[R-SIG-Finance] EXCEL & R

[Brian G. Peterson]

Jan,

Thanks for the links.  They are both excellent documents that anyone 
starting in R should read.

For me, the biggest issues with Excel for financial data are:

1> it can't handle data with millions of rows (like for example tick data)

2> it has no native understanding, manipulation, or alignment of time 
series ('Sort' doesn't count)

3> I can't do anything more than the most simple of statistics or 
numerical calculations in it

I haven't used a spreadsheet as anything other than an occasional 
display device for several years in my work.

Regards,

   - Brian

Jan Vandermeer wrote:
> Dear Josh and all other R-SIG-Finance members;
>
> This is my first post to the group and I recognize that it is not directly related to R and finance, but as something of an Open Source advocate I am sensitive to comments like "In finance, EXCEL dominates over any products."
> While this may be true for volume of sales, marketing hype and general
> public acceptance, my understanding is that it is not the best product for statistical precision, responsiveness of the company producing it to correcting known errors, or adherence to good graphical standards.
>
> Here are references to two easily found websites which discuss limitations of EXCEL for use in general statistics and more specifically in statistical finance.
>
> Practical Stats - Statistics With Excel <
> http://www.practicalstats.com/xlsstats/excelstats.html>
>
> Burns Statistics - Spreadsheet Addiction <
> http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/spreadsheet_addiction.html>
>
> Again, as a lurker on the group I ask for your forbearance for a reply on a topic only remotely related to R and finance and would like to thank Brian, Dirk, Jeff, Diethelm and many other who take the time to make this such an interesting place to check in on a couple of times a day.
>
> Jan Vandermeer
>
> On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 8:17 AM, Josh C. Chien <joshcchien at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi R-all,
>> In finance, EXCEL dominates over any products. It's a good interface with
>> finance application.
>> I like R but, sometimes, I can't use it for daily work.
>> Just curious, does any guy know how to integrate EXCEL and R for working
>> financial modeling ?
>>
>> Thanks a lot.
>>
>> Josh
>>     

-- 
Brian G. Peterson
http://braverock.com/brian/
Ph: 773-459-4973
IM: bgpbraverock