One solution is to learn a couple programs. I use StatTranfer ($52 on the Stata grad plan) to transfer datasets from one package to another. So far it works wonderfully and gets everything like value labels and multiple missing codes done correctly (as long as both packages share the capability). If I were just starting I would learn SAS and Stata. SAS is without equal for complex and huge data manipulation and management. Stata is just plain fun to use and to explore new procedures.
Alan Acock ----- Original Message ----- From: "Timothy W. Victor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 5:11 PM Subject: Re: software for public health students | I've been playing back and forth between SAS and Stata with respect to | data manipulation. Let me start with this, if you have datasets on the | order of several gigabytes, Stata will likely choke and die without alot | of extra programming tricks. This is because Stata loads the entire data | matrix in to memory. That being said, if you can load the matrix into | memory without resorting to a lot of disk caching/swaping, Stata hands | down wins. It took me a while to come this conclusion, only because one | approaches data management very differently between the packages and I | was thinking like a SAS user when programming Stata. Once I began to | think like a Stata user when using Stata the programming can much | easier. I tend to require a whole lot less key strokes to do the same | things in Stata as I do with SAS. The speed is phenomenal, the price is | right (perpetual license) and the customer support is without equal. | | . | . | ================================================================ | This list will soon be replaced by the new list EDSTAT-L at Penn | State. Please subscribe to the new list using the web interface | at http://lists.psu.edu/archives/edstat-l.html. | ================================================================ . . ================================================================ This list will soon be replaced by the new list EDSTAT-L at Penn State. Please subscribe to the new list using the web interface at http://lists.psu.edu/archives/edstat-l.html. ================================================================
