odbc

Major changes

• New function snowflake() makes it easier to connect to Snowflake,
  automatically handling authentication correctly on platforms that provide
  Snowflake-native OAuth credentials (@atheriel, #662).

• Long running queries can now be interrupted using Ctrl-C. This
  feature is enabled by default in interactive sessions. It can be
  controlled by the interruptible argument to dbConnect() or by the
  global option odbc.interruptible. Should be considered experimental---if
  you experience problems please file an issue on the package's GitHub
  repository (#796).

Minor improvements and bug fixes

• Improved argument checking and transitioned to the cli package for
  formatting most existing error messages (@simonpcouch, #781, #784, #785, #788).

• Raises "Cancelling previous query" warnings from R rather than from Rcpp when
  a connection has a current result to avoid possible incorrect resource
  unwinds with options(warn = 2) (#797).

• Adjusted the default batch_rows value for dbWriteTable() and dbBind()
  methods. odbc 1.3.0 changed the default value from 1024 to NA, which sets the
  batch size to be the length of the input. While this addressed issues for
  some drivers when 1024 was greater than the number of rows, it also led
  to excessive memory consumption when the input was very large for some other
  drivers. The package will now interpet NA as the minimum of 1024 and the
  length of the input (@simonpcouch, #774).

• The encoding of non-ASCII column names of SQL results is now always converted
  to UTF-8. (@shrektan, #430)

• Improved error messages when the encoding of client and db-server are
  different. (@shrektan, #432)

• dbListFields() now works with Id() and SQL() identifiers (#771).

• Transitioned odbcDataType() to use S4 for consistency. S3 methods defined
  locally will need to be rewritten (@simonpcouch, #701).

• The "OdbcConnection" method for dbQuoteIdentifier() will no longer
  pass x to encodeString() before returning, for consistency with the
  default implementation in DBI (@simonpcouch, #765).

• A bug in the implementation of a new feature introduced in 1.4.2, where the
  package would automatically set the ODBCSYSINI environmental variable when
  using the unixODBC driver manager, was fixed; that environmental variable
  will now actually be set on package load (@simonpcouch, #792).

Driver specific changes

• databricks() will now automatically configure the needed driver and driver
  manager on macOS (@simonpcouch, #651).

• databricks() now picks up on Posit Workbench-managed Databricks
  credentials when rendering Quarto and RMarkdown documents in RStudio
  (@atheriel, #805).

• Improved performance on write with Snowflake (#760).

• Resolved issue when previewing tables using the RStudio Connections pane with
  Teradata (@simonpcouch, #755).

• dbAppendTable() Improve performance by checking existence once (#691).

• dbConnect() no longer automatically escapes suspicious characters
  (since there doesn't seem to be a consistent way to do this across drivers)
  but instead points you to quote_value() which applies a heuristic
  that should work for most drivers (#718).

• New wrapper for dbExecute() that sets immediate = TRUE if you are
  not supplying params. That should yield a small speed boost in
  many cases (#706).

• dbSendQuery() once again defaults to immediate = FALSE (since if you're
  using it instead of dbGetQuery() you're likely to be using it with
  dbBind()). (#726).

• Deprecated odbcConnectionColumns() (in favor of dbListFields()),
  odbcConnectionActions(), and odbcConnectionIcon() (@simonpcouch, #699).

• Backend specific changes:

  • databricks: Fix schema enumeration in connections pane
    (@detule, #715).

  • Oracle: use more reliable technique to determine user/schema name (#738),
    and fix dbExistsTable() when identifier components contain _
    (@detule, #712).

  • SQL Server: improvements to dbExists() (@meztez, #724) and
    dbListTables() (@simonpcouch, #509) for temporary tables.
    It now uses column type "BIGINT" integer64 objects.

  • SQL Server with freetds driver: no longer crashes when executing multiple
    queries (@detule, #731).

  • Teradata: Fix usage of exact argument in internal methods (@detule, 717).

• On MacOS and Linux, the package will now automatically set the ODBCSYSINI
  environmental variable when using the unixODBC driver manager. ODBCSYSINI
  will not be changed if it exists already (@simonpcouch, #709).

• New odbcListConfig() lists configuration files on Mac and Linux
  (@simonpcouch, #565).

• databricks() now works with manually supplied pwd and uid (#690).

• Oracle: uses correct parent class (#685).

• SQL Server: correctly enumerate schemas across databases in connections pane
  (@detule, #527).

• SQL Server: now uses column type "BIGINT" integer64 objects
  (@simonpcouch, #698).

Major changes

• New odbc::databricks() makes it easier to connect to Databricks,
  automatically handling many common authentication scenarios (@atheriel, #615).

• dbListTables(), dbListFields() and dbExistsTable() automatically
  escape underscores in identifier arguments. This leads to substantial
  performance improvements for some backends (e.g. snowflake)
  (@detule, @fh-afrachioni, #618).

