[R] easing out of Excel

[Mulholland, Tom]

I hesitate to add this comment since it either completely confuses people or they take to it very quickly.

The data that you are using is mostly categorical. I expect that tables will have been used in the past and that to acertain extent the graphics are suppossed to help with getting a quick understanding of the data.

There is a package called vcd (Visualizing Categorical Data) which is useful for analysing this type of data. I like the use of the mosaicplot and in particular the shade parameter (which is based on standardized residuals). If set up properly it can be used to very quickly identify sales regions that are doing significantly better than they were last year, customers who have significantly reduced purchases. Basically if you can produce a table that would give this information then a shaded mosaicplot can efficiently highlight the  significant parts of the table.

They take a little bit of getting used to at first, but if you need to analyse this type of data they take a lot of the guess work out of making commentary on the data. How useful they are depends upon the users, who as I have said seem to be polarised in their reactions to the output.

Tom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Sorenson [mailto:Paul.Sorenson at vision-bio.com]
> Sent: Friday, 21 January 2005 11:33 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: RE: [R] easing out of Excel
> 
> 
> 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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