Practical Predictive Analytics

Database tables

Database tables reside within an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) such as MySQL, SQL Server, or Oracle, or they can be housed on local PCs. This data can be accessed using R provided correct authentication credentials are supplied. Enterprise data contains some of the best data that you can get your hands on. It is usually considered an official data source that is used across a company. Additionally, in a capable enterprise data warehouse system, data is already vetted, so that saves you the work of checking for data quality. However, data extracted from a data warehouse can also be complex, and often needs a good data dictionary and metadata to accompany it.

Data warehouse tables are often optimized for speed. However, it ...