DADV ASSIGNMENT -Maha Adhithiyan 1147

Q) Merits and Demerits in term of capability and usage of the five software as Data Visualization and
Processing of Data.

The software to discuss : SPSS, EXCEL,ORANGE,TABLEAU & R.

1) SPSS
Advanatages
1. Thorough data management

When it comes to organizing and managing your data, the SPSS software offers the user a lot of
control. Since the software remembers the location of the variables and cases, it provides quicker and
accurate data analysis.

2. An entire gamut of options

With the wide range of graphs, methods and charts, you will find that any type of statistical analysis is
a breeze. The techniques of screening and cleaning data within SPSS are great for future analysis.

3. Better organization of the output

In SPSS, the output is usually kept apart from the data, by storing all the results in a separate file that
is different from the file in which the data is stored. When you use SPSS, you will not have to worry
about overwriting any other information by accident.

Even though Microsoft Excel is a good software to use for data organization, using a specially
developed analysis and statistical software like SPSS can provide you with in-depth, faster and
accurate data analysis.

Disadvatages

1. Can be off-putting to the beginner - the learning curve is still somewhat steep for some
undergraduates.

2. Lacks many regression analysis techniques.

3. Difficult to edit output.

4. Problems with importing and exporting data in a variety of formats.

5. Poor error messages on occasion - not always easy to associate with correction needed to the code.

6. Limited functionality for complex analysis

7. In batch mode one error halts the whole file running.

8. Can be slow at times if not using the latest hardware

9. Difficulties running SPSS across the networks in relation to the large temporary data files it creates.
You need knowledge of statistical terminology to operate the software and some of the language is
specific to SPSS.

Automatic scaling: makes it difficult to present different charts using the same scale for comparisons.

2) Excel

Advantages

1. Easy and effective comparisons - With the powerful analytical tools included within
Microsoft Excel you have the ability to analyze large amounts of data to discover trends and
patterns that will influence decisions. Microsoft Excel’s graphing capabilities allows you to
summarize your data enhancing your ability to organize and structure your data.
2. Powerful analysis of large amounts of data - Recent upgrades to the Excel spread sheet
enhances your ability to analyze large amounts of data. With powerful filtering, sorting and
search tools you are able to quickly and easily narrow down the criteria that will assist in your
decisions. Combine these tools with the tables, Pivot Tables and Graphs you can find the
information that you want quickly and easily even if you have hundreds of thousands of data
items. While you will need the latest technology to get the best out of Microsoft Excel it is
scalable and can be used at home on your low powered PC or at work on your high powered
Laptop.
3. Working Together - With the advent of the Excel Web App you can now work on spread
sheets simultaneously with other users. The ability to work together enhances your ability to
streamline processes and allows for ‘brainstorming’ sessions with large sets of data – the
collaboration tools allow you to get the most out of the sharing capabilities of Microsoft Excel.
The added bonus is that as the Excel Worksheet is web based you can collaborate anywhere –
you are no longer tied to your desk but can work on spread sheets on the go – this is ideal for a
businessman on the go.

Disadvantages

1. Time Consuming: In Microsoft Excel, when we are entering the data manually it can take a very
long time especially if you have a lot of data to enter.
2. Viruses: In Microsoft Excel File, the viruses can be attached to through macros. Macros are mini-
programs that are written into an MS Excel spread sheet.
3. Customizable Graphs: This is a big disadvantage of Microsoft Excel; it does offer a good
variety of graph capabilities. The customization of the standard formats, and combinations of
the different data sets and different types of a graph is awkward and not natural.
4. Hard to use: MS Excel training programs, it is still hard to use for some users might not get the
hang of it. While it is easy to create the formulas, the reference cells, copy and paste the
data and the spread sheets become more difficult to change and manage.
5. Difficult to analyze: The spread sheets are absolute for creating one-time analysis. Especially for
some people, a spread sheet is difficult to analyze. It becomes problematic as the data grows and
 emerge over time. As new rows and columns get added or new ones created, the data and the
formulas are not consistently updated. These mistakes lead to bad results and decisions.

3) Orange

Advantages
1. It is an open source data mining package build on Python, NumPy, wrapped C, C++ and Qt.

2. Works both as a script and with an ETL work flow GUI.

3. Shortest script for doing training, cross validation, algorithms comparison and prediction.

4. Orange the easiest tool to learn.

5. Cross platform GUI.

6. Orange is written in python hence is easier for most programmers to learn.

7. Has better debugger.

8. Scripting data mining categorization problems is simpler in Orange.

9. Orange does not give optimum performance for association rules.

Disadvantages
1. Not super polished.

