[R-gui] your favourite spreadsheet-like data viewer or editor?

[peter dalgaard]

On Nov 11, 2010, at 12:39 , Tom Aldenberg wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Having watched this discussion for some time, I would think RExcel, 
> through RExcelInstaller, is the definitive, as well as most reliable, 
> answer to the question. Or do I miss the point?
> 

Only to the extent that you believe that Excel provides the definitive and reliable approach to data handling. There are people who disagree with that, e.g. those who have accidentally gotten the student number included in the grade point average, overwritten a formula cell with a constant, etc. 

Notice that other systems with "spreadsheet-like" viewers/editors, quite deliberately do not include full spreadsheet functionality. E.g., rather than have users enter a formula cell and replicate it along a column, SAS JMP allows you to attach a "formula property" to a column, which (other advantages and disadvantages of that system untold) strikes me as a considerably more sane approach to data transformations. 

Also, of course, RExcel is Windows-only and requires that you have Excel installed.



-- 
Peter Dalgaard
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com