Question

Please describe the advantages and disadvantages of statistical package SAS, SPSS, R, and EXCEL (for A4 one page amount)

Answer 1

SAS/STAT Advantages

These are some benefits of SAS/STAT Software, let’s discuss them one by one:

i. You can apply the latest statistical techniques. With every new update, SAS brings its users a variety of new procedure to meet market requirements.

ii. The size and type of data is not a barrier. With so many procedures one can analyze small data, large data, data with missing values to moderate data.

iii. SAS/ STAT Software has graphs like box plots, scatter plots, bar charts and all are customizable to assist users in a better analysis.

iv. You can take advantage of SAS technical support and web user communities. Backed by industry-leading statistical technical support, SAS/STAT software is the complete answer to a broad spectrum of statistical needs.

v. Use proven and validated methods in statistics. SAS has decades of experience developing advanced statistical analysis software designed for superior quality and better and reliable results. With SAS/STAT Software, you can produce code that is documented and verified for government and corporate problem requirements.

vi. Expansive library of ready-to-use statistical procedures. With SAS/STAT, you get more than 90 prewritten procedures for statistical analysis. These procedures deliver functions that can be executed with just a few simple commands, enabling programmers to be more efficient. This wide range of statistical methods can help you solve your most complicated business and organizational problems, such as discovering new information for improving processes, driving development and revenues and retaining customers.

vii. Highly interpretable statistical output. The clarity and consistency of statistical output, including a wealth of built-in graphs, enable users to readily understand analysis results.

viii. Comprehensive documentation and training. Extensive online documentation, including a rich set of introductory examples, allows users to cope up with the software quickly and effectively. Free “how to” videos, tutorials and demos help you build your knowledge of statistical methods and learn how to apply SAS/STAT in your work.

ix. Cross-platform support and scalability. SAS runs on all major computing platforms and can access nearly any data source. The technology easily adjusts into an organization’s computing environment and can improve as you face any large or more complex analytical problems.

x. Simplify with a single environment. The software is integrated, enabling you to access and manage data, build statistical models, and readily understand your results using hundreds of built-in graphs.

SAS/STAT Disadvantages

Following are some limitations of SAS/STAT.

i. SAS / STAT is an expensive tool.

ii. Algorithms used in SAS /STAT procedures are not open to the public, only some of the features are available on university edition so you cannot do research on that.

iii. Less number of graphical capabilities available.

iv. Compared to its competitors, SAS/STAT is still an old software. Software like R provides many of the same features free of cost.

v. 500 lines of SAS code can be equivalent to 100 lines of R code.

vi. For doing Time Series Forecasting we need to purchase SAS ETS Module.

vii. It is also a bit hard to learn compared to base SAS.

viii. Requires prior knowledge of statistical procedures.

ix. For doing Text Mining we need to purchase SAS Enterprise / Text Miner.

x. For doing Machine Learning we need to purchase SAS Enterprise Miner.

xi. For doing Online Reporting we need to purchase SAS Visual Analytics.

Advantages of SPSS

i) SPSS is set up in a way that makes it easy for beginners to request analyses, and yet offers a fairly wide range of more advanced features. Data files can be imported from/ exported to many other programs.

ii) some of the data handling procedures, for example, the ability to merge files (either same subjects/ different variables or different subjects/ same variables); ease of specifying value labels; and procedures to compute new variables from existing variables.

iii) Users do not have to work with syntax; however, syntax files can be saved and modified. Saved syntax files provide documentation about the way new variables were calculated and how outliers or missing values were handled. Script or macro files available from experts can do complex analyses.

Disadvantages of SPSS

i) Default graphics are far from publication quality.

ii) Information about effect size and confidence intervals is missing for many techniques.

iii) It is expensive compared to many competitive alternatives.

iv) Documentation about algorithms is sometimes difficult or impossible to find.

v) Many useful procedures (such as Missing Values) are not included in the base package and and are available only as expensive add ons.

Advantages of R Programming

Various benefits of R language are mentioned below, which will help you to grasp the concept:

1. Open Source

R is an open-source programming language. This means that anyone can work with R without any need for a license or a fee. Furthermore, you can contribute towards the development of R by customizing its packages, developing new ones and resolving issues.

2. Exemplary Support for Data Wrangling

R provides exemplary support for data wrangling. The packages like dplyr, readr are capable of transforming messy data into a structured form.

3. The Array of Packages

R has a vast array of packages. With over 10,000 packages in the CRAN repository, the number is constantly growing. These packages appeal to all the areas of industry.

