R for SAS and SPSS Users

1. Graphics Overview graphics

   • Robert A Muenchen

   Pages 273-279

2. Traditional Graphics graphics

   • Robert A Muenchen

   Pages 281-339

3. Graphics with ggplot2 (GPL) graphics

   • Robert A Muenchen

   Pages 341-402

4. Statistics

   • Robert A Muenchen

   Pages 403-440

5. Conclusion

   • Robert A Muenchen

   Pages 441-441

6. Back Matter

   Pages 443-470

   PDF

While SAS and SPSS have many things in common, R is very different. My goal in writing this book is to help you translate what you know about SAS or SPSS into a working knowledge of R as quickly and easily as possible. I point out how they differ using terminology with which you are familiar, and show you which add-on packages will provide results most like those from SAS or SPSS. I provide many example programs done in SAS, SPSS, and R so that you can see how they compare topic by topic. When finished, you should be able to use R to: Read data from various types of text files and SAS/SPSS datasets. Manage your data through transformations or recodes, as well as splitting, merging and restructuring data sets. Create publication quality graphs including bar, histogram, pie, line, scatter, regression, box, error bar, and interaction plots. Perform the basic types of analyses to measure strength of association and group differences, and be able to know where to turn to cover much more complex methods.

• SAS
• SPSS
• STATISTICA
• coding
• data acquisition
• data analysis
• data structures
• programming
• programming language
• statistics

From the reviews

“This is a really great book. It is easy to read, quite comprehensive, and would be extremely valuable to both regular R users and users of SAS and SPSS who wish to switch to or learn about R…An invaluable reference.” - David Hitchcock, University of South Carolina

“Thanks for writing R for SAS and SPSS Users--it is a comprehensible and clever document. The graphics chapter is superb!” - Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University

"As his title suggests, Robert Muenchen crafted this to be a Rosetta Stone for SAS and SPSS users to start learning R quickly and effectively. Has he achieved this? Yes, and more." -Ralph O'Brien, Case Western Reserve University, ASA Fellow

“I am a professional SAS and SPSS programmer and found this book extremely useful.” - Tony Chu, Public Policy Research Data Analyst

"I found the book extremely helpful. Over the last few months I am regularly reaching for the book from my bookshelf to find sensible R code and to help with some data manipulation. The material is laid out in a way that makes it very accessible. Because of this I recommend this book to any R user regardless of his or her familiarity with SAS or SPSS. For those dedicated SAS and SPSS users I especially recommend the book. As discussed in the Introduction section, the basics of the R language are very different from SAS and SPSS but this book’s layout, style, and content help with these differences. The ordering of the material is very user-friendly and sensible...To new R users, and to R users of some years experience, I recommend this book. For new R users it will demystify many aspects, and for existing R users it will have many answers to those questions you have been too afraid to ask in public...." The American Statistician, February 2010, Vol. 64, No. 1

"The title of this book accurately describes its goal: to teach SAS and SPSS users how to use R...The book is laid out well, with sensiblefeatures such as a separate font for programs; tables listing complete programs in all three languages; an index with entries that include main SAS or SPSS commands and procedures, allowing users to locate R equivalents fairly quickly; and appendices comparing the three languages’ attributes and procedures/packages. It is much easier to read and likely comparably more helpful than a manual...There is no question in my mind that this can be a very useful book for its intended audience." Biometrics, 65, 1313, December 2009

"R for SAS and SPSS Users provides an excellent introduction to R. As Muenchen, Manager of the Statistical Computing Center at the University of Tennessee, notes in the Preface, the SPSS and SAS platforms, introduced over 30 years ago, have much in common – but are very different than 10 year old R. The book's first chapters focus on gentle GUI's for R before taking on the language starting in Chapter 8. At that point the book meticulously covers data management, data structures, programming, graphics and basic statistical analysis in R. The prose is clear, the examples tied to their SPSS and SAS analogs. The handling of both traditional and newer “ggplot2” graphics is comprehensive: SPSS and SAS users will undoubtedly find lots to like. The appendixes contrast R jargon with SPSS/SAS and compare SPSS/SAS products with the corresponding R packages."  (Information Management, June 15, 2010)

“This book is designed for SAS/SPSS users interested in making a transition to R or wanting to add the additional capabilities of R to their repertoire. … book provides many simple how to s for new users of R and lots of comparative examples for users with knowledge of SAS and SPSS. … It is intended to help make the transition from SAS or SPSS to R as painless and smooth … .” (Roger M. Sauter, Technometrics, Vol. 53 (1), February, 2011)

• Office of Information Technology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, U.S.A.

  Robert A. Muenchen

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