• dbGetQuery() and dbSendQuery() now set immediate = TRUE if you are
  not using a parameterised query. That should yield a small speed boost in
  many cases (#633).

Minor improvements and bug fixes

• Increased the minimum required R version from 3.2.0 to 3.6.0
  (@simonpcouch, #629).

• S4 classes for the most database drivers are now exported, make it possible
  to use in other packages (#558).

• ODBC errors are now spread across multiple lines, making them easier to
  read (@detule, #564).

• DBI::dbConnect(odbc::odbc()) now gives a clear error if you supply multiple
  arguments with the same name when case is ignored (#641).

• DBI::dbConnect(odbc::odbc()) now automatically quotes argument values that need
  it (#616).

Driver specific changes

• Oracle: Fix regression when falling back to odbcConnectionColumns() to
  describe column data types (@detule, #587)

• Spark SQL: Correctly enumerate schemas away from the current catalog
  (@detule, #614)

• Snowflake: improved translation from R to snowflake types (@meztez, #599).

• SQL Server

  • Improved handling for local temp tables in dbWrite(), dbAppendTable(),
    and dbExistTable() (@detule, #600)

  • Specialize syntax in sqlCreateTable to avoid failures when
    writing to (new) local temp tables. (@detule, #601)

• Teradata: Improved handling for temp tables (@detule and @But2ene, #589, 590)

• Various fixes for R CMD check.

• The argument order for sqlCreateTable() methods avoiding weird argument
  mismatch problems (#448).

• Fixed truncation when retrieving unicode data stored in
  VAR/CHAR columns (@detule, #553).

• Fixed issue related to fetching zero rows (@detule, #528).

• Backend specific improvements:

  • MYSQL: Fixed retrieving results from stored procedures (@detule, #435).
  • Oracle: performance enhancements (#577)
  • Spark: Changed data type for date-times from DATE to TIMESTAMP
    (@schuemie, #555).

• Optimized table preview methods. Enhances large table preview
  within RStudio IDE (@detule, #525).

• Added attributes parameter to dbConnect(...). Can be used to pass a
  token and authenticate against Azure AD when using Microsoft SQL Server.
  Documented in ?ConnectionAttributes (@detule, #521).

• Fix length(x) = 3 > 1' in coercion to 'logical(1) warning in connection
  observer (@meztez, #494).

• Hadley Wickham is now the maintainer.

• New odbcDataType.Snowflake() method for Snowflake databases. (@edgararuiz, #451)

• Fixed warnings about anonymous unions (@detule, #440)
• Fixed invalid descriptor issues when retrieving results from SQL Server +
  Microsoft's ODBC driver, using parametrized queries. (@detule, #414)
• Fixed null handling in SQL Server / Azure result sets retrieved with
  Microsoft's ODBC driver. (@detule, #408)
• Hive uses C-style escaping for string literals (single quotes are
  backslash-escaped, note single quote-escaped). dbQuoteString now respects
  this when called on a connection of class Hive. (@rnorberg, #184)
• When calling sqlCreateTable(con, ..., temporary = TRUE) and con is a
  connection of class DB2/AIX64, the CREATE TABLE statement that is generated
  properly creates a temporary table in DB2. The statement begins with
  DECLARE GLOBAL TEMPORARY TABLE
  and ends with ON COMMIT PRESERVE ROWS (DB2's default behavior is
  ON COMMIT DELETE ROWS, which results in the inserted data being
  deleted as soon as dbWriteTable completes). (@rnorberg, #426)

Major changes

• odbc can now be compiled again with Rtools35 (gcc 4.9.3) on Windows (#383)
• invalid descriptor errors from drivers such as Microsoft SQLServer driver and the freeTDS driver which do not support out of order retrieval are now avoided.
  This is done by unbinding any nanodbc buffer past the long column.
  Performance for the unbound columns in these cases will be reduced, but the retrieval will work without error (@detule, #381)
• dbBind() and dbFetch() now support multiple result sets (@vkapartzianis, #234)

Minor improvements and fixes

• New dbAppendTable() method for OdbcConnection objects (#335)
• dbQuoteIdentifier() now uses the input names (if any).
• dbWriteTable() and dbBind() now default to a batch_rows of NA, which sets the batch size to be the length of the input.
  This avoids problems with drivers that don't support batch sizes larger than the input size.
  To restore the behavior prior to this release pass batch_rows = 1024 or set options(odbc.batch_rows = 1024) (#391).
• dbWriteTable() now handles data.table::IDate() objects (#388)
• dbWriteTable(field.types=) now issues a warning rather than an error for missing columns (#342)
• odbcConnectionColumns() now works as intended with DBI::Id() objects (#389)
• dbFetch() now verifies that n is a valid input.
• Dates are now always interpreted as being in the database's local time zone, regardless of the timezone parameter (#398)
• Oracle connections now support Date and POSIXct types via DATE and TIMESTAMP data types (#324, #349, #350)
• Oracle connections now use VARCHAR2 rather than VARCHAR, as recommended by Oracle's documentation (#189)

• dbWriteTable() now executes immediately, which fixes issues with temporary tables and the FreeTDS SQL Server driver (@krlmlr).

