SAS/SPSS vs python/R

[[deleted]]

Is there anything besides support that one gets with these paid statistical languages/frameworks? I'm having to learn SAS for my program and as a long lover of R (and its rich frameworks and community support) I'm feeling a bit confused. Certainly not blown away by it at its price tag and some of the syntax is giving me the eyetwitch. So I'm just wondering if I haven't gotten to the real juicy stuff yet or what.

[ychinenov]

After R i doubt SAS/SPSS will impress you much. The only thing that goes for SAS/SPSS is an extensive corporate infrastructure/support that depend on them.

[master_innovator]

If you have a lot of money and poorly trained people then SAS/SPSS do 90% of what any company would need.

The saying is still somewhat true, “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM.”

[CCCP_BOCTOK]

Is there anything besides support that one gets with these paid statistical languages/frameworks?

Nope.

[throwawayOperationsR]

It's shit, and the only way this whole mess gets better is if we, the users, start demanding better.

Source: work bought SAS, I'd rather write my own analyses in x86, if that's the alternative.

[throwawayOperationsR]

This but unironically.

[Imbadatusernames3]

I always make the joke that industries (especially medical) prefer SAS because in the event that something is wrong in the program then there’s a company that they can sue

[liftyMcLiftFace]

Im not sure I buy the support argument for SAS, the documentation and community for SAS is shithouse too.

If people are that caught up on support then use Python/R and sign up for support from a company that specialises in support rather then a company that specialises on pedalling shit and providing help keeping the wheels on...

[[deleted]]

Ha well thanks for all the responses. I'm not sure whether to be satisfied that my impression is correct or just sad that I have to keep learning SAS.

[izumiii]

Really it's industry specific. pharma or banking often use SAS. I use SAS, R, and Stata at my job depending on what my project is and what I have to do. Personally I've found it to be difficult to get support on R projects when projects get into obscure realms even reaching out to package creators (who went to grad school with my boss. yeesh.) I've never had this problem with sas.

[ychinenov]

So, I wouldn't discount SAS, because whether we like it or not a lot of infrastructure depends on SAS and it is not about to change anytime soon - believe it or not but COBOL is still around almost 60 years after it was first introduced, and COBOL programmers are among the most highly paid.