Help a nerdy girl learn R-programming
November 10, 2011 8:11 PM Subscribe
Anyone know of good online or in-person (in the Philadelphia) training options for R statistical programming?
I know there have been other questions about free statistical programming packages, but I've already decided that I want to learn R (and am currently proficiency in both SAS and SPSS). What specific suggestions do you have for books/online guides? Any online courses that were particularly helpful for someone with some programming experience?
In particular, I'm looking to make a convincing argument to my place of part-time employment to pay for either a training course or at the very least any materials I would need to learn R. As an Epidemiology graduate student I am confident using SAS and have experience with SPSS, however, purchasing these programs is not realistic for the non-profit I work for part-time - both financially and given the expertise-level of others at the agency working with data. One option I'd like to pursue for use at work and in the future is r-programming, so any options that would allow me to share my knowledge with others at work would be appreciated.
I know there have been other questions about free statistical programming packages, but I've already decided that I want to learn R (and am currently proficiency in both SAS and SPSS). What specific suggestions do you have for books/online guides? Any online courses that were particularly helpful for someone with some programming experience?
In particular, I'm looking to make a convincing argument to my place of part-time employment to pay for either a training course or at the very least any materials I would need to learn R. As an Epidemiology graduate student I am confident using SAS and have experience with SPSS, however, purchasing these programs is not realistic for the non-profit I work for part-time - both financially and given the expertise-level of others at the agency working with data. One option I'd like to pursue for use at work and in the future is r-programming, so any options that would allow me to share my knowledge with others at work would be appreciated.
I don't have any trainig resources to for R, but if you are looking at developing some machine learning CRM models, I'd also reccommend exploring RapidMiner -its pretty cool..
If you are doing anything with GIS, I've just started messing around with GRASS as a tool I'll really use to point and area demographic information into overlays I can read into MapInfo/Anysite. (Too few resources and cash to justify Spectrum)
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:42 AM on November 11, 2011
If you are doing anything with GIS, I've just started messing around with GRASS as a tool I'll really use to point and area demographic information into overlays I can read into MapInfo/Anysite. (Too few resources and cash to justify Spectrum)
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:42 AM on November 11, 2011
given the expertise-level of others at the agency working with data
I have only been using R for a few months, but if you are hoping that is going to be easy for non-quantitative or non-techy people to work with, that is not my experience. If you are planning on writing a program to do pretty much everything auto-magically and you only need to tweek it when some sort of source data changes, that seems possible.
posted by shothotbot at 8:12 AM on November 11, 2011
I have only been using R for a few months, but if you are hoping that is going to be easy for non-quantitative or non-techy people to work with, that is not my experience. If you are planning on writing a program to do pretty much everything auto-magically and you only need to tweek it when some sort of source data changes, that seems possible.
posted by shothotbot at 8:12 AM on November 11, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks for the link, rahulrg.
shothotbot - I assume it will either be programming for others to run without changes (or very minor changes) or just for my own use. My point was basically that I can't ask them to invest in licensing a statistical software package (like SAS) that only I would be able to use, but I may be able to convince them to pay for a one-off training for R given that they wouldn't have to pay for the licensing or anything.
Thanks and keep the suggestions coming for materials or trainings!
posted by moshimosh at 7:11 AM on November 13, 2011
shothotbot - I assume it will either be programming for others to run without changes (or very minor changes) or just for my own use. My point was basically that I can't ask them to invest in licensing a statistical software package (like SAS) that only I would be able to use, but I may be able to convince them to pay for a one-off training for R given that they wouldn't have to pay for the licensing or anything.
Thanks and keep the suggestions coming for materials or trainings!
posted by moshimosh at 7:11 AM on November 13, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/cat_statcomp.html
The primary language of the course is R. You should check it out.
posted by rahulrg at 8:23 PM on November 10, 2011 [11 favorites]