4. Quality Plotting and Graphing

R facilitates quality plotting and graphing. The popular libraries like ggplot2 and plotly advocate for aesthetic and visually appealing graphs that set R apart from other programming languages.

5. Highly Compatible

R is highly compatible and can be paired with many other programming languages like C, C++, Java, and Python. It can also be integrated with technologies like Hadoop and various other database management systems as well.

6. Platform Independent

R is a platform-independent language. It is a cross-platform programming language, meaning that it can be run quite easily on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

7. Eye-Catching Reports

With packages like Shiny and Markdown, reporting the results of an analysis is extremely easy with R. You can make reports with the data, plots and R scripts embedded in them. You can even make interactive web apps that allow the user to play with the results and the data.

8. Machine Learning Operations

R provides various facilities for carrying out machine learning operations like classification, regression and also provides features for developing artificial neural networks.

9. Statistics

R is prominently known as the lingua franca of statistics. This is the main reason as to why R is dominant among other programming languages for developing statistical tools.

10. Continuously Growing

R is a constantly evolving programming language. It is a state of the art technology that provides updates whenever any new feature is added.

Disadvantages of R Programming

1. Weak Origin

R shares its origin with a much older programming language “S”. This means that it’s base package does not have support for dynamic or 3D graphics. With common packages of R like Ggplot2 and Plotly, it is possible to create dynamic, 3D as well as animated graphics.

2. Data Handling

In R, the physical memory stores the objects. This is in contrast to other languages like Python. Furthermore, R utilizes more memory as compared with Python. Also, R requires the entire data in one single place, that is, in the memory. Therefore, it is not an ideal option when dealing with Big Data. However, with data management packages and integration with Hadoop possible, this is easily covered.

3. Basic Security

R lacks basic security. This feature is an essential part of most programming languages like Python. Because of this, there are several restrictions with R as it cannot be embedded into a web-application.

4. Complicated Language

R is not an easy language to learn. It has a steep learning curve. Due to this, people who do not have prior programming experience may find it difficult to learn R.

5. Lesser Speed

R packages and the R programming language is much slower than other languages like MATLAB and Python.

6. Spread Across various Packages

The algorithms in R are spread across different packages. Programmers without prior knowledge of packages may find it difficult to implement algorithms.

Excel Pros and Cons:

Pro: Data Organization

One of the biggest benefits of Excel is its primary function: The ability to organize large amounts of data into orderly, logical spreadsheets and charts. With the data organized, it's a lot easier to analyze and digest, especially when used to create graphs and other visual data representations.

Con: Learning Curve

While just about anyone can pick up Excel and start filling in tables, getting the full benefit of its features takes a lot of practice. Users unfamiliar with Excel syntax may also find entering calculations and calling up other functions a bit frustrating until they get a solid understanding.

Pro:Formula and Calculation Features

Excel crunches numbers almost instantly, making batch calculations much easier than working things out yourself with a calculator. Depending on your understanding and skill with Excel, the formulas and equations are used to quickly compute both simple and complex equations using large amounts of data.

Con: Calculation Errors

While Excel's automatic calculation functions make most large-scale batch calculations easy, it isn't foolproof. Excel has no means of checking for human error during data entry, which means that the wrong information can skew all the results -- sometimes disastrously. As Tim Worstall of Forbes reports, JP Morgan lost billions of dollars due to an equation error in Excel introduced by users copying and pasting data.

Pro: Third-Party Support

Excel is essentially considered the standard for spreadsheet software and as such enjoys considerable support on a number of platforms, including smartphones and tablets. Most other spreadsheet programs also support importing Excel sheets into their native formats and exporting their own spreadsheets as Excel files.

Con: Time Consuming

Manually entering data into Excel can take a very long time -- especially if you have a lot of data to enter. The amount of time it takes to manually enter data can be extremely inefficient and as Lior Weinstein of Cogniview points out, can lead to boredom, which leads to potentially costly inattentiveness.

Pro: Office Integration

As part of Microsoft's Office suite, Excel works with almost every other piece of software in Office. Excel spreadsheets can be easily added to Word documents and PowerPoint presentations to create more visually dynamic reports or presentations.

Con: Cost of Entry

While there are several low or no-cost alternatives, getting genuine Microsoft Excel isn't free. The cloud-based version of Excel requires a subscription to Office 365, while desktop editions have a purchase price of over $60 as of March 2015.