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

[Paul Gilbert]

The argument for SAS (and Stata) when working with large dataset comes 
up fairly often.  I have not had much experience in this area, but have 
been pleasantly surprised using R in combination with an SQL interface, 
in situations with modestly large, messy datasets.  I certainly would 
appreciate comments on the relative merits from anyone that has more 
experience in this area.

Paul Gilbert

Walter Paczkowski wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> I use SAS and R/S-Plus as my primary tools so I have a lot of experience with these programs.  By far and away, SAS is superior for handling the "messy" datasets, but also the very large ones.  I work at times with datasets in the hundreds of thousands (and on occasion, millions) of records.  SAS, and especially PROC SQL, are invaluable for this.  But once I get to datasets manageable for R/S-Plus, then I ship to these tools for the programming and graphics.  This seems to work great.
> 
> Walt Paczkowski
> Data Analytics Corp.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> 
>>From: Rob Robinson <rob.robinson at bto.org>
>>Sent: Jan 17, 2008 4:31 AM
>>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
>>
>>
>>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
>>
>>*** Want to know about Britain's birds? Try  www.bto.org/birdfacts ***
>>
>>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
>>Fx: +44 (0)1842 750030         W: http://www.bto.org
>>
>>==== "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
>>>
>>>______________________________________________
>>>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>PLEASE do read the posting guide 
>>>http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>
>>______________________________________________
>>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
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