Author: Ben Baumer
Date: 2025-07-24

# Using etl

#### Ben Baumer

#### 2025-07-24

`etl` is an R package to facilitate Extract - Transform - Load (ETL) operations for medium data. The end result is generally a populated SQL database, but the user interaction takes place solely within R.

## Using `etl`

Instantiate an `etl` object using a string that determines the class of the resulting object, and the package that provides access to that data. The trivial `mtcars` database is built into `etl`.

    library(etl)
    cars <- etl("mtcars")

    ## No database was specified so I created one for you at:

    ## /tmp/Rtmp00cuuZ/file276e72f83f738.sqlite3

    class(cars)

    ## [1] "etl_mtcars"           "etl"                  "src_SQLiteConnection"
    ## [4] "src_dbi"              "src_sql"              "src"

Pay careful attention to where the SQLite database is stored. The default location is a temporary directory, but you will want to move this to a more secure location if you want this storage to be persistent. See `file.copy()` for examples on how to move a file.

### Connect to a local or remote database

`etl` works with a local or remote database to store your data. Every `etl` object extends a `dplyr::src_dbi` object. If, as in the example above, you do not specify a SQL source, a local `RSQLite` database will be created for you. However, you can also specify any source that inherits from `dplyr::src_dbi`.

> Note: If you want to use a database other than a local RSQLite, you must create the `mtcars` database and have permission to write to it first!

    # For PostgreSQL
    library(RPostgreSQL)
    db <- src_postgres(dbname = "mtcars", user = "postgres", host = "localhost")

    # Alternatively, for MySQL
    library(RMariaDB)
    db <- src_mysql(dbname = "mtcars", user = "r-user", password = "mypass", host = "localhost")
    cars <- etl("mtcars", db)

At the heart of `etl` are three functions: `etl_extract()`, `etl_transform()`, and `etl_load()`.

### Extract

The first step is to acquire data from an online source.

    cars |>
      etl_extract()

    ## Extracting raw data...

This creates a local store of raw data.

### Transform

These data may need to be transformed from their raw form to files suitable for importing into SQL (usually CSVs).

    cars |>
      etl_transform()

### Load

Populate the SQL database with the transformed data.

    cars |>
      etl_load()

    ## Loading 12 file(s) into the database...

### Do it all at once

To populate the whole database from scratch, use `etl_create`.

    cars |>
      etl_create()

You can also update an existing database without re-initializing, but watch out for primary key collisions.

    cars |>
      etl_update()

### Step-by-step

Under the hood, there are three functions that `etl_update` chains together:

    getS3method("etl_update", "default")

    ## function (obj, ...)
    ## {
    ##     obj <- etl_load(etl_transform(etl_extract(obj, ...), ...),
    ##         ...)
    ##     invisible(obj)
    ## }
    ## <bytecode: 0x5c2a32066318>
    ## <environment: namespace:etl>

`etl_create` is simply a call to `etl_update` that forces the SQL database to be written from scratch.

    getS3method("etl_create", "default")

    ## function (obj, ...)
    ## {
    ##     obj <- etl_cleanup(etl_update(etl_init(obj, ...), ...), ...)
    ##     invisible(obj)
    ## }
    ## <bytecode: 0x5c2a340dc080>
    ## <environment: namespace:etl>

### Do Your Analysis

Now that your database is populated, you can work with it as a `src` data table just like any other `dplyr` source.

    cars |>
      tbl("mtcars") |>
      group_by(cyl) |>
      summarise(N = n(), mean_mpg = mean(mpg))

    ## Warning: Missing values are always removed in SQL aggregation functions.
    ## Use `na.rm = TRUE` to silence this warning
    ## This warning is displayed once every 8 hours.

    ## # Source:   SQL [?? x 3]
    ## # Database: sqlite 3.50.1 [/tmp/Rtmp00cuuZ/file276e72f83f738.sqlite3]
    ##     cyl     N mean_mpg
    ##   <int> <int>    <dbl>
    ## 1     4    11     26.7
    ## 2     6     7     19.7
    ## 3     8    14     15.1

## Extending `etl`

### Create your own ETL packages

Suppose you want to create your own ETL package called `pkgname`. All you have to do is write a package that requires `etl`, and then you have to write one S3 methods:

    etl_extract.etl_pkgname()

You may also wish to write

    etl_transform.etl_pkgname()
    etl_load.etl_pkgname()

All of these functions must take and return an object of class `etl_pkgname` that inherits from `etl`. Please see the “Extending etl” vignette for more information.

### Use other ETL packages

Packages that use the `etl` framework are available on CRAN and/or GitHub:

    tools::dependsOnPkgs("etl")

    ## [1] "airlines"