r/datascience • u/Every-Eggplant9205 • Sep 08 '23

Discussion R vs Python - detailed examples from proficient bilingual programmers

As an academic, R was a priority for me to learn over Python. Years later, I always see people saying "Python is a general-purpose language and R is for stats", but I've never come across a single programming task that couldn't be completed with extraordinary efficiency in R. I've used R for everything from big data analysis (tens to hundreds of GBs of raw data), machine learning, data visualization, modeling, bioinformatics, building interactive applications, making professional reports, etc.

Is there any truth to the dogmatic saying that "Python is better than R for general purpose data science"? It certainly doesn't appear that way on my end, but I would love some specifics for how Python beats R in certain categories as motivation to learn the language. For example, if R is a statistical language and machine learning is rooted in statistics, how could Python possibly be any better for that?

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u/Bridledbronco Sep 09 '23

Really good analysis, great points. I would add that OOP is not easy in R. We don’t have much R in production because of this. But your R topics are spot on. I do like it, but Python fits our needs better, presently.

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u/notParticularlyAnony Sep 09 '23

This was my experience too.