2.2.2.3 Ordering Using Keys

You can use the primary key of a database table to order an ore.frame object, as demonstrated in Example 2-13. The example loads the spam data set from the kernlab package. It adds two columns to the data set.

The example invokes ore.drop to drop the named tables if they exist. It then invokes ore.create to create two tables from the data set. It invokes ore.exec to make the USERID and TS columns a composite primary key of the SPAM_PK table, and invokes ore.sync to synchronize the table with its ore.frame proxy.

Note:

The ore.exec function executes a SQL statement in the Oracle Database schema. The function is intended for database definition language (DDL) statements that have no return value.

Example 2-13 then displays the first eight rows of each table. The proxy object for the SPAM_PK table is an ordered ore.frame object. It has row names that are a combination of the TS and USERID column values separated by the "|" character. The proxy object for the SPAM_NOPK table is an unordered ore.frame object that has the symbol SPAM_NOPK. By default, SPAM_NOPK has row names that are sequential numbers.

Example 2-13 Ordering Using Keys

# Prepare the data.
library(kernlab)
data(spam)
s <- spam
# Create a column that has integer values.
s$TS <- 1001:(1000 + nrow(s))
# Create a column that has integer values with each number repeated twice.
s$USERID <- rep(351:400, each=2, len=nrow(s))
# Ensure that the database tables do not exist.
ore.drop(table='SPAM_PK')
ore.drop(table='SPAM_NOPK')
# Create database tables.
ore.create(s[,c(59:60,1:28)], table="SPAM_PK")
ore.create(s[,c(59:60,1:28)], table="SPAM_NOPK")
# Using a SQL statement, alter the SPAM_PK table to add a composite primary key.
ore.exec("alter table SPAM_PK add constraint SPAM_PK primary key
           (\"USERID\",\"TS\")")
# Synchronize the table to get the change to it.
ore.sync(table = "SPAM_PK")
# View the data in the tables.
# The row names of the ordered SPAM_PK are the primary key column values.
head(SPAM_PK[,1:8])
# The row names of the unordered SPAM_NOPK are sequential numbers.
# The first warning results from the inner accessing of SPAM_NOPK to subset
# the columns. The second warning is for the invocation of the head
# function on that subset.
head(SPAM_NOPK[,1:8])
# Verify that SPAM_NOPK is unordered.
is.null(row.names(SPAM_NOPK))
Listing for Example 2-13
R> # Prepare the data.
R> library(kernlab)
R> data(spam)
R> s <- spam
R> # Create a column that has integer values.
R> s$TS <- 1001:(1000 + nrow(s))
R> # Create a column that has integer values with each number repeated twice.
R> s$USERID <- rep(351:400, each=2, len=nrow(s))
R> # Ensure that the database tables do not exist.
R> ore.drop(table='SPAM_PK')
R> ore.drop(table='SPAM_NOPK')
R> # Create database tables.
R> ore.create(s[,c(59:60,1:28)], table="SPAM_PK")
R> ore.create(s[,c(59:60,1:28)], table="SPAM_NOPK")
R> # Using a SQL statement, alter the SPAM_PK table to add a composite primary key.
R> ore.exec("alter table SPAM_PK add constraint SPAM_PK primary key
+  (\"USERID\",\"TS\")")
R> # Synchronize the table to get the change to it.
R> ore.sync(table = "SPAM_PK")
R> # View the data in the tables.
R> # The row names of the ordered SPAM_PK are the primary key column values.
R> head(SPAM_PK[,1:8])
           TS USERID make address  all num3d  our over
1001|351 1001    351 0.00    0.64 0.64     0 0.32 0.00
1002|351 1002    351 0.21    0.28 0.50     0 0.14 0.28
1003|352 1003    352 0.06    0.00 0.71     0 1.23 0.19
1004|352 1004    352 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 0.63 0.00
1005|353 1005    353 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 0.63 0.00
1006|353 1006    353 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 1.85 0.00
R> # The row names of the unordered SPAM_NOPK are sequential numbers.
R> # The first warning results from the inner accessing of SPAM_NOPK to subset
R> # the columns. The second warning is for the invocation of the head
R> # function on that subset.
R> head(SPAM_NOPK[,1:8])
    TS USERID make address  all num3d  our over
1 1001    351 0.00    0.64 0.64     0 0.32 0.00
2 1002    351 0.21    0.28 0.50     0 0.14 0.28
3 1003    352 0.06    0.00 0.71     0 1.23 0.19
4 1004    352 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 0.63 0.00
5 1005    353 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 0.63 0.00
6 1006    353 0.00    0.00 0.00     0 1.85 0.00
Warning messages:
1: ORE object has no unique key - using random order 
2: ORE object has no unique key - using random order
R> # Verify that SPAM_NOPK is unordered.
R> is.null(row.names(SPAM_NOPK))
Error: ORE object has no unique key