The Basics of S-Plus

by Andreas Krause and Melvin Olson

Book Overview

In its revised Fourth Edition, this book teaches the basics of S-PLUS Version 7.0 for people with little computing or statistical knowledge. More focused than user manuals, it demonstrates the important concepts of S-PLUS and R, its companion in implementing the S language. The authors offer a guided tour of interactive computing, data exploration, and statistical analysis, explaining how to approach data sets and teaching the corresponding S-PLUS...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0387261095
• ISBN13: 9780387261096
• Release Date: July 2005
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 444 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great for S-Plus novices!

Just the right material to get started. Faithfully plod thru the exercises to get the necessary foundations, then move on to more detailed books like Carmona's, Venable's, etc.

Practical and Clear

This book has proven the difference between not being able to use my new S-Plus license and beginning to feel that I am on my way to master it. The book is clearly written, has many examples and exercises and has enabled me (a total alien to S-Plus until a month ago) to be able to start doing some useful analysis and data exploration. The book is about getting familiar with the kinds of things you can do with S-Plus. It is not intended to teach you statistics or linear algebra (it is assumed that you know at least the elementary stuff about data analysis), but it will certainly teach you how to use most features of the S-Plus system, both through the graphics interface and using the command-line interface, which is more powerful. Bottom line: excelent book for those wishing to move from another statistical environment to S-Plus.

Excellent beginner's text

I love this book and recomend it to anyone who would like to branch out in S-plus beyond the GUI. The great strengths of this book are its great clarity, its realistic and useful examples, and most importantly, its scope. This text will not teach you everything you need to know about S and S+. BUT it will show you what you need for probably 80-90% of what you may need S to do for you. After mastering the techniques in this book, I'm ready to progress, but it still is the first book I consult when faced with an S problem. If you want to learn S+, this book is essential.

A good book to start learning S-Plus

This is a good book to start learning S-Plus. The authors provide a good overview of the basic features of S-Plus. I would suggest read this book first, then read Venables & Ripley's Modern Applies Statistics with S.

I can't believe I lived without it!

Last year I started teaching myself the S-PLUS command line for a pretty hard-core statistics course that I was taking. With the aid of class notes, the help menu, and the Internet I managed to fumble through and to avoid spending $100 for this book. This year I am taking another stats course that relies heavily on S-PLUS, so I relented and bought the book, as well as "Modern Applied Statistics with S".Not only has "The Basics of S-PLUS" been an excellent language reference, but it very clearly describes how S works making many of the programming solutions I spent so many hours concocting last year seem simple in retrospect. Highly recommended for students if you have the money, and if you think that S-PLUS is likely to pop up regularly during the course of your studies and/or graduate thesis.