Connect to Teradata Data in Ruby

The CData ODBC Driver for Teradata makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live Teradata data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to Teradata data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to Teradata Data

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To connect to Teradata, provide authentication information and specify the database server name.

• User: Set this to the username of a Teradata user.
• Password: Set this to the password of the Teradata user.
• DataSource: Specify the Teradata server name, DBC Name, or TDPID.
• Port: Specify the port the server is running on.
• Database: Specify the database name. If not specified, the default database is used.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to Teradata Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: TeradataSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData Teradata Source','','')

#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT ProductId, ProductName FROM NorthwindProducts WHERE CategoryId = 5")

#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
 print name, "\t"
end
puts

#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
 (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
 print row[n], "\t"
 end
 puts
end
resultSet.finish

#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your Teradata data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby TeradataSelect.rb

Writing SQL-92 queries to Teradata allows you to quickly and easily incorporate Teradata data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!