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SPSS question

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lts1

SPSS question

Hi All,

My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS & SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.

I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable. This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her job here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really is, they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on this technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things that can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.

Best,
Lisa

P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.

Lisa T. Stickney
Ph.D. Candidate
The Fox School of Business
and Management
Temple University

Dan Zetu

Re: SPSS question

Lisa:

You would have to admit that this is a broad question. As a user of both
SPSS and SAS, in general I personally find the two packages as offering
comparable capabilities, although there are also some differences. SPSS has
done a pretty good job in replicating most of SAS capabilities, but also has
added some that SAS does not have. Please be advised that my comments below
are based solely on personal experience and by no means they include the
entire universe of possible comparisons between the two.

1. SPSS cannot directly handle large data sets (at as low as 10000 cases,
its performance degrades). So if one has to work on a very large data set,
SAS is the number one choice

2. SPSS has a far superior GUI than SAS, the feature I find the most useful
is the capability to paste the syntax when using a menu command. This can
save one from writing a lot of syntax

3. In terms of statistical analysis, both packages offer quite similar
capabilities. There are a few offerings in SAS which do not have
correspondent in SPSS (as far as I know), such as PLS regression, superior
hierarchical clustering diagnosis tools, generalized additive models,
however SPSS has some other capabilities I have not found in SAS, such as
Optimal Scaling (or homogeneity analysis), which I found very useful in
certain instances.

So it really depends on the context of your friend's job description. For
example, if she is a chemist, SAS could be more useful as it has PLS
regression, which is heavily used in chemometrics. Same holds for some
direct marketing applications, and virtually all other instances in which
large data sets are used. Otherwise, there should not be any difference.

I am sure you will get even more complete responses here.

Dan

>From: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
>Reply-To: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
>To: [hidden email]
>Subject: SPSS question
>Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:37:11 -0400
>
>Hi All,
>
> My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an
>e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS &
>SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this
>message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.
>
>I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable.
>This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the
>people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her job
>here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really is,
>they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on this
>technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
>comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
>particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things that
>can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.
>
> Best,
> Lisa
>
>P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.
>
>
>Lisa T. Stickney
>Ph.D. Candidate
>The Fox School of Business
> and Management
>Temple University

Adam Troy-2

Re: SPSS question

Lisa,

I've used SPSS in databases as large as 500,000 cases with little error.
You would need a powerful computer to reduce problems (2ghz or higher), and
probably would be better off running the most recent version of SPSS, but I haven't
run into any major issues with regard to record number. --Adam

_____________________________
Adam B. Troy, Ph.D.
Director of Research
GoalQuest, Inc.

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Zetu <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:55 pm
Subject: Re: SPSS question

> Lisa:
>
> You would have to admit that this is a broad question. As a user
> of both
> SPSS and SAS, in general I personally find the two packages as
> offeringcomparable capabilities, although there are also some
> differences. SPSS has
> done a pretty good job in replicating most of SAS capabilities,
> but also has
> added some that SAS does not have. Please be advised that my
> comments below
> are based solely on personal experience and by no means they
> include the
> entire universe of possible comparisons between the two.
>
> 1. SPSS cannot directly handle large data sets (at as low as 10000
> cases,its performance degrades). So if one has to work on a very
> large data set,
> SAS is the number one choice
>
> 2. SPSS has a far superior GUI than SAS, the feature I find the
> most useful
> is the capability to paste the syntax when using a menu command.
> This can
> save one from writing a lot of syntax
>
> 3. In terms of statistical analysis, both packages offer quite similar
> capabilities. There are a few offerings in SAS which do not have
> correspondent in SPSS (as far as I know), such as PLS regression,
> superiorhierarchical clustering diagnosis tools, generalized
> additive models,
> however SPSS has some other capabilities I have not found in SAS,
> such as
> Optimal Scaling (or homogeneity analysis), which I found very
> useful in
> certain instances.
>
> So it really depends on the context of your friend's job
> description. For
> example, if she is a chemist, SAS could be more useful as it has PLS
> regression, which is heavily used in chemometrics. Same holds for some
> direct marketing applications, and virtually all other instances
> in which
> large data sets are used. Otherwise, there should not be any
> difference.
> I am sure you will get even more complete responses here.
>
> Dan
>
> >From: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
> >Reply-To: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
> >To: [hidden email]
> >Subject: SPSS question
> >Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:37:11 -0400
> >
> >Hi All,
> >
> > My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've
> received an
> >e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions
> of SAS &
> >SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt
> from this
> >message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.
> >
> >I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are
> comparable.>This is for a friend whose green card is potentially
> at risk because the
> >people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified
> for her job
> >here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really is,
> >they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her
> on this
> >technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
> >comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
> >particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of
> things that
> >can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.
> >
> > Best,
> > Lisa
> >
> >P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.
> >
> >
> >Lisa T. Stickney
> >Ph.D. Candidate
> >The Fox School of Business
> > and Management
> >Temple University
>

