Comments for Quantum Forest

Comment on Surviving a binomial mixed model by tomhouslay

tomhouslay — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:04:33 +0000

Hey Luis – I’m sure this article and your comments are still useful to other people (not just me!), so thought I’d post the updated link for the paper you mention as an example for scaling the calculation of the variance: http://journalofanimalscience.org/content/81/6/1399.full.pdf

Comment on Subsetting data by Luis

Luis — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:01:28 +0000

Around 20-22 yo. I think it’s better to start with easier to read syntax and the people can pick up Klingon more easily.

Comment on Subsetting data by PirateGrunt

PirateGrunt — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:48:19 +0000

How old are your students? I had to wait until I was over 40 to start doing R and statistical programming in earnest. They don’t know it, but they’re very fortunate.

When I was first learning R, I found that I used subset a lot, for the reasons you mentioned. Eventually, I needed the flexibility of the Klingon approach. By the time I got there, I had gotten comfortable enough with the basic concepts that it seemed like English to me. Or perhaps I had started speaking Klingon without realizing it.

-PG

Comment on Subsetting data by Luis

Luis — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:27:15 +0000

Good point. I think it boils down to the complexity/size of the data set and how often will data be updated. For often-updated and large data sets I would certainly go for the RDBMS + SQL combination.

In my case I tend to deal with lots of single-use, disparate data sets, where the overhead of setting up the database an connection are just too big to justify going that route.

Comment on Subsetting data by Luis

Luis — Tue, 07 May 2013 23:22:55 +0000

Thanks. I was drafting a follow up post dealing with with() for my students. I should mention that use.

Comment on Subsetting data by Robert Young

Robert Young — Tue, 07 May 2013 20:55:24 +0000

If you’re only doing a subset once, then using R is a reasonable option. On the other hand, if you’re going to be doing serial analysis (the norm in the “real world”) on some data, then it is wiser to build the data in a RDBMS and use SQL to do the data manipulation; that’s what relational databases and SQL are for.

Comment on Subsetting data by Fr.

Fr. — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:44:36 +0000

Coincidentally, I just recommended with() on a different but related question. The thread might be of interest.

Comment on Subsetting data by Luis

Luis — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:53:36 +0000

You are right Thomas. I should be using with() more with the students.

Comment on Subsetting data by Thomas Lumley

Thomas Lumley — Tue, 07 May 2013 06:32:08 +0000

There’s also
with(alltrials, alltrials[location=="Christchurch" & height>10,])
which isn’t as simple as the subset() approach but is more generally useful

Comment on Learning to code in R by Luis

Luis — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:29:26 +0000

təˈmātō, təˈmätō. Corrected.