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Since SAS is a relatively simple language SAS isn't a language. It's a suite of (semi-integrated) products featuring numerous languages. Key among these are the SAS DATA step (analogous to awk), the SAS Macro language (which shares terms but is in fact distinct), a number of other global languages, a number of domain-specific languages (TABULATE, LOGISTIC, GRAPH, etc.), and some proprietary implementations of general standards (SAS SQL). The best model for mapping from SAS to R is not to try to support all of SAS's functionality within R, but to use multiple tools. When UNIX was first created, with the awk and S languages ('R' is iterated 'S', Splus is the proprietary extension of S), awk was seen as the data pre-processor for S. Today you'd likely use R (statistical analyses, graphics, matrix language), awk, Perl, Python, Ruby, or C (general programming / data manipulation), a database tool such as sqlite or Postgresql (both of which have their own considerable analysis capabilities), and other tools as appropriate. Trying to do everything in a single tool is a domain/application mismatch. |