R and Excel

Even using the VBA back of Excel to create interfaces with R would
make a lot of sense. Suppose I could have access to VBA macros that
import and export data into R , it would be great.

The R GUI series like Rattle come even closer to Excel...so a VBA
_R_ExCel package might  be useful to ordinary folks .

Besides Excel costs money, so adding R functions to Open Office would
help both of them ( if not attempted already)

Regards,

Ajay

www.decisionstats.com

On 1/8/09, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu> wrote:

"Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged version of
Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."

It is easy to ridicule this line from the NYT article.  But this is not only
a very sensible comment by a smart reporter, but also one that is good for
R:

It is good for R because it explains the new (R) in terms of the familiar
(Excel).  Of course R can do far more than Excel ever could, but most
readers will not be familiar with boxplots, let alone studentized bootstrap
confidence intervals, yet R is useful even for elementary analyses.

It is good for R because it will bring us new users.  I have often looked
over the shoulders of Excel users struggling to do analyses or construct
graphics that are just slightly beyond what Excel makes easy. Perhaps the
dataset is too large, or the analysis doesn't fit into the spreadsheet
model, or the analysis isn't built-in (and so requires either many manual
steps, or Visual Basic programming, or an expensive add-on package), or it
requires data sources that Excel doesn't handle well, or it has gotten so
complicated that it is unmaintainable in spreadsheet form.  R scales better
in every way: in size of problem, in complexity of analysis, in data
sources.

It is good for R because it makes it sound unthreatening and easy, both for
the person who might consider using R rather than Excel, and for his/her
management.  Of course, R is not trivial to learn, but you don't have to
master everything about it to get useful results (just like Excel, I might
add).

It is good for R because it reminds us that there are other useful computing
paradigms that we can learn from. The spreadsheet model, including instant
update, is compelling for a wide range of problems.  I have not used any of
the R/Excel interface packages, but presumably they combine the advantages
of the approaches. Perhaps there is room for not just integrating R with
Excel, but for incorporating the core ideas of Excel into R in some
intelligent way.

It is good for R because it shows areas where R can be improved.  Excel
makes it very easy to present tabular data and format it.  It makes it very
easy to work with summary/contingency tables (pivot tables) interactively
and only a little more difficult to do drill-down.  In all cases, its
functionality is limited, but what it can do, it does well.

It is good for R because it reminds us that there are many people using
other tools who could benefit from outreach from the R community, both
through tools (smoother interoperability) and through education.

All in all, characterizing R as a supercharged version of Excel makes a lot
of sense.

         -s

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Hi Erich,

I would like to share and embed the RExcel Training video (just like
youtube allows me to) . How can I do that ?

Regards,

Ajay

www.decisionstats.com <http://www.decisionstats.com>


On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 12:20 AM, Ajay ohri <ohri2007 at gmail.com
<mailto:ohri2007 at gmail.com>> wrote:

    Hi Erich,

    I saw that it uses a remote server ( which can be the same machine )
    to compute.


    Here is the question-

    What is the remote server is Amazon EC2 which has upscalaing and
    downscaling facillity for RAM and CPU...

    Will it work ?

    is there a SaaS version of this?

    Regards,

    Ajay
    On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 11:56 PM, Erich Neuwirth
    <erich.neuwirth at univie.ac.at <mailto:erich.neuwirth at univie.ac.at>>
    wrote:

        There is RExcel (available by downloading the CRAN package
        RExcelInstaller. It allows to transfer data between R and Excel,
        and run R code from within Excel. So you can start with your data in
        Excel, let R do an analysis, and transfer the results back to Excel.
        You can write VBA macros which do this, but "hidden from exposure",
        so the Excel user does not even notice that R is doing the hatd
        work.
        It also has an Excel worksheet function RApply which allows
        to call an R function from an Excel cell formula.
        =RApply("rfun",A1)
        would apply the R function rfun to the value in cell A1.
        If the value in A1 changes, Excel will force R to recalculate
        the formula.

