How to read data from Microsoft Access .accdb database files into R?

Question

The RODBC documentation suggests it is possible, but I am not sure how to read data from a Microsoft Access (the new .accdb format) file with this package into

Answer 1

My solution (the most simple that I found):

• install "Access Database Engine" from Micosoft
• configure the connection to the Access data base (mdb or accdb) in Windows Administrative Tools, using the ODBC 32b tool. I's also possible to use c:\windows\sysWOW64\odbcad32.exe
• run RStudio in 32b mode ; it can be fixed in RStudio settings (relaunch RStudio after any change)
• finally, the RODBC functions work successfully.

CAUTION: it works only in Windows, not in linux. Personnally I use Windows as a Virtual Box guest within Xubuntu.