[R] Inefficiency of SAS Programming

[Frank E Harrell Jr]

Ajay ohri wrote:
> 
> I would like to know if we can create a package in which r functions are 
> renamed closer to sas language.doing so will help people familiar to SAS 
> to straight away take to R for their work,thus decreasing the threshold 
> for acceptance - and then get into deeper understanding later.
> 
> since it is a package it would be optional only for people wanting to 
> try out R from SAS.. Do we have such a package right now..it basically 
> masks R functions to the equivalent function in another language just 
> for user ease /beginners
> 
> for example
> 
> creating function for means 
> 
>  procmeans<-function(x,y)
> + {
> summary (
> subset(x,select=c(x,y))
> +
> )
> 
> creating function for importing csv
> 
> procimport <-function(x,y)
> + {
> read.csv(
> textConnection(x),row.names=y,na.strings="  "
> +
> )
> 
> 
> creating function fo describing data
> 
> procunivariate<-function(x)
> + {
> summary(x)
> +
> )
> 
> regards,
> 
> ajay

Ajay,

This will generate major confusion among users of all types and be hard 
to maintain.  A better approach is to get Bob Muenchen's excellent book 
and keep it nearby.

Frank

> 
> www.decisionstats.com <http://www.decisionstats.com>
> 
> On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 4:27 AM, Frank E Harrell Jr 
> <f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu <mailto:f.harrell at vanderbilt.edu>> wrote:
> 
>     If anyone wants to see a prime example of how inefficient it is to
>     program in SAS, take a look at the SAS programs provided by the US
>     Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for risk adjusting and
>     reporting for hospital outcomes at
>     http://www.qualityindicators.ahrq.gov/software.htm .  The
>     PSSASP3.SAS program is a prime example.  Look at how you do a vector
>     product in the SAS macro language to evaluate predictions from a
>     logistic regression model.  I estimate that using R would easily cut
>     the programming time of this set of programs by a factor of 4.
> 
>     Frank
>     -- 
>     Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
>                         Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University
> 
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> 
> 


-- 
Frank E Harrell Jr   Professor and Chair           School of Medicine
                      Department of Biostatistics   Vanderbilt University