R Project is Real

R Project (or simply, R) has become the analytical software of choice for many data scientists around the world. According to the R website:

R is an integrated suite of software facilities for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display. It includes:

• an effective data handling and storage facility,
• a suite of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular matrices,
• a large, coherent, integrated collection of intermediate tools for data analysis,
• graphical facilities for data analysis and display either on-screen or on hardcopy, and
• a well-developed, simple and effective programming language which includes conditionals, loops, user-defined recursive functions and input and output facilities.

For Excel (Microsoft) users, an R interface/add-in called RExcel is available and offers an integration path for analysts who use Excel. I tested RExcel on my personal workstation and found the add-in extensions to be reliable and useful.

R is available as "Free Software" under the terms of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public License in source code form. R compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms and similar systems (including FreeBSD and Linux), Windows and MacOS.

Analysts and data scientists in all fields who have no yet evaluated R should do so at their earliest convenience. Follow the link below to learn more.

R Project