Weeks, Kyle

FW: Re: SPSS question

In reply to this post by lts1

Just a follow-up to one of Dan's points regarding SPSS and large datasets. We have users that process terabytes of data with SPSS, including both very wide and very long files. Processing time on procedures is linear in the number of cases in most procedures for the accumulation stage, but there are some procedures that require data in memory due to the nature of their algorithms. The Data Editor, which is by nature interactive, is not well suited for very large numbers of cases. Thus, things like scrolling through a large dataset in the Data Editor would not be recommended.

Here's a simple experiment, with processor time results:

*1,000 cases, processor time: 0:00:00.01.
input program.
loop #i=1 to 1000.
do repeat x=var1 to var5.
compute x=rv.normal(100,10).
end repeat.
end case.
end loop.
end file.
end input program.
correlations variables=var1 to var5.

*10,000 cases, processor time: 0:00:00.16.
input program.
loop #i=1 to 10000.
do repeat x=var1 to var5.
compute x=rv.normal(100,10).
end repeat.
end case.
end loop.
end file.
end input program.
correlations variables=var1 to var5.

*100,000 cases, processor time: 0:00:00.78.
input program.
loop #i=1 to 100000.
do repeat x=var1 to var5.
compute x=rv.normal(100,10).
end repeat.
end case.
end loop.
end file.
end input program.
correlations variables=var1 to var5.

*1,000,000 cases, processor time: 0:00:07.84.
input program.
loop #i=1 to 1000000.
do repeat x=var1 to var5.
compute x=rv.normal(100,10).
end repeat.
end case.
end loop.
end file.
end input program.
correlations variables=var1 to var5.

Regards.

Kyle Weeks, Ph.D.
Director of Product Management, SPSS Product Line
Product Management
SPSS Inc.
[hidden email]
www.spss.com
SPSS Inc. helps organizations turn data into insight through predictive analytics.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Dan Zetu
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 11:55 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: SPSS question

Lisa:

You would have to admit that this is a broad question. As a user of both
SPSS and SAS, in general I personally find the two packages as offering
comparable capabilities, although there are also some differences. SPSS has
done a pretty good job in replicating most of SAS capabilities, but also has
added some that SAS does not have. Please be advised that my comments below
are based solely on personal experience and by no means they include the
entire universe of possible comparisons between the two.

1. SPSS cannot directly handle large data sets (at as low as 10000 cases,
its performance degrades). So if one has to work on a very large data set,
SAS is the number one choice

2. SPSS has a far superior GUI than SAS, the feature I find the most useful
is the capability to paste the syntax when using a menu command. This can
save one from writing a lot of syntax

3. In terms of statistical analysis, both packages offer quite similar
capabilities. There are a few offerings in SAS which do not have
correspondent in SPSS (as far as I know), such as PLS regression, superior
hierarchical clustering diagnosis tools, generalized additive models,
however SPSS has some other capabilities I have not found in SAS, such as
Optimal Scaling (or homogeneity analysis), which I found very useful in
certain instances.

So it really depends on the context of your friend's job description. For
example, if she is a chemist, SAS could be more useful as it has PLS
regression, which is heavily used in chemometrics. Same holds for some
direct marketing applications, and virtually all other instances in which
large data sets are used. Otherwise, there should not be any difference.

