This is a very minor issue, but I would like to understand exactly what is going on here.
Say I do the following:
library(RMySQL)
con <- dbConnect(MySQL(), host="some.server.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",user="aUser", password="password", dbname="mydb")
values1 <- dbGetQuery(con,"select x,y from table1")
attach(values1)
rm(list=ls())
values2 <- dbGetQuery("select x,y from table1")
attach(values2)
attach()
does not make copies of x
and y
in your global environment, it attaches a dataframe to the search path.
From ?attach
:
The database is not actually attached. Rather, a new environment
is created on the search path and the elements of a list
(including columns of a data frame) or objects in a save file or
an environment are _copied_ into the new environment. If you use
‘<<-’ or ‘assign’ to assign to an attached database, you only
alter the attached copy, not the original object. (Normal
assignment will place a modified version in the user's workspace:
see the examples.) For this reason ‘attach’ can lead to
confusion.
For example:
> search()
[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:stats" "package:graphics"
[4] "package:grDevices" "package:utils" "package:datasets"
[7] "package:methods" "Autoloads" "package:base"
> a <- data.frame(stuff=rnorm(100))
> search()
[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:stats" "package:graphics"
[4] "package:grDevices" "package:utils" "package:datasets"
[7] "package:methods" "Autoloads" "package:base"
> attach(a)
> search()
[1] ".GlobalEnv" "a" "package:stats"
[4] "package:graphics" "package:grDevices" "package:utils"
[7] "package:datasets" "package:methods" "Autoloads"
[10] "package:base"
> rm(list=ls())
> search()
[1] ".GlobalEnv" "a" "package:stats"
[4] "package:graphics" "package:grDevices" "package:utils"
[7] "package:datasets" "package:methods" "Autoloads"
[10] "package:base"
> stuff
[1] -0.91436377 0.67397624 0.62891651 -0.99669584 2.07692590 -0.62702302
[...]
> detach(a)
> search()
[1] ".GlobalEnv" "package:stats" "package:graphics"
[4] "package:grDevices" "package:utils" "package:datasets"
[7] "package:methods" "Autoloads" "package:base"