Connecting R and CockroachDB with ADBC

Instructions

Tip

If you already have a CockroachDB instance running, skip the steps to set up and clean up CockroachDB.

Prerequisites

1. Install R

2. Install dbc

3. Install R packages adbcdrivermanager, arrow, and tibble:

   install.packages(c("adbcdrivermanager", "arrow", "tibble"))

Set up CockroachDB

1. Install Docker

2. Start a CockroachDB instance:

   docker run -d --rm \
       --env COCKROACH_DATABASE=db \
       --env COCKROACH_USER=username \
       --env COCKROACH_PASSWORD=password \
       --name=roach-single \
       -p 26257:26257 \
       -p 8080:8080 \
       cockroachdb/cockroach:v25.4.2 start-single-node

Connect to CockroachDB

1. Install the PostgreSQL ADBC driver:

   dbc install postgresql

2. Customize the R script main.R as needed

   • Change the connection arguments in adbc_database_init()
     • Format uri according to the connection URI format used by PostgreSQL, or keep it as is
   • If you changed which database you're connecting to, also change the SQL SELECT statement in read_adbc()

3. Run the R script:

   Rscript main.R

Clean up

Stop the Docker container running CockroachDB:

docker stop roach-single