[R] Three most useful R package

[Ivan Calandra]

Hi all,

1) I mostly use the base packages. But if I should decide for three 
others, it would be
- plyr: I've just started to use it in some specific cases, but it seems 
really powerful and practical
- doBy is also quite good but I use only one function from it 
(summaryBy). For now I have what I need, but it might prove useful later
- xlsReadWrite: it's fast and good.

2) I've serach a lot recently to read/write xls files. As you can guess, 
I've ended up using xlsReadWrite which is really intuitive to use. The 
problem is that you cannot append (neither append lines on the same 
sheet nor append other sheets on the same files). RODBC can append 
sheets on a file, but it is not as flexible.
Since I often want to export results from tests that are stored as lists 
of differing size (different number of columns AND rows), I'm still 
stuck with write.csv().

So I would like to have the both appending options (i.e. line + sheets) 
in a package as easy to use as xlsReadWrite. Basically xlsReadWritePro, 
but for free (am I asking too much?).

Thanks for asking!
Regards,
Ivan

> On 2 March 2010 21:13, Ralf B<ralf.bierig at gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Hi R-fans,
>>
>> I would like put out a question to all R users on this list and hope
>> it will create some feedback and discussion.
>>
>> 1) What are your 3 most useful R package? and
>>
>>      
>> 2) What R package do you still miss and why do you think it would make
>> a useful addition?
>>
>> Pulling answers together for these questions will serve as a guide for
>> new users and help people who just want to get a hint where to look
>> first. Happy replying!
>>
>> Best,
>> Ralf
>>
>> ______________________________________________
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>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
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>>
>>      
>
>
>