Thanks for the response from Thomas Lumley. There is the way to read access tables into R, just for someone else who might be interested. ####################################################### f>or instance, if >there is a table named patient in the access file named patient_data >in my C drive. You need to set up a DSN for the file using the ODBC program in the Control Panel. This is the name ODBC uses for your database. Suppose you call it "patientdb" Now library(RODBC) channel <- odbcConnect("patientdb") to connect to the database sqlTables(channel) to list the available tables sqlFetch(channel, "patient") to fetch the table called "patient" odbcClose(channel) to close the connection.