• blob roundtrips now work in more cases (#364, @krlmlr).

• The BH dependency has been removed (#326)

• The configure script now again uses iodbc-config on macOS, if available.

• Fix errors with drivers who do not fully implement SQLGetInfo (#325).

• Fix the unicode character width issues with the macOS odbc CRAN binary. (#283)

• The configure script now works on systems whose /bin/sh does not support
  command substitution, such as Solaris 10.

Features

• sqlCreateTable() and dbWriteTable() now throw an error if you mistakenly
  include field.types names which do not exist in the input data. (#271)

• The error message when trying to write tables with unsupported types now
  includes the column name (#238).

• dbConnect() now has a new param timezone_out which is useful if the user
  wants the datetime values be marked with a specific timezone instead of UTC
  (@shrektan, #294).

• dbGetQuery(), dbSendQuery() and dbSendStatement() gain a immediate
  argument to execute the statement or query immediately instead of preparing,
  then executing the statement. (#272, @krlmlr)

• dbGetQuery(), dbSendQuery() and dbSendStatement() gain a params
  argument, which allows them to be used (indirectly) by DBI::dbAppendTable()
  (#210, #215, #261).

• dbWriteTable() and dbBind() methods gain a batch_rows argument, to
  control how many rows are bound in each batch. The default can be set
  globally with options(odbc.batch_rows). This is useful if your database
  performs better with a larger or smaller number of rows per batch than the
  default of 1024. (#297)

• New odbcConnectionColumns() function to describe the column types. This
  data is used when binding columns, which allows drivers which do not support
  the SQLDescribeParam() ODBC function, such as freeTDS to work better with
  bound columns. (#313, @detule)

• Added a Teradata odbcDataType() to support writing logical data to Teradata
  servers (#240, @blarj09).

• Added a Access odbcDataType() method to support writing to Access databases
  (#262, @vh-d)

• odbcListDrivers() gains a keep and filter argument and global options
  odbc.drivers_keep, odbc.drivers_filter to keep and filter the drivers
  returned. This is useful if system administrators want to reduce the number
  of drivers shown to users. (@blairj09, #274)

• Subseconds are now retained when inserting POSIXct objects (#130, #208)

• The RStudio Connections Pane now shows the DSN, when available (#304,
  @davidchall).

Bugfixes

• SQL Server ODBC's now supports the '-155' data type, and its losing
  sub-second precision on timestamps; this still returns type DATETIMEOFFSET
  as a character, but it preserves sub-seconds and has a numeric timezone
  offset (@r2evans, #207).

• dbExistsTable() now handles the case-sensitivity consistently as
  other methods (@shrektan, #285).

• dbExistsTable() now works for SQL Server when specifying schemas but not
  catalogs using the freeTDS and Simba drivers. (#197)

• DBI::dbListFields() no longer fails when used with a
  a qualified Id object (using both schema and table) (#226).

• dbWriteTable() now always writes NA_character as NULL for
  data.frame with only one row (@shrektan, #288).

• Fix an issue that the date value fetched from the database may be one
  day before its real value (@shrektan, #295).

• Fix the return value for dbQuoteIdentifier() when given a length 0 input
  (#146 @edgararuiz).

• Workaround for drivers which do not implement SQLGetInfo, such as the Access
  driver. (#78)

• Fix for installation error for systems without GNU Make as the default make, such as
  Solaris.

• Provide a fall backs for drivers which do not support SQLDescribeParam and
  those which do not support transactions.

• sqlCreateTable() gains a fieldTypes argument, which allows one to
  override a column type for a given table, if the default type is not
  appropriate.

• Support for databases with non UTF-8 encodings. Use the encoding parameter
  to dbConnect() to specify the database encoding.

• Support for the SQL Connection Pane in the RStudio IDE.

• Unknown fields no longer throw a warning, instead they signal a custom
  condition, which can be caught if desired with

  withCallingHandlers(expr, odbc_unknown_field_type = function(e) {...} )

• Conversion to and from timezones is handled by the
  cctz library. If the database is in a non-UTC
  timezone it can be specified with the timezone parameter to dbConnect().

• Time objects are converted to and from hms objects.

• 64 bit integers are converted to and from bit64 objects.

• Support table creation for Impala and Hive Databases (# 38, @edgararuiz).