Errors using RODBC to Create/Populate ORACLE table - r

Question

Similar symptoms as create a table from a dataframe using RODBC.
First Attempt
I'm connecting to ORACLE successfully with readOnly=FALSE, and can retrieve data using sqlQuery. I created a test table RTest with a single NUMBER(16,8) field called Value. I can insert into the table from R using:
sqlQuery(channel,"insert into RTest (value) values(25)")
So I appear to have WRITE permissions.
Next Attempt
Following several internet examples, I created an R data.frame test with a single row and column and named Value where I attempted:
sqlSave(channel, test, "RTest", fast=FALSE, append=TRUE)
and with safer=TRUE. I receive an Oracle error:
ORA-00922 - missing or invalid option. and RODBC error: "Could not SQLExecDirect 'CREATE TABLE DSN=...."
So, sqlSave appears to be attempting to create the table. I've added and deleted options: rownames=FALSE, colnames=FALSE, safer=TRUE/FALSE, varTypes=list, and varInfo=list to no avail.
Final Attempt
Next I deleted the table in ORACLE and used sqlSave with safer=TRUE that should have created the table based on the data.frame structure but receive same error.
Eventually, I need to periodically read data files and process in R then upload 100+ fields with millions of rows. Queries against an Oracle table will help with memory requirements to perform analyses and preclude reading the data into R from zipped files every time.
The help articles on inserting a data.frame into ORACLE via RODBC appear simple with default options. I thought this was a no-brainer, but this error keeps cropping up. Any clues?
New Information
Some progress:
1) Noted that connection uses case="nochange" and ORACLE defaults for tables and fields within tables is upper case. sqlSave attempts used lower case. Error changed when coordinated table name case.
2) Discovered through trial and error that ORACLE required a two part name USERNAME.TableName.
3) R numeric columns are double, oracle fields were defined NUMERIC(16,8) [and later (34,17)] which should hold the necessary digits. R generated data type errors trying to convert binary double. So switched Oracle to binary double and that error disappeared.
Response to Information Requests and New Problem Description
See following session text. Note that the local server name was replaced with {DummyServerName}, and the user name with {UserName}.
** Create ORACLE table to match base R data frame USArrests**
## in Oracle create table to match data types in demo data.frame USArrests
SQL> CREATE TABLE "{UserName}"."RTEST"
2 ("Murder" BINARY_DOUBLE,
3 "Assault" DECIMAL,
4 "UrbanPop" DECIMAL,
5 "Rape" BINARY_DOUBLE,
6 "State" VARCHAR2(255 BYTE)
7 );
Table created.
SQL> desc RTEST
Name Null? Type
----------------------------------------- -------- ---------------
Murder BINARY_DOUBLE
Assault NUMBER(38)
UrbanPop NUMBER(38)
Rape BINARY_DOUBLE
State VARCHAR2(255)
** Connection Details**
## establish ORACLE connection in R
library(RODBC)
channel <- odbcConnect("{DummyServerName}", readOnly=FALSE, connection="TNS", case="nochange", believeNRows=FALSE)
odbcGetInfo(channel)
DBMS_Name DBMS_Ver Driver_ODBC_Ver Data_Source_Name Driver_Name
"Oracle" "11.02.0030" "03.52" "Default" "SQORA32.DLL"
Driver_Ver ODBC_Ver Server_Name
"11.02.0003" "03.80.0000" "{DummyServerName}"
The odbcGetInfo results indicate successful connection
**Insert manually into at table from R **
### manually insert value into table to show write capability
y <- sqlQuery(channel,"insert into {UserName}.RTEST values(25,26,27,28,'JUNK')")
y
character(0)
examine the table
x <- sqlQuery(channel,"select * from RTest")
x
Murder Assault UrbanPop Rape State
1 25 26 27 28 JUNK
So a manual insertion is successful. I can insert from R, but so far not from sqlSave.
