title: JDBC Redshift Driver Class Not Found
body: <p>To preface, yes, I have seen and read the multiple very similar questions that have been asked before, but due to my inexperience and almost non existent java knowledge I really am not understanding what is happening in my case.</p>
  
  <p>So here it goes:</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to connect R to a redshift server on Mac OS X 10.11.6.</p>
  
  <p>I have installed rJava and RJDBC packages for starters. I have downloaded the latest jdbc driver and am running the latest version of Java (1.8).</p>
  
  <p>Here is the code I am using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>library("rJava")
  library("RJDBC")
  
  download.file('https://s3.amazonaws.com/redshift-downloads/drivers/RedshiftJDBC42-1.1.17.1017.jar','RedshiftJDBC42-1.1.17.1017.jar')
  
  drv &lt;- JDBC("com.amazon.redshift.jdbc42.Driver", "/Users/edwards/Documents/RedshiftJDBC42-1.1.17.1017.jar", identifier.quote="`")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And the error I get:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Error in .jfindClass(as.character(driverClass)[1]) : class not found
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have tried a few troubleshooting tips in the other threads but still cannot get to the bottom of this problem. I have no problem connecting to the server in SQLWorkbench J, but my tool of choice for analysis is R and I would really like to get this driver issue resolved so I can connect to the server.</p>
  
  <p>My java -version returns:</p>
  
  <pre><code>java version "1.8.0_101"
  Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_101-b13)
  Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.101-b13, mixed mode)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>.jclassLoader()$setDebug(1L)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I was able to see this when running the line that retrieves the driver:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RJavaClassLoader: added '/Users/edwards/Documents/RedshiftJDBC42-1.1.17.1017.jar' to the URL class path loader
  RJavaClassLoader: adding Java archive file '/Users/edwards/Documents/RedshiftJDBC42-1.1.17.1017.jar' to the internal class path
  RJavaClassLoader: added '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.3/Resources/library/RJDBC/java/RJDBC.jar' to the URL class path loader
  RJavaClassLoader: adding Java archive file '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.3/Resources/library/RJDBC/java/RJDBC.jar' to the internal class path
  RJavaClassLoader@2666e815.findClass(com.amazon.redshift.jdbc42.Driver)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Once again I am not well versed on these things and I am rather lost, so if any additional info is needed or you think my issue has been resolved in another thread let me know!</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance!</p>