R versus SAS as analysis software for Clinical trials

R is a high-level, interpreted programming language-based software which is known for statistical analysis and
graphical reporting. It allows data analysis, manipulation, graphical presentation in easy and effective way. The use
of R increased exponentially over last decade considering its easy access and popularity. R (the successor of S) was
created in 1992 by Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman at University of Auckland. Now it is developed by the R
Development Core Team. SAS and R are different primarily considering data management, analysis with wide-
ranging options available.

COSTING AND SUPPORT

R is easily available open source software and SAS is licensed software with significant cost attached to it. Private
sectors including enterprises prefer SAS considering long history of ease of doing businesses, evolved interfaces
and extended functionalities over the time. Since long back, effective, standard and statistically strong quality codes
are result of hours of paid resources. SAS offers great customer service and support. R may need time to
conceivably match the level as there is no paid support for free version. However, as discussed in earlier sections,
there are groups supporting R commercially, such as Revolution analytics, RStudio(commercial).

TECHNICAL
SAS operates at observation level whereas R offers vectors-based coding. SAS is generally not case sensitive
whereas R is case sensitive. R has come a long way and analysts are aware of it. R is very suited for medical
research and hence, many of the top pharmaceutical companies building strengths within the team.

LEGACY DATA
SAS is a part of pharmaceutical industry since early ages i.e more than 30 years. Analysis done in past or codes
prepared are compatible/readable in SAS only. It would take few years of dedicated resources to convert all those
legacy codes to R. This calls for investment as well or else legacy data would not be available for further reference
or reproducing results. This is also one of the reasons that R is not capturing the pharmaceutical market very fast.

DATA VISUALIZATION AND MANAGEMENT

Preparing datasets which are analysis friendly needs lots of peek into intermittent datasets to evaluate the
programming ongoing for conversion. SAS has user friendly interface to inspect datasets stored in directory.
Multiple commands for filtering datasets are available on the interface itself. On the contrary, it is slightly difficult
to inspect datasets on R interface.

GCE is working on building a team which could support our client in switching their analysis related activities to R
and make submissions possible. GCE is already working on creating tools which are primarily using R at the
backend for statistical analysis.
Python vs. R (vs. SAS) – which tool
should I learn?
KUNAL JAIN, SEPTEMBER 12, 2017

Note: This article was originally published on Mar 27th, 2014 and updated on Sept
12th, 2017

Introduction
We love comparisons!

From Samsung vs. Apple vs. HTC in smartphones; iOS vs. Android vs. Windows in mobile
OS to comparing candidates for upcoming elections or selecting captain for the world cup
team, comparisons and discussions enrich us in our life. If you love discussions, all you
need to do is pop up a relevant question in middle of a passionate community and then
watch it explode! The beauty of the process is that everyone in the room walks away as a
more knowledgeable person.

I am sparking something similar here. SAS vs. R has probably been the biggest debate
analytics industry might have witnessed. Python is one of the fastest growing languages
now and has come a long way since it’s inception. The reason for me to start this discussion
is not to watch it explode (that would be fun as well though). I know that we all will benefit
from the discussion.

This has also been one of the most commonly asked questions to me on this blog. So, I
thought I’ll discuss it with all my readers and visitors!

Top Rankings : Top Certifications on SAS, R, Python, Machine Learning, Big Data of 2015
– 2016
Hasn’t a lot already been said on this topic?
Probably yes! But I still feel the need for discussion for following reasons:

 The industry is very dynamic. Any comparison which was done 2 years ago might
not be relevant any more.
 Traditionally Python has been left out of the comparison. I think it is more than just a
worthy consideration now.
 While I’ll discuss global trends about the languages, I’ll add specific information with
regards to Indian analytics industry (which is at a different level of evolution)

So, without any further delay, let the combat begin!

Background
Here is a brief description about the 3 ecosystems:

 SAS: SAS has been the undisputed market leader in commercial analytics space.
The software offers huge array of statistical functions, has good GUI (Enterprise
Guide & Miner) for people to learn quickly and provides awesome technical support.
However, it ends up being the most expensive option and is not always enriched
with latest statistical functions.
 R: R is the Open source counterpart of SAS, which has traditionally been used in
academics and research. Because of its open source nature, latest techniques get
released quickly. There is a lot of documentation available over the internet and it is
a very cost-effective option.
 Python: With origination as an open source scripting language, Python usage has
grown over time. Today, it sports libraries (numpy, scipy and matplotlib) and
functions for almost any statistical operation / model building you may want to do.
Since introduction of pandas, it has become very strong in operations on structured
data.

