Process PostgreSQL data in R with Ubuntu Linux 12.04

Here is the ultimate overview  for all who like to work with R in Ubuntu and who want to process data from PostgreSQL. As a requirement, I assume that you already setup your PostgreSQL database.

1. Step: Install dependencies (PostgreSQL, JDBC-Connector for PostgreSQL and R)

   sudo apt-get install postgresql libpostgresql-jdbc-java r-base-core r-cran-rjava r-cran-dbi 

2. Step: Open Terminal & run R with
   

   R

3. Step: Install JDBC-Package (RJDBC) for R

   install.packages(c("RJDBC"))

4. Step: Connect to your database from within R

   # Include JDBC package
   library(RJDBC)
   
   # Initialize JDBC PostgresSQL driver
   drv <- JDBC("org.postgresql.Driver", "/usr/share/java/postgresql-jdbc4-9.1.jar", identifier.quote="`")
   
   # Establish connection to database
   conn <- dbConnect(drv, "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/database", "user", "pw")

   # Run your SQL select query
   data <- dbGetQuery(conn, "select * from iris where Species='setosa'")

5.  That's it :) 

If you want to connect a non-local database, you have to adjust your dbConnect-command.