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

[Wittner, Ben, Ph.D.]

Several people have mentioned large, messy data sets.
I am curious as to in what way messy data sets are messy.
(I am also curious about what SAS does that helps one deal with them, but
perhaps that's asking too much.)

Thanks.
-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
> On Behalf Of Paul Gilbert
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 11:39 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
> 
> 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
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> > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-
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> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
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