Ask HN: R or Python? I am a newbie | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: R or Python? I am a newbie

9 pointsboniface31620 comments

My advice is Python, but it depends on what your background is and what you want to do. If this is your first language and you have a stats background, R is a solid choice. If you already know another language, R has a lot of flaws that are quite frustrating. Perhaps the worst thing about R is how hard it is to google answers to as opposed to Python.

Like if you google R for loop, the first result http://www.r-bloggers.com/how-to-write-the-first-for-loop-in... is much worse than the equivalent first result for python: https://wiki.python.org/moin/ForLoop

True say. This is going to be the first programming language that I will be learning. I will stick to R for now and slowly evolve from there. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

Are you going to be writing a lot of statistical analysis programs (R) or web application stuff (Python)?

I want to focus on statistical analysis. I would love to learn programming while doing that.

For straight up data analysis R over python every time but the flip is python is a better gateway to more mainstream programming (IMO).

At the end of the day motivation is the most important thing though. It seems likely that R will better fit your current interests and hence make you more likely to continue the journey so I'd go that way

I really appreciate your advice Jake. I will stick to R. Do you have experience with R?

We used it at uni a lot but these days I tend to use it as a last mile language. Get the data, format it etc in python/f# then bring in the big R guns.

Things like BMA or survival analysis barely exist in python.

I have a great R stats book that I'll post when I get home (can't remember the name off the top of my head)

Edit: to be clear I wouldn't recommend that pipeline! Most of my professional work has been in the above so I'm just more comfortable with it

omg! I would really appreciate that! I have been looking for data science books.

If you don't mind, could you give me your opinion on this course?

https://academy.microsoft.com/en-US/professional-degree/data...

Here's a link to the book http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/, you can dl it from that page. Depending on how much stats theory you already know, you might find the labs sections the most useful.

As for the course, I'd love to advise but I really don't feel qualified as I don't know much about it, your background or what you want to achieve from it. I've generally found msoft resources to be excellent in the past though.

Generally where are you at? Do you have a good knowledge of the stats but not much programming or are you relatively new to both?

Thanks for the book. I don't know much of a stat theory.

At work, I enjoy working with numbers and data analyzing. I feel like I am "stuck" using excel. I didn't know that subject of data science existed until few weeks ago. I didn't know where to start so I decided to start with MSFT course.

I am fairly new to programming. I have done simple IOT projects. I would happy learning how to program while learning data science stuff.

You should not stick to any one language. Both R and Python have their perks and definiciencies, and using both is powerful.

Hey, I love to work with different languages and expand my knowledge. I wanted to know where should I start and focus initially. I will be interested in learning Python so I can do cool web applications.

PS: I love your blog! I have saved and bookmarked it!

Listen to this guy, he's done wonders with both R and Python. Great blog dude!

Hah, thanks for the plug. :)

To elaborate a bit, I use R for dplyr/ggplot2, both irreleplaceable for tabular data manipulation and visualization. Python I used for getting data, working with nontabular data from APIs (e.g JSON), and using Python tricks like list comprehensions and zip.

Sorry mate. I didn't understand a thing you said :(.

Thanks for the pointer to the blog, looks amazing. Bookmarked!

FWIW I wasn't suggesting sticking to one language exclusively, some of the biggest jumps I've made have been caused by exposure to different paradigms. But for beginners I think it can be helpful to keep focus in one place. There's a lot of overhead involved in a language (tooling, IDEs, best practices, quirks etc.) that can get in the way of seeing the important stuff.

What about web applications that do statistical analysis?

I want to do that eventually. But I want to start somewhere.

learn python, more general purpose and easier to learn.

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