[R] things that are difficult/impossible to do in SAS or SPSSbut simple in R

[Rob Robinson]

I wonder if those who complain about SAS as a programming environment have
discovered SAS/IML which provides a programming environment akin to Matlab
which is more than capable (at least for those problems which can be treated
with a matrix like approach). As someone who uses both SAS and R - graphical
output is so much easier in R, but for handling large 'messy' datasets SAS
wins hands down...
Cheers
Rob

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Dr Rob Robinson, Senior Population Biologist
British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU
Ph: +44 (0)1842 750050         E: rob.robinson at bto.org
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==== "How can anyone be enlightened, when truth is so poorly lit" =====
  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Jeffrey J. Hallman
> Sent: 16 January 2008 22:38
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] things that are difficult/impossible to do 
> in SAS or SPSSbut simple in R
> 
> SAS has no facilities for date arithmetic and no easy way to 
> build it yourself.  In fact, that's the biggest problem with 
> SAS: it stinks as a programming environment, so it's always 
> much more difficult than it should be to do something new.  
> As soon as you get away from the canned procs and have to 
> write something of your own, SAS falls down.
> 
> I don't know enough about SPSS to comment.
> --
> Jeff
> 
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