Today we are going to find the difference between SAS, R and Python which is going to help you to decide what you must learn to grab a job in analytics/ data science or data analyst job profile. Majorly we will cover below questions today?

• Which is best - SAS vs R vs Python?
• Which is best - SAS vs Python?
• Which is best - R vs Python?
• Which is best - R vs SAS?

     Below are major topics we are going to cover step by step.

1. Why do you need to learn any one to these?
2. What job you will get after learning these softwares?
3. Difference comparison
4. Final Decision

Why we need to learn any one to these?

     In any job where we need to process data and apply statistics, there is requirement of some tool which enable us to process/organize data as per business requirement. Now don’t be confused about what does processing data means here. In simple language we can consider processing data like finding sum of whole month spent we have done so far. Finding sum is part of data processing and it is called aggregation. Same way if we need to find how many products we purchased in any month. We can use count function. We perform these kinds of various operations on data.

     You may think that we can apply these functions in Excel as well then why do we need to use SAS, R or Python? But Excel has limitation of 10,48,576 rows whereas when we are working in analytics or data science domain, we will be having huge number of data rows which Excel can’t handle. Therefore, we require SAS, R or Python to process or manipulate data

     Just to summarize previous discuss, we need SAS, R or Python in analytics domain to process/ manipulate data.

What job we will get after learning these?

     Analytics/ Data Science is required in all those companies who are looking for profit or want to manage their operations efficiently. All organizations have data with them but having data without using it, is not a good idea. Organizations try to find user buying pattern therefore they manipulate data. Organizations will have to use these softwares if they want to sustain in market. SAS, R and Python are used in all industry such as Retail, Banking, Pharma, Insurance, Marketing, Telecom, Coal & Mining, SCM, Advertising and many more.

     Guys who have knowledge of SAS, R and Python, work as Business Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Engineer, Analyst and more. These are just designations; I have mentioned few here and designations differ company to company. Your knowledge matters while working in any organization. Sometimes you may have question about getting certification will add value or not, specially in case SAS. Let me answer this question as quickly. Having SAS acedemy certificate will not add any value. You will may be given preference but your interview will change actual picture. Instead if you learn more technology then it will add value to your resume and to you whereas You get certificate from institute wherever you are learning SAS. I would like to say that if you have money and you do not have tight hands then you can go for SAS certification but do not do SAS certification thinking that having certification is 100% guarantee of getting job.

Difference comparison (SAS vs R vs Python | Python vs R | SAS vs Python | SAS vs R)

     Now it is time to compare all 3 software to have good understanding of SAS, R and Python.

Data Processing Sources

     SAS use Hard drive to process the data

     R and Python use the RAM to process the data

     Result: Keeping system configuration constant SAS wins the fight here because you pick any system, Hard drive is always bigger than RAM therefore huge data can be processed with SAS because of huge hard drive. But we must have empty space in hard drive.

     Here it does not mean that Python and R cannot process huge data but we need to increase then system configuration to process huge data.

     Lots of technology companies use Python and R because they need to invest one time to buy server and use Python and R free always. But if you are Banking, Pharma or Retails company then they prefer SAS. All of these solutoins are having their own importance.

Cost of software

     SAS is paid software which means if any organization want to work on SAS then they will have to buy the SAS license. But it comes with premium support in case you face any challenge. We also have Google search option available which redirect us to various forums available to grab help and turn problem around.

     R and Python are open sources solutions therefore nobody need to pay any money to anyone to work on these softwares whether it is organization or individual. Just download and use. No support is available. Google search help is always available to be redirected to various forums to grab help and turn your problem around.

     Result: No one is winner here because it depends on company to company that what they want to use. If business is critical then they are ready to pay for support but if company is not having money and task is not critical then free option is good to go.

     It is same scenario as if you want to buy any QLED TV with or without warranty. Most of us will prefer QLED TV with warranty because we are spending our hard earn money and do not want to take risk. But if we have hardly enough money to buy LED and somehow to managed money to buy TV then you will leave things on God and buy LED TV or with lesser warrenty like 6 months. As there are all kind of people in world with money same way, there are organizations as well.

     IMPORTANT NOTE: All SAS, R AND PYTHON are free for learning purpose therefore you should not be worried about cost. No company will say buy your SAS to work in our company. If any organization want you to work on SAS then they will buy and give you. And They will charge same amount to their client. You need to learn that software which is in demand and companies are using.

Learning Curve

     Learning any software is easy with right path. All three software are programming software. We write codes to process any data. But SAS has edge with SAS Enterprise Guide studio - a GUI based solution. But SAS GUI based option has limitations and we cannot do all task which can be done by programming code. So, to crack all problems you must have the knowledge of programming only.

     We can find lots of support and documentation in internet to learn any of these.

     There is only one difference, I like about R and Python that codes of these software are short.

     R and Python one-line code can be equivalent to 3 to 4 line of codes of SAS. But we cannot decide to learn any software based on this fact only because if company is asking for SAS then whether we need to write 10 line instead of 1 line of code, we will have to have knowledge of SAS only.

     Result: All are easy to learn but writing code is bit easy in R and Python

Machine Learning/ Deep Learning/ Advance Statistics implementation

     All three software, SAS, R and Python have Machine Learning/ Deep Learning/ Advance Statistics implementation capability as below.

     Python and R have wide variety of options available for Machine Learning, Deep learning or Advance Statistics implementation due to open source nature. But Python has more options available compared to even R.

     SAS is having good Machine Learning implementation option available but Deep Learning module is initial phase therefore SAS is not option for Deep Learning right now. We will be definately having SAS with Deep Learning soon.

     Result: All three SAS, R and Python are good for Machine Learning such as Regression, Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Random Forest, Time Series Forecast etc.

     R and Python are good for Deep learning option as well as we have option of Keras implementation available too.

Wide Variety of Implementation option

     Python is the option which can be used for Data Science, AI, Web Development, Desktop Application, Mobile Application Development etc. therefore company which require integration of various solutions then Python is only one and best option to learn out of SAS, R and Python.

Final Decision

     Now you will be thinking what should you learn

  For Fresher/ Guys looking to enter in Data Analyst or Data Science/ Guys looking for internal movement in company

     Mostly we find services company and we do not know where we will get job after completing course. Companies are looking for one paid software SAS with one open sources software (R or Python) because if client is asking for SAS then company will ask you to work on SAS otherwise free option is always available as R and Python therefore this combo of (SAS and Python) or (SAS and R) will help you to grab job easily.

     Now you will think what should I learn with SAS from R and Python then I recommend learning Python until you have specific requirement of R only. Python is having edge of R because of integration of various solutions. Python community is wider than R which will help you always.

  For Guys who are already working in Company

You can learn whatever you company is asking for SAS, R and Python.

Note: You can even learn all 3 if programming seems interesting to you. It will give you edge always.

You can watch comparison of SAS, R and Python video below.

Have look on SAS, R & Python course contents and demo videos

Have look on Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Data Visualization comparison

Complete introduction to Machine Learning step by step

Introduction to Python

Introduction to Time Series Forecasting