Attributes For Comparison

I’ll compare these languages on following attributes:

1. Availability / Cost
2. Ease of learning
3. Data handling capabilities
4. Graphical capabilities
5. Advancements in tool
6. Job scenario
7. Deep Learning Support
8. Customer service support and Community

I am comparing these from point of view of an analyst. So, if you are looking for purchasing
a tool for your company, you may not get complete answer here. The information below will
still be useful. For each attribute I give a score to each of these 3 languages (1 – Low; 5 –
High).

The weightage for these parameters will vary depending on what point of career you are in
and your ambitions.

1. Availability / Cost
SAS is a commercial software. It is expensive and still beyond reach for most of the
professionals (in individual capacity). However, it holds the highest market share in Private
Organizations. So, until and unless you are in an Organization which has invested in SAS, it
might be difficult to access one. Although, SAS has brought in a University Edition that is
free to access but it has some limitations. You can also use Jupyter Notebooks in there!

R & Python, on the other hand are completely free. Here are my scores on this parameter:

SAS – 3

R–5

Python – 5

2. Ease of Learning
SAS is easy to learn and provides easy option (PROC SQL) for people who already
know SQL. Even otherwise, it has a good stable GUI interface in its repository. In terms of
resources, there are tutorials available on websites of various university and SAS has a
comprehensive documentation. There are certifications from SAS training institutes, but
they again come at a cost.

R has the steepest learning curve among the 3 languages listed here. It requires you to
learn and understand coding. R is a low level programming language and hence simple
procedures can take longer codes.

Python is known for its simplicity in programming world. This remains true for data analysis
as well. While there are no widespread GUI interfaces as of now, I am hoping Python
notebooks will become more and more mainstream. They provide awesome features for
documentation and sharing.

SAS – 4.5

R – 2.5

Python – 3.5

3. Data Handling Capabilities

This used to be an advantage for SAS till some time back. R computes every thing in
memory (RAM) and hence the computations were limited by the amount of RAM on 32 bit
machines. This is no longer the case. All three languages have good data handling
capabilities and options for parallel computations. This I feel is no longer a big
differentiation. They’ve all also brought on Hadoop and Spark integrations, with them also
supporting Cloudera and Apache Pig.
SAS – 4

R–4

Python – 4

4. Graphical Capabilities
SAS has decent functional graphical capabilities. However, it is just functional. Any
customization on plots are difficult and requires you to understand intricacies of SAS Graph
package.

R has highly advanced graphical capabilities along with Python. There are numerous
packages which provide you advanced graphical capabilities.

With the introduction of Plotly in both the languages now and with Python having Seaborn,
making custom plots has never been easier.

SAS – 3

R – 4.5

Python – 4.5

5. Advancements in Tool
All 3 ecosystems have all the basic and most needed functions available. This feature only
matters if you are working on latest technologies and algorithms.

Due to their open nature, R & Python get latest features quickly. SAS, on the other hand
updates its capabilities in new version roll-outs. Since R has been used widely in academics
in past, development of new techniques is fast.

Having said this, SAS releases updates in controlled environment, hence they are well
tested. R & Python on the other hand, have open contribution and there are chances of
errors in latest developments.

SAS – 4

R – 4.5
Python – 4.5

6. Job Scenario
Globally, SAS is still the market leader in available corporate jobs. Most of the big
organizations still work on SAS. R / Python, on the other hand are better options for start-
ups and companies looking for cost efficiency. Also, number of jobs on R / Python have
been reported to increase over last few years. Here is a trend widely published on internet,
which shows the trend for R and SAS jobs. Python jobs for data analysis will have similar or
higher trend as R jobs:

The graph below shows R in Blue and SAS in Orange.

Source: r4stats.com
This one on the other hand, now shows R in Blue and Python in Orange.
 Source: r4stats.com
Overall, the market based on languages can be pictured as such:
 Source: r4stats.com

SAS – 4

R – 4.5

Python – 4.5

7. Customer Service Support & Community

R and Python have the biggest online communities but no customer service support. So if
you have trouble, you are on your own. You will get a lot of help though.

SAS on the other hand has dedicated customer service along with the community. So, if
you have problems in installation or any other technical challenges, you can reach out to
them.
SAS – 4

R – 3.5

Python – 3.5

8. Deep Learning Support

Deep Learning in SAS is still in it’s beginning phase and there’s a lot to work on it.

On the other hand, Python has had great advancements in the field and has numerous
packages like Tensorflow and Keras.

