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Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:26:56 -0700
Reply-To: Dominic Lusinchi <dominic@farwestresearch.com>
Sender: "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Dominic Lusinchi <dominic@farwestresearch.com>
Organization: Far West Research
Subject: Re: SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSSfile
In-Reply-To: <s4bcec7a.008@postman.pgahq.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear Mr. Teitelman,
The purpose of this forum, the SPSS list, in my view, is to make positive
contributions to the use of SPSS, and assist subscribers in their use of
SPSS. If you cannot do that, or do not feel that SPSS is useful in your
daily work; I would suggest you unsubscribe from this list.
Congratulations on your educational achievements, but frankly, I could not
care less. I am not a subscriber to this list to obtain that kind of
information. Please do not crowd my email inbox with this sort of message.
Thank you.
Respectfully,
Dominic
Dominic Lusinchi
Statistician
Far West Research
Statistical Consulting
San Francisco, California
www.farwestresearch.com
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Joseph Teitelman temp2
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 11:13 AM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSSfile
You still haven't answered my question as to why most statisticians perfer
SAS to SPSS; or why it's become common knowledge that SAS outperforms SPSS
in so many respects. Have you read the pdf document at UCLA? It was
written in 2005 * hardly outdated.
Moreover, you stated that you received a Ph.D. in Economics, and then in
parentheses placed the term econometrics. I was unaware that
any universities award degrees specifically in econometrics. Are you trying
to say that you earned a degree in economics and specialized in
econometrics.
By the way, from what University have you earned your Ph.D. and at what
universities have you taught. How were you able to join a statistics
department as a tenure track faculty member with a degree in economics,
despite your apparent expertise as an econometrician.
Personally, I received my Ph.Ds from Duke and UNC-CH. Check out US News
and World Report. You'll discover that with respect to my fields of study,
each of these schools is consistently ranked among the best in my areas of
study.
>>> "Peck, Jon" <peck@spss.com> 7/18/2006 1:55 PM >>>
As a matter of fact, I do not agree with you in the slightest when you
consider the power of the open source modules that can be plugged in to SPSS
via programmability and combined with the power and elegance of the Python
language and the SPSS engine. Maybe you should try it.
And as another matter of fact, I happen to have a Ph. D. in Economics
(econometrics), and taught in a top-tier university in the Economics and
Statistics departments for 13 years before joining SPSS.
I have no interest in badmouthing SAS or other competing products. Each has
strengths and weaknesses. Instead, I try to learn what those are.
-Jon Peck
SPSS
-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Teitelman temp2 [mailto:cmtemp2@pgahq.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 12:30 PM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU; Peck, Jon
Subject: Re: SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSSfile
I'm sure that you'd agree with me that it's patently obvious that the SPSS
programming language hardly compares to SAS' SAS/IML module. There's simply
no such comparison. SAS's matrix programming language is far superior to
SPSS' matrix programming language.
And the question still remains: why do most statisticians choose SAS over
SPSS? You tell me why such is the case. Have you been a statistics student
in a graduate level program * or a mathematics student?
>>> "Peck, Jon" <peck@spss.com> 7/18/2006 12:37 PM >>>
First, let's correct the facts. SPSS in fact does have a matrix language
built in. It has 18 statement types, 59 functions, and 20 operators. Users
on this list have posted extensive programs using it.
Second, using the programmability features of SPSS 14, you have access to a
vast array of scientifically oriented modules from third parties. For
example, scipy and numpy can be downloaded free and used within SPSS.
Here is the summary description of scipy
SciPy is an open source library of scientific tools for Python. SciPy
gathers a variety of high level science and engineering modules together as
a single package. SciPy provides modules for statistics, optimization,
integration, linear algebra, Fourier transforms, signal and image
processing, genetic algorithms, ODE solvers, special functions, and more.
SciPy requires and supplements NumPy, which provides a multidimensional
array object and other basic functionality.
Here are a few random examples of simple things you can do with this library
within BEGIN PROGRAM in SPSS. Since you can read the SPSS cases and output
in this mode, the inputs can be anything in SPSS.
factorial and combination functions:
import scipy
scipy.factorial(4)
-> array(24.0)
int(scipy.factorial(4))
-> 24
scipy.factorial(4.1)
-> array(27.931753738368371) (Gamma function)
scipy.factorial(50, exact=1)
-> 30414093201713378043612608166064768844377641568960512000000000000L
matrix operations:
import scipy
A = scipy.mat('[1 3 5;2 5 1;2 3 8]')
print A
-> matrix [[1 3 5]
[2 5 1]
[2 3 8]]
print A.I
-> matrix([[-1.48, 0.36, 0.88],
[ 0.56, 0.08, -0.36],
[ 0.16, -0.12, 0.04]])
(A * A.I = identity matrix)
scipy.linalg.det(A)
-> -25
solving linear equations (nonlinear also available):
from scipy import *
A= mat('[1 3 5;2 5 1;2 3 8]')
b = mat('[10;8;3]')
Solve linear equations Ax = b...
A.I*b
or
linalg.solve(A,b)
Regards,
Jon Peck
SPSS
-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
Joseph Teitelman temp2
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 9:15 AM
To: SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SPSSX-L] SV: For those in need of running SAS using an SPSS
file
[snip]
Next, Stat/IML is a matrix programming language which comes along with SAS.
It is extremely powerful. SPSS has no matrix programming language. And
from what I've been told, neither does Stata.
[>>>Peck, Jon] [snip]
Those were my impressions.
