title: odbcConnectExcel function from RODBC package for R not found on Ubuntu
body: <p>Installing the RODBC package on Ubuntu is a bit of a kludge. First I learned to install the following: </p>
  
  <pre><code>$ sudo apt-get install r-cran-rodbc
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>That wasn't good enough as the package was still looking for header files. I solved this issue by:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc-dev
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Good, RODBC installed properly on the Ubuntu machine. But when I try to run the following script:</p>
  
  <pre><code>## import excel file from Dropbox
  
  require("RODBC")
  
  channel &lt;- odbcConnectExcel("~/Dropbox/DATA/SAMPLE/petro.xls")
  
  petro &lt;- sqlFetch (channel, "weekly")
  
  odbcClose(channel)
  
  str(petro)
  head(petro)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get an error thrown that function odbcConnectExcel not found. I checked the case of each letter, making sure it was not a simple typo. Nope. Then I ran this same script on a Windows R installation (file path different, of course) and the script works.</p>
  
  <p>Any idea of why Ubuntu R installation cannot find the odbcConnectExcel function and how I can get this to work? </p>