I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for data storage that does not require database knowledge (I will eventually have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I need something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any of the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program with cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area before I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is not a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience than I do and I am having a time finding what I need with google. thanks in advance -- Stephen Sefick Research Scientist Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the annoying little problems of being mammals. -K. Mullis
You didn't say which version of Excel you are using but Excel 2007 allows 16,384 columns. On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 2:27 PM, stephen sefick <ssefick at gmail.com> wrote:> I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for data > storage that does not require database knowledge (I will eventually > have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I need > something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any of > the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program with > cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area before > I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is not > a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience than I > do and I am having a time finding what I need with google. > thanks in advance > > -- > Stephen Sefick > Research Scientist > Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy > > Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are > so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and > make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the > annoying little problems of being mammals. > > -K. Mullis > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >
Define "better".
Really, it depends on what you need to do (are all your data appropriately
represented in a 2D array?) and what resources are available. If all your
data can be represented using a 2D array, then Excel is probably your best
bet for th enear term. If not, you might as well bite the bullit and learn
to use an RDBMS, as there are few other data management options that can
cope with relational or hierarchical or object oriented data.
I use a number of different RDBMS (ranging from MS SQL to PostgreSQL and
MySQL). I also use Excel on occasion, and plain text editors (like Emacs),
to create CSV files. Which I use depends on the details of the particular
problem I am facing.
While I have not yet explored them, I did notice that R includes a number of
facilities for editing data (and the list of options is all the longer when
I use help.search("edit").
It may be a bit quicker for you to study up on basic use of something like
PostgreSQL, combined with pl/r (something I wish MySQL had), than it would
be to diligently examine all the different options open to you using R. (I
have a couple books I could recommend that would likely be sufficient for
you to figure out what you need to do with either PostgreSQL or MySQL in a
matter of a week or two).
HTH
Ted
stephen sefick wrote:>
> I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for data
> storage that does not require database knowledge (I will eventually
> have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I need
> something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any of
> the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program with
> cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area before
> I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is not
> a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience than I
> do and I am having a time finding what I need with google.
> thanks in advance
>
> --
> Stephen Sefick
> Research Scientist
> Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy
>
> Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are
> so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and
> make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the
> annoying little problems of being mammals.
>
> -K. Mullis
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
--
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Why not just write your data to a CSV (comma-spaced-variable) or a tab-spaced variable text file? You didn't say what software and/or hardware was generating your data, but most gizmos these days let you dump data to CSV. No need for Excel at all. I forget :-( how many rows/columns OpenOffice.org or KOffice can handle. Carl
Hi Stephen, You don't say what "staging" is - do you mean for data entry or loading a data file for review, or ... ? In general, I keep away from Excel for data transfer purposes. It tends to make "intelligent" decisions on data types leading to strange & bizarre results (unless you explicitly type each column - which most users don't do). Integers are interpreted as dates, high order zeros are stripped off of ZIP codes, and the like. HTH, Jim Porzak TGN.com San Francisco, CA http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimporzak useR Group SF: http://ia.meetup.com/67/ On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:27 AM, stephen sefick <ssefick@gmail.com> wrote:> I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for data > storage that does not require database knowledge (I will eventually > have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I need > something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any of > the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program with > cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area before > I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is not > a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience than I > do and I am having a time finding what I need with google. > thanks in advance > > -- > Stephen Sefick > Research Scientist > Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy > > Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are > so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and > make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the > annoying little problems of being mammals. > > -K. Mullis > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
How about simply a text editor, typing in your data, separated by commas or tabs or spaces? One row for each case/subject/observation? R can read that in easily. A good, open-source, free data entry program is EpiData. www.epidata.dk. It is simple to use but probably more than you need for task. --Chris Christopher W. Ryan, MD SUNY Upstate Medical University Clinical Campus at Binghamton 40 Arch Street, Johnson City, NY 13790 cryanatbinghamtondotedu PGP public keys available at http://home.stny.rr.com/ryancw/ "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." [Antoine de St. Exupery] stephen sefick wrote:> I am wondering if there is a better alternative than Excel for data > storage that does not require database knowledge (I will eventually > have to learn this, but it is not on my immediate todo list). I need > something that is not limited to 256 columns... I don't need any of > the built in functions in excel just a spreadsheet like program with > cells that hold data in a data.frame format for a staging area before > I get it into R. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is not > a direct r question, but all of you folks have more experience than I > do and I am having a time finding what I need with google. > thanks in advance >