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We previously discussed the importance of taking time for numbers. And today, we will go into the branch of mathematics that deals with the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of masses of numerical data—called Statistics.
It is basically the collection of quantitative data useful for businesses setting up their KPIs. Of course, who would not want to know the real deal in their business, right?
So, which statistical software do most businesses use?
SPSS
SPSS refers to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. It is a statistical data analysis program designed for data management in the social sciences. SPSS Inc. was the first to release it in 1968. Then, in 2009, it was purchased by IBM.
Often regarded as the gold standard for social-science data analysis, SPSS offers a simple English-like command language and comprehensive user manual.
Core Functions
Statistics Program
It does a variety of fundamental statistical operations, including frequencies, cross-tabulation, and bivariate statistics, to name a few.
Modeler Program
The Modeler program in SPSS creates and evaluates prediction models using advanced statistical processes.
Text Analytics for Survey Program
Text analytics assists survey administrators in gaining valuable insights from open-ended survey replies.
Visualization Designer
The Visualization Designer application helps researchers build a range of graphics from their survey data, such as density charts and radial boxplots.
Benefits of SPSS
Data Management
The SPSS program gives you a lot of flexibility over how you organize and manage your data. The program delivers faster and more accurate data analysis since it remembers the position of the variables and cases.
Wide Range of Alternatives
Any form of statistical analysis will be a breeze with different choices of graphs, techniques, and charts available. The data screening and cleaning capabilities of SPSS are excellent for research.
Output Organization Improvements
In SPSS, the output is kept distinct from the data by saving your findings in a separate document, especially ones not the same as the data file. When you utilize SPSS, you do not have to worry about accidentally overwriting any other data.
Using a built analytic and statistical program like SPSS may give you (and other researchers) in-depth, quicker, and more sophisticated data analysis.
STATA
With STATA, you have a comprehensive statistical software program that includes all of the tools you need for data analysis, data management, and visualization. This program also allows you to store and manage data (both large and small data sets), perform statistical analyses on your data, and produce visually appealing graphs.
Core Functions
It provides mathematical functions, probability, and density functions, matrix functions, string functions, and other functions used by programmers.
These are merely sets of rules. To analyze the data, you need to supply the function with arguments. It evaluates the data according to the rules. On top of that, you must use it in conjunction with a Stata command.
Functions display the function name that starts with an open parenthesis. Then, you separate expressions using commas and end them with a close parenthesis.
Benefits of STATA
It has a wide range of functions, including practically every well-known statistical procedure.
Easily accessible through a graphical user interface.
It is possible to automate.
Older versions are compatible.
The STATA community has been helpful, and there is a lot of information accessible.
Windows, macOS, and Unix are all supported.
In comparison to commercial competitors, it is affordable.
A three-year release cycle ensures investment protection.
Although STATA is a mature, robust, and powerful program, its adoption—particularly in businesses—is limited. STATA is preferred by the more expensive commercial competitors for customers that appreciate a range of techniques, stability, a mature operational concept including scripting language, and a reasonable price.
SAS
Statistical Analysis Systems is a software application that dates back to the 1970s. It is a closed-source research tool. In the corporate sector, this program aids in making strategic decisions by analyzing and visualizing statistical data.
This command-driven statistical software package enables you to utilize qualitative approaches and procedures to boost employee productivity and company revenues. In the same way, you can use it for analytics such as corporate intelligence, criminal investigation, and predictive analysis.
SAS extracts and categorizes data, allowing you to detect and analyze data trends. This program is useful for businesses to function effectively in competitive and changing environments. SAS is also platform-neutral, which means it may operate on any operating system, including Linux and Windows.
Core Functions
Strong Data Analytical Skills
You can compare the programming ability to a comprehensive suite for data analysis streams. It has a spectrum of analytical skills, from basic statistics to sophisticated statistics.
The built-in libraries are the best aspect of SAS. These include all of the necessary software for data analysis and reporting.
Flexible 4 Generation Programming Language (4GL)
SAS syntax is simple to grasp. Its built-in libraries have reduced code for popular applications. Moreover, it allows us to break down our work into smaller chunks making it more dynamic for non-programmers.
SAS Studio
It is a unique SAS feature. You can access SAS Studio using any web browser on any device and accesses all program libraries and data files. SAS Studio also aids in the creation and addition of individual code snippets to the snippet library. The interface is point-and-click, and it walks us through the analytical process at several stages.
Supports Different Types of Data Formats
The SAS language can read data from any file, in any format, even from files with missing data. SAS includes SQL support. It entails a character encoding database and complete support for commonly used languages. It also ensures code singularity, allowing SAS to interact with data in numerous languages.
Management
SAS's most essential quality is its management. The SAS environment manager keeps track of the analytics environment and sends out warnings, monitors it and controls it. Its SAS Management Console uses an Extended Java Graphical User Interface to administer operations.
Data Encryption
SAS ensures that security is maintained. SAS 9.4 has a security component called SAS/SECURE. You can also encrypt SAS data on drives using various techniques.
Benefits of SAS
It is simple to learn.
Has the capacity to work with complex databases.
Debugging is simple.
Thoroughly tested algorithms.
Data protection.
Excellent output.
Many large corporations use SAS as their primary tool. Because this is a close source, you are sure that the information is kept private. It is one of the favored over any other language for data analysis. Anyone who knows SAS can quickly learn R and Python. SAS is the market leader in business analytics.
R
R is a statistical computing and graphics programming language that you may use to clean, analyze, and graph your data. It is a tool for researchers from many fields. They use it to estimate and present results from statistics and research methodologies.
