Thanks Laura, I deal with huge data sets and have to do alot of fancy juggling of data to get the job done in R.
I have recently been granted access to a cluster at a university which means 64 bit machines with 8gb of memory, which could prove to be a saviour.... hopefully. Simon. ----- Original Message ----- From: Laura Arsanto To: simon.pick...@bto.org Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 3:09 PM Subject: RE: [R] Do you use R for data manipulation? dear simon, my job now is doing a benchmark between SAS and open source tools (like R, weka, etc) for data and text mining, so I'm using both of them. personally I would prefer using the open source tools and I really would do it if possible, but at the moment...they simply do not work! and 99% of cases because of the dimensions of data! > From: simon.pick...@bto.org > To: ghin...@hotmail.it; 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 > Subject: Re: [R] Do you use R for data manipulation? > Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 15:01:33 +0100 > > 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. > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tante nuove funzioni su Messenger! 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