How to Use R Shiny to Upload CSV Data to MySQL and Display It in a Table

Learn how to seamlessly upload CSV data into a MySQL database using R Shiny and display it in a well-structured DT table.
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Using R Shiny to Upload CSV Data to MySQL and Display It

In the world of data analysis, R Shiny is a powerful tool for building interactive applications. A common challenge faced by many is how to upload CSV files to a MySQL database and subsequently display the uploaded data in a user-friendly format. In this guide, we will walk through a practical example to help you achieve this seamlessly.

Problem Overview

You might find yourself needing to regularly upload CSV files into a MySQL database. The challenges often lie in making sure the data is input correctly and appears as intended in your application. In the example below, we will consider a basic CSV file structure and a corresponding database schema that includes a primary key that auto-increments.

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

And our MySQL database has a schema named shiny with a table called tab1, having these columns:

id (primary key, auto-increment)

v1 (varchar(10))

v2 (varchar(10))

v3 (varchar(10))

The Solution

To solve this issue, we will modify the existing R and Shiny scripts. We'll focus on reading the data properly from the uploaded CSV and ensuring that it writes to the MySQL database correctly. Let’s break this down step-by-step.

Basic R Script for Uploading Data

Here is the original basic R script that works for uploading data but lacks the interactive web component:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

The Shiny App Code

Here’s how we can implement this functionality in a Shiny app, ensuring it uploads and displays the data correctly:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Key Changes Made

Instead of directly using inFile$datapath in dbWriteTable, we first loaded the data into a variable called data to ensure that the data is read correctly from the CSV file.

Returned the data variable from the renderTable function to display it correctly in the DT table on the Shiny app.

Conclusion

With these changes, your R Shiny app should now successfully upload the CSV data into the MySQL database, while displaying the uploaded data in a table format on the interface. This integration allows for more interactive data handling, streamlining the workflow for data analysis.

Feel free to experiment further with this solution and enhance the Shiny app as you dive deeper into R and MySQL!