I am sure you will get even more complete responses here.

Dan

Hector Maletta

Re: SPSS question

In reply to this post by Adam Troy-2

I routinely run analyses on several (8-10) million cases with hundreds of
variables each, including relatively complex procedures such as Cox
regression, factor analysis or stepwise linear regression with up to 40
predictors. With 1 Gb RAM, 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, and many GB to spare in the
hard disk, no problems are experienced, except some of the analyses may take
20-30 minutes to complete. The longest times are for saving the file to disk
(about 45-50 minutes for a 4 Gb file) and sorting cases by several sorting
keys, as far as I recall.
Hector

-----Mensaje original-----
De: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] En nombre de Adam
Troy
Enviado el: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:52 PM
Para: [hidden email]
Asunto: Re: SPSS question

Lisa,

I've used SPSS in databases as large as 500,000 cases with little error.
You would need a powerful computer to reduce problems (2ghz or higher), and
probably would be better off running the most recent version of SPSS, but I
haven't
run into any major issues with regard to record number. --Adam

_____________________________
Adam B. Troy, Ph.D.
Director of Research
GoalQuest, Inc.

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Zetu <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:55 pm
Subject: Re: SPSS question

<R. Abraham>

Re: SPSS question

In reply to this post by Adam Troy-2

I use SPSS to work with datasets having 8 mil records with about 25-50
fields. I usually run sort, merge, append etc. ...it get pretty slow even
with a 2 gig memory. It processes anywhere between 1k - 5k records per
second. Only very rarely it crashes..but once I crashed the company
server. but overall it works...you surely need some patience. but for
smaller files even as large as 500k, it works really fine.

Adam Troy <[hidden email]>
Sent by: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <[hidden email]>
08/15/2006 02:51 PM
Please respond to
[hidden email]

To
[hidden email]
cc

Subject
Re: SPSS question

Lisa,

I've used SPSS in databases as large as 500,000 cases with little error.
You would need a powerful computer to reduce problems (2ghz or higher),
and
probably would be better off running the most recent version of SPSS, but
I haven't
run into any major issues with regard to record number. --Adam

_____________________________
Adam B. Troy, Ph.D.
Director of Research
GoalQuest, Inc.

----- Original Message -----
From: Dan Zetu <[hidden email]>
Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:55 pm
Subject: Re: SPSS question

Roberts, Michael

Re: SPSS question

In reply to this post by lts1

Lisa,

I routinely work with datasets ranging from 500mb to 2+gb, and rarely
encounter problems with data processing, or with statistical analyses.
Our organization uses both SAS and SPSS, and find both to be comparable,
with greater preference often shown for SPSS.

My own experience with SPSS is that while saving my large files is a tad
slow, it is not limited by file size, and as Dan pointed out, it does
have a superior GUI. Perhaps the offering organization only makes SAS
available?

HTH

Mike Roberts

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Lisa Stickney
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:37 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: SPSS question

Hi All,

My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an
e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS &
SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this
message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.

I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable.
This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the
people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her
job here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really
is, they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on
this technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things
that can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.

Best,
Lisa

P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.

Lisa T. Stickney
Ph.D. Candidate
The Fox School of Business
and Management
Temple University

Randy Herbison

Re: SPSS question

Mike,

When you say SPSS has a better GUI, are you comparing it to the old SAS
Display Manager System or to SAS Enterprise Guide (EG is the 'preferred'
interface to SAS)?

-Randy

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Roberts, Michael
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 4:12 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: SPSS question

Lisa,

I routinely work with datasets ranging from 500mb to 2+gb, and rarely
encounter problems with data processing, or with statistical analyses.
Our organization uses both SAS and SPSS, and find both to be comparable,
with greater preference often shown for SPSS.

My own experience with SPSS is that while saving my large files is a tad
slow, it is not limited by file size, and as Dan pointed out, it does
have a superior GUI. Perhaps the offering organization only makes SAS
available?

