SAS

Statistical Software Access From Home

Of all the stressors you’ve got right now, accessing your statistical software from home shouldn’t be one of them. (You know, the one on your office computer).

We’ve gotten some updates from some statistical software companies on how they’re making it easier to access the software you have a license to or to extend a free trial while you’re working from home.

Member Training: What’s the Best Statistical Package for You?

by guest

Choosing statistical software is part of The Fundamentals of Statistical Skill and is necessary to learning a second software (something we recommend to anyone progressing from Stage 2 to Stage 3 and beyond).

You have many choices for software to analyze your data: R, SAS, SPSS, and Stata, among others. They are all quite good, but each has its own unique strengths and weaknesses.

The Secret to Importing Excel Spreadsheets into SAS

by Audrey Schnell Leave a Comment

My poor colleague was pulling her hair out in frustration today.

You know when you’re trying to do something quickly, and it’s supposed to be easy, only it’s not? And you try every solution you can think of and it still doesn’t work?

And even in the great age of the Internet, which is supposed to know all the things you don’t, you still can’t find the answer anywhere?

Cue hair-pulling.

Here’s what happened: She was trying to import an Excel spreadsheet into SAS, and it didn’t work.

Instead she got:

The Four Stages of Mastering Statistical Analysis

by Karen Grace-Martin 3 Comments

At The Analysis Factor, we are on a mission to help researchers improve their statistical skills so they can do amazing research.

We all tend to think of “Statistical Analysis” as one big skill, but it’s not.

Over the years of training, coaching, and mentoring data analysts at all stages, I’ve realized there are four fundamental stages of statistical skill:

Stage 1: The Fundamentals

Stage 2: Linear Models

Stage 3: Extensions of Linear Models

Stage 4: Advanced Models

There is also a stage beyond these where the mathematical statisticians dwell. But that stage is required for such a tiny fraction of data analysis projects, we’re going to ignore that one for now.

If you try to master the skill of “statistical analysis” as a whole, it’s going to be overwhelming.

And honestly, you’ll never finish. It’s too big of a field.

But if you can work through these stages, you’ll find you can learn and do just about any statistical analysis you need to. [Read more…] about The Four Stages of Mastering Statistical Analysis

Tricks for Using Word to Make Statistical Syntax Easier

by Karen Grace-Martin 2 Comments

We’ve talked a lot around here about the reasons to use syntax — not only menus — in your statistical analyses.

Regardless of which software you use, the syntax file is pretty much always a text file. This is true for R, SPSS, SAS, Stata — just about all of them.

This is important because it means you can use an unlikely tool to help you code: Microsoft Word.

I know what you’re thinking. Word? Really?

Yep, it’s true. Essentially it’s because Word has much better Search-and-Replace options than your stat software’s editor.

Here are a couple features of Word’s search-and-replace that I use to help me code faster:

Ten Ways Learning a Statistical Software Package is Like Learning a New Language

by Karen Grace-Martin Leave a Comment

Someone recently asked me if they need to learn R. In responding, it struck me that this is another way that learning a stat package is like learning a new language.

The metaphor is extremely helpful for deciding when and how to learn a new stat package, and to keep you going when the going gets rough. [Read more…] about Ten Ways Learning a Statistical Software Package is Like Learning a New Language