Statistical Software Packages

Written by Darryl Dieter

There is a great Web site that provides links to many, many home pages of statistical software providers. It can be found at www.stata.com/links/stat_software.html. Of those identified on the Web page (approximately 100), I have familiarity with a few and can provide a comment or two on each.

Software that I have used:

• SAS and SPSS - These are the most widely used packages in the social sciences. Both do a good job and have moved away from the old "line commands" which required writing data analysis commands in a language that was as arcane as programming language. Fortunately both now provide user-friendly menus from which you can select the analysis tool you want to use. Options are still possible to set, such as level of confidence, which test to use, etc. I like both of them.
• SYSTAT and STATVIEW - I have used both of these packages on the Mac. Both are user friendly and come in both PC and Mac format now, I believe. Their menu-driven options preceded SAS and SPSS's move to menu options.
• LIMDEP, LISREL and RATS - All of these are sophisticated software packages that use higher-end econometrics (the term alone is enough to frighten!). If you're needing sophisticated analysis tools which are very specific, these packages may be of value.

I have not used these but know colleagues who swear by them:

• Mathematica, Shazam, Stata and Minitab - All I can say is that respected academics who publish regularly in scholarly journals are among the committed users of these packages.

Not listed but should be:

• EXCEL - EXCEL 97 and later versions permit the user to use add-in programs. These add-ins use an "xla" extension. The Analysis Toolpak contains statistical analysis tools which could very well suit all your analysis needs, thus obviating the need for purchasing a complete statistical package. (When I bought SPSS three years ago, it cost about $500.)