R has recently added support for those packages, along with some basic ones too. The
kerasR and keras packages in R act as an interface to the original Python package, Keras.

SAS – 2

Python – 4.5

R–3

Other Factors:
Following are some more points worthy to note:

 Python is used widely in web development. So if you are in an online business, using
Python for web development and analytics can provide synergies
 SAS used to have a big advantage of deploying end to end infrastructure (Visual
Analytics, Data warehouse, Data quality, reporting and analytics), which has been
mitigated by integration / support of R on platforms like SAP HANA and Tableau. It is
still, far away from seamless integration like SAS, but the journey has started.

Conclusion
We see the market slightly bending towards Python in today’s scenario. It will be pre-mature
to place bets on what will prevail, given the dynamic nature of industry. Depending on your
circumstances (career stage, financials etc.) you can add your own weights and come up
with what might be suitable for you. Here are a few specific scenarios:

 If you are a fresher entering in analytics industry (specifically so in India), I would

recommend to learn SAS as your first language. It is easy to learn and holds highest
job market share.
 If you are some one who has already spent time in industry, you should try and
diversify your expertise be learning a new tool.
 For experts and pros in industry, people should know at least 2 of these. That would
add a lot of flexibility for future and open up new opportunities.
 If you are in a start-up / freelancing, R / Python is more useful.

Strategically, corporate setups that require more hands-on assistance and training choose
SAS as an option.

Researchers and statisticians choose R as an alternative because it helps in heavy

calculations. As they say, R was meant to get the job done and not to ease your computer.

Python has been the obvious choice for startups today due to its lightweight nature and
growing community. It is the best choice for deep learning as well.

Here is the final scorecard:

These are my views on this comparison. Now, it’s your turn to share your views through the
comments below.

Learn, engage, compete, and get hired!

You can also read this article on Analytics Vidhya's Andro
 Using the Statistical Programming Language R
in the Pharma Industry

by Statistical Consultancy Team on Mon, Oct 28, 2013

 Share


The statistical programming language R is often underrated within the Pharmaceutical

Industry. Often the default is to pay for expensive software when R could be a viable
option. R is freely available and runs on almost all operating systems including Unix,
MacOS, and Microsoft Windows.

R is an object-oriented language with similarities to C++ and FORTRAN, because of

this structure R has the ability to easily manipulate statistics and graphics. R has a set
of user developed packages containing groups of functions. There are thousands of
well-tested functions available that build on the cutting-edge statistical research; many
journals suggest or require available R packages for publication. The packages and the
integration with academia means that improvements and experimental procedures are
often implemented quickly.

The lack of a separate macro language and the code structure when dealing with large
datasetsand complex data processing can increase the learning curve for R, however R
still remains one of the most useable graphics tools. For exploratory graphics there are
few software packages that match R with ggplot2 or lattice graphics for the ease of use
and customisation. As well as this the integration between R and other open source
packages such as LaTeX allows for easy and highly customisable reports. These
advantages suggest that R should more often be considered when analysing and
summarising clinical data.

Software Integration:

A major benefit of using R is the integration with other software. Figure 1 shows an
example of how R can be used as part of an integrated process for producing output
and executive summaries.

Figure 1: R software integration

Graphics:

Within R many dedicated graphics packages have been developed to easily produce
high quality graphics with relative simplicity. Two of the most popular
are ggplot2 and lattice.
Figure 2: Graphics produced using lattice (above) and ggplot2 (below) packages
Cutting Edge Statistics at a Price:

As R is open source there is a set of user developed packages containing groups of

functions; each one targeting an area of statistics, graphics or programming. These
packages range from doBy, a package for performing grouped analysis and processing,
lars, a package that performs least angle regression and produce lasso plots commonly
used in genomics, to R2WinBUGS, a package to call WinBUGS from within R.

There are also thousands of well-tested functions available from the central repository
that build on cutting-edge statistical research; many journals require R packages to be
available prior to publication. The regular use within academia means that
improvements and experimental procedures are often implemented quickly.

However, the package structure and live updating nature of R that is one of its major
strengths, is also one of its major concerns. These concerns can often be alleviated
through a well maintained validation process and carefully controlling versions. A full
discussion on the regulatory compliance and validation issues is available from www.r-
project.org/doc/R-FDA.pdf.
Conclusion:

R should form an integral part of a suite of analysis software as it has the

following strengths:

•Quick release of cutting edge methods

•Compatibility with a range of other software

•High quality graphics The strength of R in experimental procedures and as an

investigative tool is undeniable and the increasing compatibility with other
analysis software is rapidly making R an attractive alternative.