HTH

Mike Roberts

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Lisa Stickney
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:37 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: SPSS question

Hi All,

My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an
e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS &
SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this
message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.

I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable.
This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the
people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her
job here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really
is, they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on
this technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things
that can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.

Best,
Lisa

P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.

Lisa T. Stickney
Ph.D. Candidate
The Fox School of Business
and Management
Temple University

Roberts, Michael

Re: SPSS question

Yes, I feel the older interface compares poorly. EG, however, is great,
a little busy, perhaps, but great nonetheless.

IMHO

mike

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Randy Herbison
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 4:48 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: SPSS question

Mike,

When you say SPSS has a better GUI, are you comparing it to the old SAS
Display Manager System or to SAS Enterprise Guide (EG is the 'preferred'
interface to SAS)?

-Randy

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Roberts, Michael
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 4:12 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: SPSS question

Lisa,

I routinely work with datasets ranging from 500mb to 2+gb, and rarely
encounter problems with data processing, or with statistical analyses.
Our organization uses both SAS and SPSS, and find both to be comparable,
with greater preference often shown for SPSS.

My own experience with SPSS is that while saving my large files is a tad
slow, it is not limited by file size, and as Dan pointed out, it does
have a superior GUI. Perhaps the offering organization only makes SAS
available?

HTH

Mike Roberts

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Lisa Stickney
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:37 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: SPSS question

Hi All,

My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an
e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS &
SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this
message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.

I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable.
This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the
people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her
job here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really
is, they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on
this technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things
that can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.

Best,
Lisa

P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.

Lisa T. Stickney
Ph.D. Candidate
The Fox School of Business
and Management
Temple University

Jason Burke

Re: SPSS question

Does this user interface, Enterprise Guide, come at no additional cost
with SAS Base?

Jason

On 8/16/06, Roberts, Michael <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Yes, I feel the older interface compares poorly. EG, however, is great,
> a little busy, perhaps, but great nonetheless.
>
> IMHO
>
> mike
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Randy Herbison
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 4:48 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: SPSS question
>
> Mike,
>
> When you say SPSS has a better GUI, are you comparing it to the old SAS
> Display Manager System or to SAS Enterprise Guide (EG is the 'preferred'
> interface to SAS)?
>
> -Randy
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Roberts, Michael
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 4:12 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: SPSS question
>
>
> Lisa,
>
> I routinely work with datasets ranging from 500mb to 2+gb, and rarely
> encounter problems with data processing, or with statistical analyses.
> Our organization uses both SAS and SPSS, and find both to be comparable,
> with greater preference often shown for SPSS.
>
> My own experience with SPSS is that while saving my large files is a tad
> slow, it is not limited by file size, and as Dan pointed out, it does
> have a superior GUI. Perhaps the offering organization only makes SAS
> available?
>
> HTH
>
> Mike Roberts
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
> Lisa Stickney
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:37 PM
> To: [hidden email]
> Subject: SPSS question
>
> Hi All,
>
> My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've received an
> e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions of SAS &
> SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt from this
> message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.
>
> I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are comparable.
> This is for a friend whose green card is potentially at risk because the
> people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified for her
> job here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really
> is, they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her on
> this technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
> comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
> particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of things
> that can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.
>
> Best,
> Lisa
>
> P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.
>
>
> Lisa T. Stickney
> Ph.D. Candidate
> The Fox School of Business
> and Management
> Temple University
>

lts1

Re: SPSS question

In reply to this post by Hector Maletta

Thanks to all who e-mailed me with your thoughts and comments. I'll be sure
to pass them along.

Best,
Lisa

P.S. To those of you who asked, we believe the problem with immigration is
that they have an old and poorly written job description that they are
treating as being set in stone.

