Comments (5) I got into a conversation on Twitter (find me there as @peterflomstat) about the user-friendliness of statistical software. I have heard R described (appropriately, I think) as being “expert friendly”. This led to a conversation about whether and when that is good or bad. But we agreed that it would be hard to discuss that in 140 character blocks. Continue reading 'How user friendly should statistical software be?'»
There are many books that teach you to use SAS or that teach you to use R. There is at least one book that teaches R to people who know SAS or SPSS (R for SAS and SPSS users by Robert Muenchen, and it’s very good).
Continue reading 'Book review: SAS and R by Ken Kleinman and Nicholas J. Horton'»
I introduced this series the other day. Next up in the list is “getting help”. In both SAS and R, there are many sources of help. SAS has one that the usual R package does not have – technical support – although if you read the comments to the above article, you see that there are commercial versions of R that do have it. I won’t say much about this, because I think it’s bound up with the fact that R is free and SAS is not. I do find SAS technical support very helpful. Continue reading 'SAS v R: Getting help'»
Two days ago, I wrote an introduction to this series.
Today, I will discuss ease of learning. Unlike the earlier post (and, I hope, most of the ones to come) this one is inherently subjective. “Ease of learning” is not the same for everyone – indeed, one thing I’d like to explore here and in the comments is why some people find SAS easier to learn, while others find R easier to learn. (Note that I am only discussing ease of use for statistical analysis and data management necessary to do that analysis). Continue reading 'SAS v. R: Ease of learning'»
Lately, across the statistical blogosphere, the repeating discussion of R vs. SAS has started up again. In this series of posts, I’ll offer my opinions of the programs, and supply some information. In this post, I introduce the series and say a little about where I am coming from, so you can see where my opinions come from.
I’m a data analyst/statistician. Mostly, I work with researchers in the social and behavioral sciences, education, and medical fields. I’ve been using SAS for about 15 years and R for about 5, and I use SAS more than R. I am not a programmer.
There are many statistical packages, but there are two (SAS and R) that I use regularly – in fact, I use both every day. I like both. I don’t want to give up either. But they are very different.
Websites for SAS and R
For more on SAS see their home page ; for more on R see the R project page
Two basic differences between SAS and R
Two uncontroversial differences are:
1. SAS is commercial, R is free.
That is, with SAS, you pay an annual license fee, which varies depending on many factors. R, on the other hand, is free. Anyone can download it. (R is a dialect of S, there is also a commercial version of S – called S plus, but I haven’t used it, and I don’t see it mentioned much; there is also at least one commercial version of R, see the comments.).
2. SAS has tech support, R does not.
This is, of course, related to the first point. One of the things you are paying for with SAS is tech support – available by phone or e-mail. I have found SAS tech support to be among the best of any software I’ve used.
What I plan to cover in future posts
1. Ease of learning
2. Getting help
3. Error messages
4. Speed
5. Available statistics
Request for assistance
This series is really for two groups of people: Those trying to learn a little about these two prominent statistical software packages, and those who already know a lot, but want to discuss things. It might get a bit heated in the latter group – people have strong opinions. Please keep it civil.
If you have particularly good links on any of the above, or ideas for more topics in this series, or anything else you’d like to contribute, let me know.
I plan to search using Google (of course) and also look through both SAS-L and r-help and stackoverflow quite a bit. If there are other good places for me to look, let me know that too.
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