R is an open-source statistics environment. You use R in conjunction with RStudio, a user-friendly programming environment. The good thing is that you can use it locally or remotely via a web browser. Shiny allows R programs to be utilized directly and interactively on the web.
Core Functions
It is an interpreted computer language that allows branching and looping modular programming using functions. With R, you can efficiently integrate procedures written in different languages such as C, C++, Net, Python, or FORTRAN.
Benefits of R
There is a wide range of functions available (over 2,000 packages).
New statistical approaches implementation.
Easy to automate and integrate.
Community assistance is excellent.
There are several free aid resources accessible (manuals, tutorials, and so on).
The scripting language has a lot of power and flexibility.
It supports all popular platforms, Windows, Linux, macOS, etc.
It is future-proof, thanks to its active development community.
R began as a low-cost option for folks who cannot afford to buy a commercial statistics package. But in terms of capability, versatility, and integration with other programs, it is currently outperforming its competitors.
PYTHON
This one is a complete operational, open, interpreted programming language. It has recently established itself as a viable solution for data science applications.
Core Functions
Python is particularly well-suited to the disciplines of Deep Learning and Machine Learning. This statistics software comes in easy-to-install packages.
Jupyter, Spyder, and PyCharm are just a few of its programming environments accessible. In sectors such as web development, Python is a popular programming language.
Benefits of Phyton
The programming language is both powerful and functional.
Object-oriented, structured, and functional notions are all possible.
Unit tests and debugging capabilities.
There are stable programs in the data science business and beyond.
The syntax is easy to read and understand.
A vast developer community is always working on something new.
The most up-to-date Deep Learning and Machine Learning techniques are available at all times.
It is simple to automate, e.g., via scripts or a webserver.
Completely integrable (Git, teradata, PySpark, Hadoop, KNIME).
Exceptional community support.
Visualizations are both attractive and simple to make.
Offer environments for professional growth.
It is future-proof.
Phyton has evolved in recent years and is growing in popularity with its high-performance packages. Its benefits are essential to automation and interacting with other Python-based systems. This statistical program is helpful for non-programmers, such as accountants and scientists, for their everyday tasks.
EXCEL
MS Excel is a commercial spreadsheet tool developed by Microsoft and published for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS operating systems. It includes, among other things, the ability to make simple calculations, use graphing tools, construct pivot tables, and create macros.
Core Functions
Excel aids in performing mathematical, statistical, and logical operations using functions as below:
SUM
In processing data using Excel, most users utilize the sum function. This function sums a set of integers in a cell. It means you do not have to enter a long, complicated formula to compute the total of all the data. "=SUM# is the syntax for the sum function.
TEXT
A text function is a handy tool for converting a date (or a number) to a text string in a preferred format. It belongs to the string formulas group since it converts numerical values into strings. "=TEXT" is the syntax for text function.
VLOOKUP
It is a powerful feature that comes in handy when users need to locate certain data in a vast table. You can use this function to search your sheet for people, phone numbers, or particular data. "=VLOOKUP" is the syntax for the VLOOKUP function.
AVERAGE
An average function is a fantastic tool for calculating the average value of a group of cells. It functions similarly as the sum and is widely used in spreadsheets to compute and analyze data. "=AVERAGE" is the syntax for the average function.
CONCATENATE
When you need to merge data from two or more cells, this function comes in handy. The concatenate function is different from the merge tool. Because the latter physically merge two or more cells into a single cell, putting together its contents. "CONCATENATE" is the syntax for the concatenate function.
Benefits of Excel
The most effective method of data storage
Excel is a prominent way to save data even if you do not use any of the choices or tools it provides. If you keep data in Excel and share it with others, they can easily access it.
Conduct computations
Excel's capacity to execute computations is what makes it the best spreadsheet program in the world. You have access to a comprehensive array of functions in Excel that you may use to do computations.
Data analysis tools
The primary goal of having data is to analyze it and gain insights using it. With Excel, you get the most sophisticated data analysis capabilities available. For example, you have data with hundreds of rows; analysts can construct a summary table by inserting a pivot table into it.
Data visualizations
In Excel, you can make charts and visually show your data. It has all of the primary chart kinds you need to show your data, and you can add them with a single click. Microsoft Excel also suggests the best chart for the data in your worksheet.
Use coding to automate a task
VBA (visual basic for applications) is a coding language developed by Microsoft Office that allows you to create code for practically all the tasks you perform manually in Excel.
Clean and transform data
Microsoft has developed the power query. This data transformation and cleaning engine allow you to input data from numerous sources, alter it, and then load it back into the worksheet.
Millions of rows in the database
There is no limit to the amount of data you can store in Excel. However, it has a limit in terms of rows and columns. Microsoft created Power Pivot, a tool that allows you to save data with millions of rows and then conduct computations within Power Pivot.
Available online and as a mobile app
Since most businesses are shifting to the cloud these days, Microsoft Excel has its own web version. It offers the same functionality as the desktop app, including functions, pivot tables, and pivot charts. On top of that, it is now available on mobile devices.
Excel is a convenient and cost-efficient tool used by many data analysts. With its simple tricks and techniques, you can save time and energy to extract actionable insights.
Final Note
We live in a world of different industries. Depending on the need, you can utilize numerous comprehensive statistical software to handle and analyze survey data.
Of course, we only want to get the most out of our research and survey initiatives. With the use of statistics, business owners can help keep the business operating and continuously growing for the future.