There is a book on data manipulation using R. Data manipulation with R.
http://www.springer.com/statistics/computational/book/978-0-387-74730-9 It highlighted how comprehensive the data manipulation capabilities of R can be. Regards, CH On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 10:01 PM, Simon Pickett <simon.pick...@bto.org> wrote: > My institute uses SAS religiously, I am the only R "heathen". > > I have resisted learning to use SAS because I dont see the point after years > of using R and I like being able to do everything using one program. > However, my colleagues maintain that SAS is "better" for programming without > really ever giving me a good reason why other than memory issues. > > dont want to hi-jack the thread but would be interested in hearing some > other views, especially since my organisation spends (wastes?) alot of money > every year on SAS licences... > > Simon. > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Laura Arsanto" <ghin...@hotmail.it> > To: <jrkrid...@yahoo.ca>; <r-h...@stat.math.ethz.ch>; <fjb...@gmail.com> > Cc: <ross.laza...@gmail.com>; <gregory_war...@urmc.rochester.edu>; > <g...@warnes.net> > Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 2:53 PM > Subject: Re: [R] Do you use R for data manipulation? > > > > > I used R for my master thesis (with big effort, anyway) and now I find > difficult to use R in my daily work, becasue it has really serious problems > with datasets of big dimension, both in the data manipulation step and in > the analysis step. > > But I really would love to use it, as I like its transparence, compared to > other software. > > Laura > > *********** > >> Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 06:42:45 -0700 >> From: jrkrid...@yahoo.ca >> To: r-h...@stat.math.ethz.ch; fjb...@gmail.com >> CC: ross.laza...@gmail.com; gregory_war...@urmc.rochester.edu; >> g...@warnes.net >> Subject: Re: [R] Do you use R for data manipulation? >> >> >> >> >> --- On Wed, 5/6/09, Farrel Buchinsky <fjb...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> > Is R an appropriate tool for data >> > manipulation and data reshaping and data >> > organizing? I think so but someone who recently joined our >> > group thinks not. >> >> I only do small scale projects and am by no means a programmer. Isn't Perl >> something for earings? >> >> That said, I find R to be extremely useful at data manipulation and have >> used it exclusively in my last three projects. The different data >> structures alone are worth their weight in gold, if for nothing else than >> making it harder to make stupid mistakes in coding. >> >> > The new recruit believes that python or another language is >> > a far better tool for developing data manipulation scripts that can be >> > then used by> several members of our research group. Her assessment is >> > that R is useful> only when it comes to data analysis and working with >> > statistical models. >> >> Any reason that she thinks this? How well does she know R? It is not >> exactly a language that one picks up in a week, especially if one is coming >> from using a stats package like SAS or SPSS. As an ex-SAS and SYSTAT user it >> took me weeks to just get comfortable with the power of subscripting and the >> ability to do all kinds of calculations "in-line". >> >> > So what do you think: >> > 1)R is a phenomenally powerful and flexible tool and since you are going >> > > > to do analyses in R you might as well use it to read data in and merge >> > it and reshape it to whatever you need. >> >> Definately. I am not a computer scientist or a statistician. I usually am >> working as a single contractor and normally with small datasets as part of a >> larger project. R does what I want, usually very elegantly (albeit perhaps >> after a lot of headbanging and calls for help to the R-list) and it would be >> stupid for me to use more than one language when it is not needed. >> >> Another plus is that I can easily leave my data analysis work and a >> working copy of R with the client. He/she may have a problem seeing what I >> did but it is clearly readable & replicable by either the client or another >> consultant. >> >> > OR >> > 2) Are you crazy? Nobody in their right mind uses R to pipe >> > the data around their lab and assemble it for analysis. >> >> Well I don't work in a lab but why complicate things? If everyone is using >> the same tools then you have a good situation. Others who do work in labs >> can address this point more cogently >> >> >From a personnel point of view do you expect everyone in the lab to be >> >proficient with R and, for example, Perl? What happens when/if you lose >> >your Perl expert(s)? I've had occasions where I waited a week for data >> >simply because the division's MS Access "expert" was on holiday and the >> >only other "Access" person there only knew how to enter data and run the >> >monthly reports. Anything more complicated required the "expert". >> >> >> >> >> >> __________________________________________________________________ >> Make your browsing faster, safer, and easier with the new Internet >> Explorer® 8. Optimized for Yahoo! Get it Now for Free! at >> http://downloads.yahoo.com/ca/internetexplorer/ >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> 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. > > _________________________________________________________________ > [[elided Hotmail spam]] > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@r-project.org mailing list >> 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@r-project.org mailing list > 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. > -- CH Chan Research Assistant - KWH http://www.macgrass.com ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list 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.
