[R] easing out of Excel
Paul Sorenson
Paul.Sorenson at vision-bio.com
Fri Jan 21 04:33:16 CET 2005
Thanks for the responses to this question, I fully realise it is a rather open question and the "open" pointers are the kind of thing I am looking for.
I will look into the lattice package and layout.
Regarding the HTML output, the current "tool chain" assets that I have have been refactored over time and are almost totally driven by config files so they suit my purposes very well. I will look into other possibilities at a later date.
For those looking for a more rigorous specification of the problem, you are well justified in this. I was deliberately fuzzy since managers just want "stuff" and I thought casting a wide net would pay off. The problem is to summarise information which is nothing more than sales data. The kinds of columns I am dealing with look like:
date, customer, invoice_no, product, amount, sales_region, etc etc.
Managers want to know things like:
- which products are doing well
- which regions are doing well
- who are good customers
- etc
To me these are simple aggregates and sorts, with visual presentations to match.
I figure a bit of effort, R can extract considerably more useful information from the data.
To be honest I am just evolving it as I go, using an existing spreadsheet as a basis. I try something and if it is useful then great, if not, put it down to learning.
cheers
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