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Thread: Excel for Mac > Stats package?
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06-17-2010, 01:23 PM #1
Excel for Mac > Stats package?
I've worked with Megastat before on a PC, but I don't own a PC. Need some stat fire power for a finance class. Any rec's for a (preferably free) stat plug-in for Mac)
edit: started my search here, but just googled. def some options, but I'd love feedback.As a snowboarder... i fucking hate snowboarders in general. -advres
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06-17-2010, 01:35 PM #2
This might be a winner...
http://www.r-project.org/
anyone have experience?As a snowboarder... i fucking hate snowboarders in general. -advres
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06-17-2010, 05:10 PM #3
I know many labs and Unis that are moving towards R instead of MatLab and so forth because it's both free and super powerful if you know what you're doing.
I used it during my MRes but couldn't fucking stand it because I can't fucking stand programming languages. Nowadays, if I'm doing stats, I would rather use SPSS, Excel, or just outsource -> co-author if need be.
That little "error" line that I got after I thought I just figured out that stupid piece of code and hit enter but found out I was wrong was almost enough to make me go postal and start shooting people. This feeling repeated itself once every few minutes every hour of every day I used R, which was just about every day for almost a year. I swear my gray hair percentage went waaaaay up due to R.
Oh, if you use R, be sure to use Tinn-R (only for PC) because it sucks to lose your code when it's just in R... although I think the Mac version of R has a semi-built-in Tinn-R equiv? Who knows... when doing stuff for classes and my thesis I used parallels, Tinn R and R for PC just because that way I knew at least one variable was removed.
My blood pressure is rising... I'm done. Fuck R. Good luck to you.Putting the "core" in corporate, one turn at a time.
Metalmücil 2010 - 2013 "Go Home" album is now a free download
The Bonin Petrels
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06-17-2010, 06:09 PM #4
Ask this question over here...
http://forums.macnn.com/"I knew in an instant that the three dollars I had spent on wine would not go to waste."
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06-17-2010, 07:09 PM #5
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06-17-2010, 08:07 PM #6
Cruised around on R for about 5 minutes and got scared away.
As a snowboarder... i fucking hate snowboarders in general. -advres
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06-17-2010, 08:23 PM #7Registered User
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Everyine kows you can;t do math on a mac....
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06-17-2010, 08:34 PM #8
Basic simple stats are easy enough in R so don't get scared away. Unfortunately, basic simple stats are also easy in Excel and you probably already know how to do them. R starts where Excel stops.
Putting the "core" in corporate, one turn at a time.
Metalmücil 2010 - 2013 "Go Home" album is now a free download
The Bonin Petrels
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06-17-2010, 11:04 PM #9
My excel skills are fleeting... use it or loose it, you know?
R looks sweet tho. At some point it would be nice if it were worth my while to learn it, but now's not the time. Basic excel works fine, plug ins have just spoilt me a bit.As a snowboarder... i fucking hate snowboarders in general. -advres
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06-17-2010, 11:31 PM #10
Why don't you just use boot camp so you can install windows on your mac too. Only boot up windows to use Mega Stat and other programs that don't run on OSX. Best of both worlds.
Mac excel plug ins generally suck. I downloaded a solver excel add on and deleted it within minutes.My drinking buddies say i have a skiing problem...
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06-17-2010, 11:38 PM #11
If you're a student you can get Win 7 CHEAP and then use boot camp. I did this for my heart rate monitor since Suunto hasn't gotten their act together on the Mac yet, also so I could use PlayOn for web video.
"I knew in an instant that the three dollars I had spent on wine would not go to waste."
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06-18-2010, 02:37 AM #12
If you can get your hands on a copy of MatLab, I would say go for it. There is a ton of MATLAB code, tutorials, and documentation that make it not that bad. Of course it isn't free but I think the student license is like $100 and in my case it is available on most of the machines in the Comp Sci department (or given to master's students).
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06-18-2010, 08:10 AM #13
I dodged R and used a few other stats packages and if I was to do it again I think I would go to R. Once you deviate from the stats that are wrapped up in the packages they tend to require input in code anyway. And some the big kick for me was that some programs have some compatibility issues between versions .
R will also force you to have a better understanding of exactly what you are
doing as every step will be entered in code instead of just pushing buttons.
R can also deal with data sets much larger than other programs that require a windows (or Mac) interface - something to do with available memory and stuff.
If you already have excel you should get asap (http://www.asap-utilities.com/index.php) free and is essentially a bunch of rather useful macros.I don't work and I don't save, desperate women pay my way.
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06-18-2010, 08:13 PM #14
My wife hates R, and uses IDL instead. But she tells me that with IDL you have to write almost all of your own stat functions so it probably isn't what you need.
This will probably show my age but is MiniTab still in existence? Edited to say.... Shit no they aren't. Weird. I did some consulting for them on mac a long time ago.
Another thought. If you can get a copy of windows run virtual box by sun... I tested it a bunch faster than parralels and it was really easy to deal with
http://www.virtualbox.org/Last edited by iceclimb; 06-18-2010 at 08:23 PM.
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06-20-2010, 11:28 AM #15
Tinn-R is just an editor, and yes R for mac has an editor built in. There are lots of other options too. It'd be silly to load windows just for Tinn-R.
But yes, R is a programming language, so you have to invest the time to learn it before you are doing useful things with it, especially if you don't have programming experience. Once you learn it though, there is a lot you can do. For one class, its probably not worth it.
Switching from R to IDL, thats nuts, I've found everything simpler in R, and there are way more packages and functions already written for it.
For something that is a bit more interactive, without the command line interface, maybe try JMP? You can get a 30-day trial for free, and if you have more than one email, you can get more trials
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06-20-2010, 11:31 AM #16
also, excel 2008 for mac is a neutered version of excel, it doesn't support VB macros, so I'm not sure ASAP utilities would work.
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06-20-2010, 11:41 AM #17
That's what I thought re. built-in editor on R for Mac. The only reason I used Parallels and Windows was because I was being taught on PCs at Uni and swapping between home and uni was easier if I was only using one platform; I'd often get weird errors going back-and-forth. My thesis also had me running ArcGIS and Distance and a couple other PC-only programs so in the interest of being consistent, I used Windows.
At the end of the day, no matter what platform, R still sucks.Putting the "core" in corporate, one turn at a time.
Metalmücil 2010 - 2013 "Go Home" album is now a free download
The Bonin Petrels
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