[R] R vs Numpy

[Jeff Newmiller]

If you are looking for expertise in answering questions about NumPy, the pool of experts will be smaller here than in a forum whose topic is NumPy. 

I don't know what "BIO" means... if it alludes to biostatistics then there is a whole separate Bioconductor project that specializes in applying R to that category of problem.  Having a large pool of people building tools that you can use and answer questions about should count for something... but they do have their own forums dedicated to that specialty.

https://support.bioconductor.org/

https://www.biostars.org/p/414140/


On October 29, 2021 12:14:21 AM PDT, Catherine Walt <walt using purpleemail.com> wrote:
>Thanks for Avi. and all other people's helps.
>
>I am using Numpy primarily for machine learning, for example, Keras tasks can use Numpy heavily.
>
>Now I got a task to analyze the BIO data, for which the Prof tell me R is better.
>So I am looking into R. and I was just serious if Numpy can handle the BIO data well?
>
>Regards
>Cathy
>
>
>
>October 29, 2021 3:32 AM, "Avi Gross via R-help" <r-help using r-project.org> wrote:
>
>> I am not sure your overall question fits into this forum but a brief
>> internet search can find plenty of info.
>> 
>> But in brief, R is a language in which much of what numpy does was built in
>> from the start and many things are vectorized. Much of what the python
>> pandas language does is also part of native R. There are additional packages
>> (python called them modules) freely available that greatly extend those
>> capabilities and I doubt there is very much you can do in numpy that cannot
>> also often easily be done in R.
>> 
>> Realistically, there are several reasons the numpy module is so commonly
>> used in python. They left something like vectors out of the language. Yes,
>> they have dictionaries and lists and sets and all kinds of objects. So numpy
>> was made mostly in C to provide numeric processing of things that are more
>> like vectors efficiently. In R, everything is a vector as in a simple
>> variable is just a vector of length one!
>> 
>> I program in both and in other languages as many do. Reasons to choose one
>> or another vary. Python can do many things easily and with complexity and is
>> a rather full-blown and complex language with real object-oriented
>> capabilities and also functional programming. It is interpreted but also has
>> a way to save partially compiled code. R is pretty much all interpreted
>> albeit many things are written I C or C++ pr other compiled languages and
>> stuffed into libraries. 
>> 
>> One main reason to choose is programming style but there are TONS of
>> differences that can bite you such as R sometimes deferring evaluation of
>> code which can be an advantage or the opposite. But a huge reason I think
>> that people choose one or the other is the availability of packages that do
>> much of what they want. Some, for example, love a set of packages they call
>> the tidyverse and do much of their work largely within it rather than base
>> R. Many love the graphics package called ggplot.
>> 
>> But over time, I see more and more functionality available within the Python
>> community that rivals or perhaps exceeds such as the machine learning tools.
>> 
>> I have an interesting solution I sometimes use as you can run programs in R
>> using a package that allows the same data to be accessed back and forth
>> between an attached R interpreter and a Python interpreter. So if you want
>> to use python features like dictionaries and list comprehensions to massage
>> the data then have R do additional things and perhaps make graphs, you can
>> get some of both worlds.
>> 
>> As noted, a detailed answer is way beyond here. R has packages that probably
>> let you add things and it has too many object-oriented subsystems, most of
>> them not complete.
>> 
>> Good Luck,
>> 
>> Avi
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: R-help <r-help-bounces using r-project.org> On Behalf Of Catherine Walt
>> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2021 2:57 AM
>> To: r-help using r-project.org
>> Subject: [R] R vs Numpy
>> 
>> Hello members,
>> 
>> I am familiar with python's Numpy.
>> Now I am looking into R language.
>> What is the main difference between these two languages? including
>> advantages or disadvantages.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
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>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>> 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 using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>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.

-- 
Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity.