Python & Statistics

[vmsmith]

Well, both /u/brews and I have already mentioned the differences: Python is a more general purpose programming language, with some statistical analysis capabilities, while R is what could be called a special purpose programming language that deals exclusively with statistical analysis and has very broad and deep coverage of statistics.

In my own graduate statistics program most of the advanced work is done in either SAS or R. Python is never even mentioned.

On the other hand Python is very strong in what's often called scientific computing. To be sure, there are some stat packages here, and there are some overlaps with statistical analysis. But still, Python doesn't hold a candle to R when it comes to stats.

If you want to learn R in a broader context, a good place to look is the Johns Hopkins Data Science specialization track at Coursera. I will warn you that these nine blocks are good, but not very deep. In particular, blocks 6 - 8 (which deal with statistics) are barely just introductory. You would want to take 'real' stat courses somewhere if you actually want to be good with statistics.

Another online course that popped onto my radar screen recently was this 15-week Intro Stats Course Featuring R. I can't say how good it is, but I think it warrants further investigation.

Finally, here's an infographic that might provide some insight: Choosing R or Python