Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#1

Post by edent » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 12:33 PM UTC

Why do we use R rather than Excel?
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Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#2

Post by foreigner » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:08 PM UTC

Wow those reasons don't sound very compelling to me! (I'm a programmer but don't know R.)

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#3

Post by Mustangdudu69 » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:09 PM UTC

https://coincircle.com/l/I3VxB2MqAi

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#4

Post by corty » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

Big big reason: R doesn't alter data without being asked to, Excel does so, silently, sneakily. Anything important should not be done in Excel.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-renam... https://stackoverflow.com/questions/165042/stop-excel-from-a...

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#5

Post by npilk » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

For small datasets and simple charts, I'm not sure there are any compelling reasons to use R instead of Excel (unless you're already more comfortable with it). Plus, Excel is great for beginners - most people wouldn't need a class to draw a basic chart.

The more complex the analysis, the more reasons there are to get out of Excel.

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#6

Post by verelo » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC

foreigner wrote: post #2

Wow those reasons don't sound very compelling to me! (I'm a programmer but don't know R.)

Honestly i struggle with it. My partner recently wrote an R package (phd biology) and I’m a developer. I had done a bit of R but nothing substantial. By the end of the project i couldn’t think of a compelling reason not to use any other language. The R tooling is clumsy, the language isn’t great…the built in graphs are ok? It feels like the reason it’s popular is mostly just people not wanting to update skills because they’re in a tangential field where this is a solution so it’s not a priority to change.

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#7

Post by radiator » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:15 PM UTC

With millions of users using Excel, I am not convinced that there are no solutions to the problems of Repeatability, Batch Processing, Extensibility as mentioned in the article.

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#8

Post by supahfly_remix » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:16 PM UTC

Saw CSV mentioned in the article but didn't see it mention that R can read Excel files directly. So, you can use the spreadsheet to capture data and process it in R.

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#9

Post by supahfly_remix » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:18 PM UTC

This also provides a good transition path in case you'd like to experiment with R but have existing spreadsheets.

Re: Why do we use R rather than Excel?

#10

Post by Dwolb » Sun, Jul 11, 2021, 1:19 PM UTC

Whenever I hear a process is run on excel I do a quick mental calculation of the relative risk of process defect severity, the time it takes to manually do the task in excel, and the investment + maintenance costs associated with automating.

When running any process in excel after enough times there will be an error. It just depends on whether that error will cost you a lot of money or not.

However, there is also a cost to automating these processes that goes beyond the initial investment. Someone needs to make sure the input data stays clean and coordinate any system-wide changes to the interfaces. This is a new thing that can break whenever system-wide changes get made so data governance becomes a priority.