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The other reason to not use Excel for stats? It's virtually impossible to reproduce your work unless you documented every step in some other format. Excel is ea

by kprybol 10y ago

The other reason to not use Excel for stats? It's virtually impossible to reproduce your work unless you documented every step in some other format. Excel is easily one of the worst tools you can use if you ever need to refer back to/redo your original work at any point in the future or if you need to be able to validate your result with any confidence. Yea I know there are some people who are freaking magicians with VBA who can "fix" many of the problems listed, but that doesn't absolve excel of its statistical sins.

MlCROSOFT 10y ago
I think that's where R stats package (R Project) really shines, I love the command line console that displays every input / action so you have a track record of what you did. Used it for T-tests, linear regression, ANOVA, MANOVA. For those working in biological / environmental science fields, I would definitely recommend it.
- okket 10y ago
  There is a free R course on Codeschool if anyone wants to try it for an hour or two. It's fun. https://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-r https://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-r
kprybol 10y ago
Oh, almost forgot! (can't edit so I'll reply to myself) - there's no way for you to set a fixed seed using the built in random number generator. REALLY hope you don't need to reproduce your results because it's essentially impossible. Again, it's technically possible to implement your own Lehmer random number generator within Excel and rely on that and again VBA is always and option, but let's be realistic. The people who understand the need for setting fixed seeds, can implement their own random number generator, and/or are comfortable actually programming aren't going to using Excel anyway (willfully at least)
Nicholas_C 10y ago
If you're ripping through the command line you can run into the same problem. If someone is manipulating data in excel and erasing the original data they are not a good analyst. Further, it is very easy to add documentation of steps taken to files.
deleted 10y ago
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by kprybol 10y ago

MlCROSOFT 10y ago

I think that's where R stats package (R Project) really shines, I love the command line console that displays every input / action so you have a track record of what you did. Used it for T-tests, linear regression, ANOVA, MANOVA. For those working in biological / environmental science fields, I would definitely recommend it.

okket 10y ago
There is a free R course on Codeschool if anyone wants to try it for an hour or two. It's fun. https://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-r https://www.codeschool.com/courses/try-r

kprybol 10y ago

Oh, almost forgot! (can't edit so I'll reply to myself) - there's no way for you to set a fixed seed using the built in random number generator. REALLY hope you don't need to reproduce your results because it's essentially impossible. Again, it's technically possible to implement your own Lehmer random number generator within Excel and rely on that and again VBA is always and option, but let's be realistic. The people who understand the need for setting fixed seeds, can implement their own random number generator, and/or are comfortable actually programming aren't going to using Excel anyway (willfully at least)

Nicholas_C 10y ago

If you're ripping through the command line you can run into the same problem. If someone is manipulating data in excel and erasing the original data they are not a good analyst. Further, it is very easy to add documentation of steps taken to files.

deleted 10y ago

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