        There is a (half hour long) video demo about RExcel
        at http://rcom.univie.ac.at/RExcelDemo/

        http://rcom.univie.ac.at/ has more information about the project.
        For recent information, visit the Wiki on this site.

        This site also has the alpha version of an OpenOffice add-in
        giving roughly the same functionality.
        It is available at
        http://rcom.univie.ac.at/download/ROOo/


        The main source of information about this project is
        the mailing list. You can subscribe also via the project server,
        http://rcom.univie.ac.at



        ohri2007 at gmail.com <mailto:ohri2007 at gmail.com> wrote:

        > Even using the VBA back of Excel to create interfaces with R would
        > make a lot of sense. Suppose I could have access to VBA macros

        that

        > import and export data into R , it would be great.
        >
        > The R GUI series like Rattle come even closer to Excel...so a VBA
        > _R_ExCel package might  be useful to ordinary folks .
        >
        > Besides Excel costs money, so adding R functions to Open

        Office would

        > help both of them ( if not attempted already)
        >
        > Regards,
        >
        > Ajay
        >
        > www.decisionstats.com <http://www.decisionstats.com>
        >
        > On 1/8/09, Stavros Macrakis <macrakis at alum.mit.edu

        <mailto:macrakis at alum.mit.edu>> wrote:

        >>> "Some people familiar with R describe it as a supercharged

        version of

        >>> Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet software..."
        >>>

        >> It is easy to ridicule this line from the NYT article.  But

        this is not only

        >> a very sensible comment by a smart reporter, but also one

        that is good for

        >> R:
        >>
        >> It is good for R because it explains the new (R) in terms of

        the familiar

        >> (Excel).  Of course R can do far more than Excel ever could,

        but most

        >> readers will not be familiar with boxplots, let alone

        studentized bootstrap

        >> confidence intervals, yet R is useful even for elementary

        analyses.

        >>
        >> It is good for R because it will bring us new users.  I have

        often looked

        >> over the shoulders of Excel users struggling to do analyses

        or construct

        >> graphics that are just slightly beyond what Excel makes easy.

        Perhaps the

        >> dataset is too large, or the analysis doesn't fit into the

        spreadsheet

        >> model, or the analysis isn't built-in (and so requires either

        many manual

        >> steps, or Visual Basic programming, or an expensive add-on

        package), or it

        >> requires data sources that Excel doesn't handle well, or it

        has gotten so

        >> complicated that it is unmaintainable in spreadsheet form.  R

        scales better

        >> in every way: in size of problem, in complexity of analysis,

        in data

        >> sources.
        >>
        >> It is good for R because it makes it sound unthreatening and

        easy, both for

        >> the person who might consider using R rather than Excel, and

        for his/her

        >> management.  Of course, R is not trivial to learn, but you

        don't have to

        >> master everything about it to get useful results (just like

        Excel, I might

        >> add).
        >>
        >> It is good for R because it reminds us that there are other

        useful computing

        >> paradigms that we can learn from. The spreadsheet model,

        including instant

        >> update, is compelling for a wide range of problems.  I have

        not used any of

        >> the R/Excel interface packages, but presumably they combine

        the advantages

        >> of the approaches. Perhaps there is room for not just

        integrating R with

        >> Excel, but for incorporating the core ideas of Excel into R

        in some

        >> intelligent way.
        >>
        >> It is good for R because it shows areas where R can be

        improved.  Excel

        >> makes it very easy to present tabular data and format it.  It

        makes it very

        >> easy to work with summary/contingency tables (pivot tables)

        interactively

        >> and only a little more difficult to do drill-down.  In all

        cases, its

        >> functionality is limited, but what it can do, it does well.
        >>
        >> It is good for R because it reminds us that there are many

        people using

        >> other tools who could benefit from outreach from the R

        community, both

        >> through tools (smoother interoperability) and through education.
        >>
        >> All in all, characterizing R as a supercharged version of

        Excel makes a lot

        >> of sense.
        >>
        >>          -s
        >>
        >>      [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
        >>
        >> ______________________________________________
        >> R-help at r-project.org <mailto:R-help at r-project.org> mailing list
        >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
        >> PLEASE do read the posting guide