Could anyone recommend an interactive application for data analysis?

[bestbird7788]

Hi, everybody
I need to conduct a large amount of data analysis on database. Could anyone recommend an interactive application for data analysis?
The requirements are:
1. Able to cope with the unexpected requirement rapidly.
2. Able to perform further computations on results interactively.
3. Easy to confront even a large amount of complex computations
What would you great expert recommend?
Thanks in advance.

[bestbird7788]

any suggestion?
plz.....help......

[Rabbit]

Off the top of my head, there's Statistical Analysis Software (SAS), Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), and Wolfram Alpha.

[bestbird7788]

thank you, Wolfram Alpha seems a math formula tool and search engine( Maybe a text matching engine), It lacks mass data computation ability.----Is that right? if so It's not a ideal solution.

SPSS and SAS May be the ideal solution, I will check SPSS for detail, It's a complex system and I can't understand it very fast.


to make it clear , what I want to do is:

to solve these problems: a. to select out the 10 categories of best sellers b. as a further computation on the basis of result from a., to select out the top 20 products from each category, c. as a further comparison with that of the last year based on the result from a., to select out the newly-appeared and the disappeared categories on the list of this year.
1. SQL does not provide the stepwise analysis capability like Excel
2. If changing the SQL statement for the problem a to select out the 5 categories, then I'll have to change accordingly in the statements for b and the c. In addition, these SQL statements are too long and too complex. I've got hundreds of goals of computations like this.

Do you think SPSS is a ideal solution according to the example above?
and thank you Rabbit ;-)

[Rabbit]

Everything you want to do can be done in SQL. There's no need to introduce an extra program.

[bestbird7788]

Yes, SQL can do the same thing, but It is not ideal and I've got hundreds of goals of computations more complex than that .
the point is:
1.SQL lacks stepwise abilility.
2. SQL is good at query, but not good at statistics analysis, my problem is almost statistics analysis.
for point 1. see my example above. Excel has stepwise ability, Maybe language R has the same ablility, I'm not sure, that's strange to me.
for point 2. SSAS seemes has this ability, I think this is why MS thinked SSAS out since there already been a MSSQL.

Maybe SPSS and SAS can answer for 2 points above, according to your suggestion.
I think what I want Maybe Excel+SSAS? how do you think about it?

[Rabbit]

If you're talking about in depth statistical analysis, then you'll want to get SAS or SPSS.

If you're talking about simple analysis like the examples you posted, SQL can handle that just fine.

I don't know what you mean by "stepwise ability" but if you're talking about the example you posted, SQL can handle that just fine.

SQL doesn't have advanced statistical analysis like regression or ANOVA or stuff like that but if your examples are as difficult as it gets, SQL handles that just fine.

[mshmyob]

Maybe something like Analysis Services.

cheers,

[bestbird7788]

hi, Rabbit
thank you for your attention, I appreciate your help.
Let me explain what is stepwise computation ablility, try my best:
1. In excel, I can write number "10" in A1 cell, then formula "=A1*5" in A2 cell. then formula "=A2+2" in A3 cell. A1->A2->A3, It's stepwise.
2. When I change 10 to 9 in A1, then result in A2 and A3 will changed automatic.
3. my example: a. to select out the 10 categories of best sellers b. as a further computation on the basis of result from a., to select out the top 20 products from each category, c. as a further comparison with that of the last year based on the result from a.
let's call SQL_A,SQL_B,SQL_C as SQL statements for a,b,c. when I changed SQL_A (for example change 10 categories to 9 categories ), I must change SQL_B and SQL_C. why? because SQL_B and SQL_C is based on SQL_A. that is, SQL_B may like:
with SQL_A as A
selet........
4. My example is simple for I want make it discussible. We would spend lots of time if I describe a netted SQL steps like SQL_AA to SQL_ZZ.
5. languge R has the stepwise ability, but I'm not sure Is it easy to sort, filter, group, I'm learning. BTW, someone told me SASS and SAS are hard to analysis step by step, I doubt it.

[bestbird7788]

thank you mshmyob.
SSAS is one of my choice, It has full ability of math and arithmetic, but I'm not sure about Its stepwise computation ablility, do you know more detail?
please check the last post I had posted about stepwise.

[Rabbit]

Both SQL and SSAS has the ability to do what you call "step wise calculation".

[bestbird7788]

hi, Rabbit

to make it clear, here is a simple sample, conceive of that they are all statements over 20 lines:
A:select employees who are older than 20,we call them yong employees.
B:select departments that's total staff is over 100,we call them big department.
C:list salary of yong employees who is in big department.

SQL_A: select empname,empID from emp where empage>20
SQL_B: select depname,depID from dep where empnum>100
SQL_C:
with A as (select empID from emp where empage>20),
B as (select depID from dep where empnum>100)
select salary.empName,salary.empSalary from salary ,A,B
where A.empID=salary.empID and B.depID=salary.depID

the problem is :when I change yong employees's age to 25, then I should chagee 2 SQL.
but In R or Excel, It's diffrent, It seemed like(my syntax is wrong, don't entangle that):
R_A: A=select empname,empID from emp where empage>20
R_B: B=select depname,depID from dep where empnum>100
R_C: C=select salary.empName,salary.empSalary from salary ,A,B
where A.empID=salary.empID and B.depID=salary.depID

notice that I only need change one? I don't know how can SQL do the same thing? can you show me a example that simple enough.
imagine I have 100 SQL connect with each other....It's hell.....

[Rabbit]

If A and B are views and C merely references those views, only A needs to be changed to replicate to C.

[bestbird7788]

I agree, there must be a solution for SQL to solve the same problem. I just want to find a easy way. If I can use a electric light, Why I still use a candle, though they all can give me a light.
For these dyas, I found RExcel maybe a kind of ideal tool, It's some like Excel + R, We know that R is more professional than SQL in ananlysis area. But I afraid R is not so porfessional in multiple resultSet computation, such as join statements in SQL. I'm not sure about this for I just start to study it for 3 days.
Is there any analogous tools?

[datakeyword]

I think ESPROC can match.
ESPROC is a mass data computing tool, used for complex mass data analysis.
It has EXCEL's interface and SQL's ability ,so I think It can match..
check here http://www.esproc.com/library/model_...rform-sql.html

[bestbird7788]

Thank you.
I had spent days on ESPROC, It seems like what I want.
Can you give me more help, if I met any trouble?

[bestbird7788]

hi, datakeyword
I meet a problem on ESPROC, and Can you give me a hand?

I want to know how to do a group, I mean I known there are three functions : group, align,enum. They seemes same, but what's the difference among them, and how to choose?

Are you there?