Experience with statistical software (SPSS, R, SAS) and EMS research?

[ExpatMedic0]

Does anyone here have any experience using statistical software such as SPSS, R, SAS, ect for prehospital research? I don't have any training in it at the moment but will soon. I was wondering what size data sets I may end up dealing with. Data sets in the hundreds of thousands or less?
How often do you use these programs when conducting EMS research and what approximate percentage of your time do they take during the study?
Thanks in advance

 

[planetmike]

I used to use SAS for statistical analysis of telephone surveys for up to around 5,000 responses. But if I recall correctly, SAS can handle datasets in the millions. The learning curve is steep though. If you’re just going to be learning each software, get (create) a small dataset and try to do the same thing with each of them, just to get a handle on how they work.

 

[COmedic17]

... I can use Microsoft word.

 

[gotbeerz001]

... Adobe Illustrator

 

[NCmedic]

SAS and Minitab, I think you'd have a hard time reaching their limits for data set sizes

 

[Summit]

R will have the steepest learning curve. What db is your data in

 

[ExpatMedic0]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had my first day of SPSS training today, and wow... Lets just say its not as fun computing data as it is being a part of the data. By the way, the reason I was asking was because my current laptop can not run SPSS so I had to buy a new one, but I am on a pretty right budget and have no idea what my future data bases sizes can be. I ended up getting an i5 with 4gb of ram and windows 10. Hoping that will see me through my masters and working with SPSSS.

 

[mlboncea35D]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I had my first day of SPSS training today, and wow... Lets just say its not as fun computing data as it is being a part of the data. By the way, the reason I was asking was because my current laptop can not run SPSS so I had to buy a new one, but I am on a pretty right budget and have no idea what my future data bases sizes can be. I ended up getting an i5 with 4gb of ram and windows 10. Hoping that will see me through my masters and working with SPSSS.

If you want a free version of SPSS to play with on your home computer, try PSPP. I used it for my Master's and it worked pretty well. Saved me from having to constantly go to the school's computer lab.