Whats the best statistics software?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around recommendations for statistics software suitable for tasks such as plotting, curve fitting, and calculating measurement uncertainty. Participants explore various options across different levels of complexity and cost.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests R as a free and popular option for statistical analysis.
  • Another participant mentions general-purpose applications like Mathcad, MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple, and Excel/Open Office, depending on the user's statistical needs.
  • A different participant highlights SPSS and SAS as well-documented and supported, albeit expensive, options for statistics software.
  • Industrial users are noted to often use Minitab for statistical tasks.
  • One participant reiterates the recommendation for R, emphasizing its cost-effectiveness compared to other software.
  • There is mention of using programming languages such as Python with libraries like scipy.stats and matplotlib for statistical work.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express multiple competing views on the best statistics software, with no consensus reached on a single recommendation.

Contextual Notes

Participants have not specified the particular statistical needs or contexts in which these software options would be used, leaving some assumptions about user requirements unaddressed.

regisz90
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I need a software for statistics, so it should make plots, fitting curves on points, calculate the uncertainty of measurement etc.
Which software do you recommend?
 
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regisz90 said:
I need a software for statistics, so it should make plots, fitting curves on points, calculate the uncertainty of measurement etc.
Which software do you recommend?
Try R - http://www.r-project.org/

For a more general purpose application, and depending upon the level of stats you wish to get into, then there are many potentially suitable applications such as Mathcad (the one I use preferentially), Mathlab, Mathematica, Maple or even Excel \ Open Office.

Or, keeping with the single letter choice from the alphabet soup of programming language name, try J - http://www.jsoftware.com/ a very powerful and concise(!) vector programming language.
 
You mean, other than the 2 big dogs in the block? SPSS and SAS. These two are good, fully documented, supported and expensive.

Then there is R.

Then, there are programming languages where you do the work and possibly statistical toolboxes like a combination of python, scipy.stats and matplotlib.
 
Industrial users often run Minitab.
 
I would try R if I were you. It's totally free and is quite popular. Other statistics software can get quite expensive.
 

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