  build_pk = FALSE,
  pk_fields = NULL,
  constant_values = NULL,
  chunk_size = 0,
  ...
)

Arguments

input_file	character, the file name (including path) to be read.
dbcon	database connection, as created by the dbConnect function.
table_name	character, the name of the table.
header	logical, if TRUE the first line contains the columns' names. If FALSE, the columns' names will be formed sing a "V" followed by the column number (as specified in utils::read.table()).
sep	character, field delimiter (e.g., "," for CSV, "\t" for TSV) in the input file. Defaults to ",".
dec	character, decimal separator (e.g., "." or "," depending on locale) in the input file. Defaults to ".".
grp	character, character used for digit grouping. It defaults to "" (i.e. no grouping).
id_quote_method	character, used to specify how to build the SQLite columns' names using the fields' identifiers read from the input file. For details see the description of the quote_method parameter of the format_column_names() function. Defautls to DB_NAMES.
col_names	character vector, names of the columuns in the input file. Used to override the field names derived from the input file (using the quote method selected by id_quote_method). Must be of the same length of the number of columns in the input file. If NULL the column names coming from the input file (after quoting) will be used. Defaults to NULL.
col_types	character vector of classes to be assumed for the columns of the input file. Must be of the same length of the number of columns in the input file. If not null, it will override the data types guessed from the input file. If NULL the data type inferred from the input files will be used. Defaults to NULL.
col_import	can be either: a numeric vector (coherced to integers) with the columns' positions in the input file that will be imported in the SQLite table; a character vector with the columns' names to be imported. The names are those in the input file (after quoting with id_quote_method), if col_names is NULL, or those expressed in col_names vector. Defaults to NULL, i.e. all columns will be imported.
drop_table	logical, if TRUE the target table will be dropped (if exists) and recreated before importing the data. if FALSE, data from input file will be appended to an existing table. Defaults to FALSE.
auto_pk	logical, if TRUE, and pk_fields parameter is NULL, an additional column named SEQ will be added to the table and it will be defined to be ⁠INTEGER PRIMARY KEY⁠ (i.e. in effect an alias for ROWID). Defaults to FALSE.
build_pk	logical, if TRUE creates a ⁠UNIQUE INDEX⁠ named ⁠<table_name>_PK⁠ defined by the combination of fields specified in the pk_fields parameter. It will be effective only if pk_fields is not null. Defaults to FALSE.
pk_fields	character vector, the list of the fields' names that define the ⁠UNIQUE INDEX⁠. Defaults to NULL.
constant_values	a one row data frame whose columns will be added to the table in the database. The additional table columns will be named as the data frame columns, and the corresponding values will be associeted to each record imported from the input file. It is useful to keep track of additional information (e.g., the input file name, additional context data not available in the data set, ...) when loading the content of multiple input files in the same table.
chunk_size	integer, the number of lines in each "chunk" (i.e. block of lines from the input file). Setting its value to a positive integer number, will process the input file by blocks of chunk_size lines, avoiding to read all the data in memory at once. It can be useful for very large size files. If set to zero, it will process the whole text file in one pass. Default to zero.
...	additional arguments passed to base::scan() function used to read input data. Please note that if the quote parameter is not specified, it will be set to "" (i.e., no quoting) by default.

Value

integer, the number of records in table_name after reading data from input_file.

Examples

# Create a temporary database and load CSV data
library(RSQLite.toolkit)

# Set up database connection
dbcon <- dbConnect(RSQLite::SQLite(), file.path(tempdir(), "example.sqlite"))

# Get path to example data
data_path <- system.file("extdata", package = "RSQLite.toolkit")

# Load abalone CSV data with automatic primary key
dbTableFromDSV(
  input_file = file.path(data_path, "abalone.csv"),
  dbcon = dbcon,
  table_name = "ABALONE",
  drop_table = TRUE,
  auto_pk = TRUE,
  header = TRUE,
  sep = ",",
  dec = "."
)

# Check the imported data
dbListFields(dbcon, "ABALONE")
head(dbGetQuery(dbcon, "SELECT * FROM ABALONE"))

# Load data with specific column selection
dbTableFromDSV(
  input_file = file.path(data_path, "abalone.csv"),
  dbcon = dbcon,
  table_name = "ABALONE_SUBSET",
  drop_table = TRUE,
  header = TRUE,
  sep = ",",
  dec = ".",
  col_import = c("Sex", "Length", "Diam", "Whole")
)

head(dbGetQuery(dbcon, "SELECT * FROM ABALONE_SUBSET"))

# Check available tables
dbListTables(dbcon)

# Clean up
dbDisconnect(dbcon)

RSQLite.toolkit documentation built on Sept. 2, 2026, 9:06 a.m.