Attempt to add value from data.frame using sqlSave
##use data frame from R examples
attach(USArrests)
The following objects are masked from USArrests (pos = 3):
Assault, Murder, Rape, UrbanPop
##capture the state names from the rownames to match ORACLE table structure
State<-rownames(USArrests)
Arrests2<-cbind(USArrests[,1:4],State)
typeof(Arrests2)
[1] "list"
class(Arrests2)
[1] "data.frame"
Now attempt to populate the ORACLE table using sqlSave...
sqlSave(channel,Arrests2,tablename="{UserName}.RTEST", fast=FALSE, safer=TRUE,rownames=FALSE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, Arrests2, tablename = "{UserName}.RTEST", fast = FALSE, :
table ‘{UserName}.RTEST’ already exists
** OK - safer=TRUE should have appended, but see if forcing an append will work using append=TRUE instead **
sqlSave(channel,Arrests2,tablename="{UserName}.RTEST", fast=FALSE, append=TRUE, rownames=FALSE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, Arrests2, tablename = "{UserName}.RTEST", fast = FALSE, :
unable to append to table ‘{UserName}.RTEST’
** now let R create the table **
##In ORACLE...
SQL> drop table RTEST;
Table dropped.
back in R - safer=TRUE should create the table if it does not exist
apply sqlSave using ?sqlSave defaults, omit rownames to match table structure
sqlSave(channel,Arrests2,tablename="{UserName}.RTEST", fast=FALSE, safer=TRUE,rownames=FALSE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, Arrests2, tablename = "{UserName}.RTEST", fast = FALSE, :
HY000 902 [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-00902: invalid datatype
[RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLExecDirect 'CREATE TABLE {UserName}.RTEST
(DSN={DummyServerName}MurderDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double,
DSN={DummyServerName}AssaultDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}UrbanPopDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}RapeDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double,
DSN={DummyServerName}StateDSN={DummyServerName} varchar(255))'
** follow the sqlSave example exactly - this should create table USArrests **
sqlSave(channel, USArrests, rownames = "state", addPK=TRUE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, USArrests, rownames = "state", addPK = TRUE) :
HY000 922 [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-00922: missing or invalid option
[RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLExecDirect 'CREATE TABLE DSN={DummyServerName}USArrestsDSN={DummyServerName}
(DSN={DummyServerName}stateDSN={DummyServerName} varchar(255) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
DSN={DummyServerName}MurderDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double,
DSN={DummyServerName}AssaultDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}UrbanPopDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}RapeDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double)'
**perhaps the uname qualifier is needed in tablename - force the table names **
sqlSave(channel, USArrests, tablename="{UserName}.USARRESTS", rownames = "state", addPK=TRUE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, USArrests, tablename = "{UserName}.USARRESTS", :
HY000 902 [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-00902: invalid datatype
[RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLExecDirect 'CREATE TABLE {UserName}.USARRESTS
(DSN={DummyServerName}stateDSN={DummyServerName} varchar(255) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
DSN={DummyServerName}MurderDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double,
DSN={DummyServerName}AssaultDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}UrbanPopDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}RapeDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double)'
**Finally, keep uname qualifier - force the table names, and use safer=TRUE that should create the table **
sqlSave(channel, USArrests, tablename="{UserName}.USARRESTS", rownames = "state", addPK=TRUE, safer=TRUE)
Error in sqlSave(channel, USArrests, tablename = "{UserName}.USARRESTS", :
HY000 902 [Oracle][ODBC][Ora]ORA-00902: invalid datatype
[RODBC] ERROR: Could not SQLExecDirect 'CREATE TABLE {UserName}.USARRESTS
(DSN={DummyServerName}stateDSN={DummyServerName} varchar(255) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
DSN={DummyServerName}MurderDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double,
DSN={DummyServerName}AssaultDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}UrbanPopDSN={DummyServerName} decimal,
DSN={DummyServerName}RapeDSN={DummyServerName} binary_double)'
Still confused. Closest success was with existing table and "safer=true" but the insert failed. Examining the sqlSave code that generates the error message shows that error occurs when sqlwrite returns -1, which I assume is a failure. Failure of sqlSave examples may indicate a local ORACLE