2. The install is big since you need to install QT.

3. Limited list of machine learning algorithms.

4. Machine learning is not handled uniformly between the different libraries.

5. Orange is weak in classical statistics; although it can compute basic statistical properties of
the data, it provides no widgets for statistical testing.

6. Reporting capabilities are limited to exporting visual representations of data.

4) Tableau
Advantage of Tableau
1. Data visualization
Tableau is a data visualization tool first and foremost. Therefore, it’s technology is there to support
complex computations, data blending and dash boarding for the purpose of creating beautiful
visualizations that deliver insights that cannot easily be derived from staring at a spread sheet. It has
climbed to the top of the data visualization heap because of it’s dedication to this purpose
2. Quickly Create Interactive visualizations:
Using drag-n-drop functionalities of Tableau, the user can create a very interactive visual within
minutes. The interface can handle endless variations while also limiting you from
creating charts that are against data visualization best practices. You can check out some of the
amazing visuals created at the Tableau Gallery.
3. Ease of Implementation:
There are many different types of visualization options available in Tableau which enhance the user
experience. Also, Tableau is very easy to learn compared to Python, Business Objects and Domo,
anyone without having knowledge of coding can easily learn Tableau.
4. Tableau can handle large amounts of data:
Tableau can handle millions of rows of data with ease. Different types of visualization can be created
with a large amount of data without impacting the performance of the dashboards. Also, there is an
option in Tableau where the user can make “live” to connections to different data sources like SQL
etc.
5. Use of other scripting languages in Tableau:
To avoid the performance issues and to do complex table calculations in Tableau, users can
incorporate Python or R. Using Python script can take the load off the software by performing data
cleansing tasks with packages. However, Python is not a native scripting language accepting by
Tableau. So you can import some of the visuals or packages. However, you can see how this is down
with Python for Power BI.

Disadvantage of Tableau
1. Scheduling or notification of reports:
Tableau does not provide the feature of automatic refreshing of the reports with the help of
scheduling. There is no option of scheduling in Tableau. Therefore, there is always some manual
effort required when users need to update the data in the back-end.
2. No Custom Visual Imports
Tableau is not a complete open tool. Unlike other tools like Power BI, developers can create custom
visuals that can be easily imported Tableau. So, any new visuals need to be recreated instead of
imported.
3. Limited Data Pre-processing.
Tableau is strictly a visualization tool. Tableau Desktop allows you do to very basic pre-processing.
This includes joining and blending data. Also, you have the ability to change data types. In an ideal
world, most data would be exported in perfect tables. However, data cleansing is a necessary step. In
most cases, an analyst needs to build a data model with recurring to format the data. This requires a
tool such as Altyrex, Power BI, Python or even Excel to pre-process data prior to loading.

5) R
Advantages
1. It is by far the most comprehensive statistical analysis package available totally works in its
favor.

2. R programs explicitly document the steps of your analysis and make it easy to reproduce and
update analysis, which means you can quickly try many ideas and/or correct issues.
3. You can easily use it anywhere. It’s platform-independent, so you can use it on any operating
system. And it’s free, so you can use it at any employer without having to persuade your boss to
purchase a license.
4. Not only is R free, but it’s also open-source. That means anyone can examine the source code to
see exactly what it’s doing. This also means that you, or anyone, can fix bugs and/or add features,
rather than waiting for the vendor to find/fix the bug and/or add the feature–at their discretion–in
a future release.
5. R allows you to declare names to objects, such as vectors, matrices, data frames and lists.
Furthermore, R also allows you to attribute names to columns and rows of these objects. A feature
that turns out to be very handy when it comes to reference these objects.

Disadvantages
1. Need to learn programming - R doesn’t have a point-and-click interface, as in some other popular
statistical tools. So, you’ll need to invest some time in learning the R programming language.
2. Lower speed - R is comparatively slower than many of the other popular statistical packages,
especially when dealing with big datasets. The basic principle of R comes from programming
languages developed well back in the 20th century.
3. No official support - All packages available from the R Project’s website are required to have
sufficient documentation.
4. R users profit a great deal from the inclusion of packages. The maintenance of packages depends
on the goodwill and altruism of R users. In case a package maintainer decides to no longer sustain
its package it will quickly be out dated and soon become deprecated.

5. R is an extremely flexible programming language and does not impose strict rules. Hence, one
needs a lot of discipline to maintain a proper coding standard. Lack of discipline can quickly lead
to a hard-to-maintain R code. Especially, once the code grows bigger.
6. Originally, R started as a language to serve statisticians that was designed to incorporate
functional concepts along with a remarkable flexibility in syntax. However, as a result, every
good, and bad, idea in computer programming has been incorporated in R.