Lisa T. Stickney
Ph.D. Candidate
The Fox School of Business
and Management
Temple University

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hector Maletta" <[hidden email]>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.spssx-l
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:39 PM
Subject: Re: SPSS question

>I routinely run analyses on several (8-10) million cases with hundreds of
> variables each, including relatively complex procedures such as Cox
> regression, factor analysis or stepwise linear regression with up to 40
> predictors. With 1 Gb RAM, 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, and many GB to spare in the
> hard disk, no problems are experienced, except some of the analyses may
> take
> 20-30 minutes to complete. The longest times are for saving the file to
> disk
> (about 45-50 minutes for a 4 Gb file) and sorting cases by several sorting
> keys, as far as I recall.
> Hector
>
> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] En nombre de
> Adam
> Troy
> Enviado el: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 3:52 PM
> Para: [hidden email]
> Asunto: Re: SPSS question
>
> Lisa,
>
> I've used SPSS in databases as large as 500,000 cases with little error.
> You would need a powerful computer to reduce problems (2ghz or higher),
> and
> probably would be better off running the most recent version of SPSS, but
> I
> haven't
> run into any major issues with regard to record number. --Adam
>
> _____________________________
> Adam B. Troy, Ph.D.
> Director of Research
> GoalQuest, Inc.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dan Zetu <[hidden email]>
> Date: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 12:55 pm
> Subject: Re: SPSS question
>
>> Lisa:
>>
>> You would have to admit that this is a broad question. As a user
>> of both
>> SPSS and SAS, in general I personally find the two packages as
>> offeringcomparable capabilities, although there are also some
>> differences. SPSS has
>> done a pretty good job in replicating most of SAS capabilities,
>> but also has
>> added some that SAS does not have. Please be advised that my
>> comments below
>> are based solely on personal experience and by no means they
>> include the
>> entire universe of possible comparisons between the two.
>>
>> 1. SPSS cannot directly handle large data sets (at as low as 10000
>> cases,its performance degrades). So if one has to work on a very
>> large data set,
>> SAS is the number one choice
>>
>> 2. SPSS has a far superior GUI than SAS, the feature I find the
>> most useful
>> is the capability to paste the syntax when using a menu command.
>> This can
>> save one from writing a lot of syntax
>>
>> 3. In terms of statistical analysis, both packages offer quite similar
>> capabilities. There are a few offerings in SAS which do not have
>> correspondent in SPSS (as far as I know), such as PLS regression,
>> superiorhierarchical clustering diagnosis tools, generalized
>> additive models,
>> however SPSS has some other capabilities I have not found in SAS,
>> such as
>> Optimal Scaling (or homogeneity analysis), which I found very
>> useful in
>> certain instances.
>>
>> So it really depends on the context of your friend's job
>> description. For
>> example, if she is a chemist, SAS could be more useful as it has PLS
>> regression, which is heavily used in chemometrics. Same holds for some
>> direct marketing applications, and virtually all other instances
>> in which
>> large data sets are used. Otherwise, there should not be any
>> difference.
>> I am sure you will get even more complete responses here.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>> >From: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
>> >Reply-To: Lisa Stickney <[hidden email]>
>> >To: [hidden email]
>> >Subject: SPSS question
>> >Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 12:37:11 -0400
>> >
>> >Hi All,
>> >
>> > My apologies for this slightly off-topic post, but I've
>> received an
>> >e-mail from a friend with a request -- to compare the functions
>> of SAS &
>> >SPSS, but I don't know SAS very well. I will post an excerpt
>> from this
>> >message, and if you can help, please contact me off-list. Thank you.
>> >
>> >I need to be able to make an argument that SPSS and SAS are
>> comparable.>This is for a friend whose green card is potentially
>> at risk because the
>> >people at INS are thinking that she needed SAS to be qualified
>> for her job
>> >here -- I don't think they have a clue what either program really is,
>> >they're just looking at a checklist and potentially deporting her
>> on this
>> >technicality. So, can you point me to any official or unofficial
>> >comparison of the two and/or do you have any insight to share? In
>> >particular, feel free to be "devil's advocate", if you know of
>> things that
>> >can be done in SAS that cannot be done in SPSS, etc.
>> >
>> > Best,
>> > Lisa
>> >
>> >P.S. I've already directed her to UCLA's web site.
>> >
>> >
>> >Lisa T. Stickney
>> >Ph.D. Candidate
>> >The Fox School of Business
>> > and Management
>> >Temple University
>>
>