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I would like to know which is the current status of the statistical modules in CPAN, does any one know any recent review or could comment about its likes/dislikes with those modules?

I have used the clasical: Statistics::Descriptive, Statistics::Distributions, and some others contained in Bundle::Math::Statistics

Some of the modules has not been updated for long time. I don't know if this is because they are rock solid or has been overtaken by better modules.

Does someone know any current review similar to this old one:

Using Perl for Statistics: Data Processing and Statistical Computing

NB (for the people that will suggest to use R ;-)): All my code is mainly in perl, but I use R a lot for statistics and plotting. I usually prepare the dataframes with perl and write the R script in the perl modules as templates and save to a file and execute them from perl. But sometimes you have small data sets where efficiency is not an issue (well I am using perl insn't it ;-)) and you want to add some statistics and histograms to your report produced with perl.

Pablo Marin-Garcia
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    Statistics hasn't changed that much. What don't you like about those modules? – brian d foy Sep 20 '10 at 16:50
  • If it's basic statistics, you may not need a module. If it's not basic, don't use Perl. Perl is great for string/text interfacing, but is not really a math-oriented language (at least I don't rely on it). – vol7ron Sep 20 '10 at 17:52
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    @vol7ron: What about PDL (Perl Data Language)? http://pdl.perl.org – draegtun Sep 20 '10 at 18:20
  • @brian: nothing is wrong with those modules, I have used them a lot in the past. I only wanted to know if they are the ones that people use nowadays or they have been substituted by new ones. For example in the plotting arena GD::Graph was common usage some years ago, but now people start to recomend Chart::Gnuplot or Chart::Clicker etc: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/64537/how-do-i-create-graphs-in-perl-on-windows http://stackoverflow.com/questions/460325/what-graphing-packages-apis-exist-for-perl – Pablo Marin-Garcia Sep 20 '10 at 22:43

1 Answers1

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PDL, the Perl Data Language is alive and thriving so its worth taking a look at that.

And I think the other stats modules you mention are OK. For eg. Statistics::Descriptive is up-to-date and has been used in answers to a few questions here on Stackoverflow.

NB. There is also a Perl to R bridge called Statistics::R which looks interesting.

/I3az/

draegtun
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    I tried to use PDL in the past but at the end as I know R is easier for me to metaprograming R code in perl and execute it from perl than learning PDL (That is not trivial for complex things). I do that because I have lot of good books about R in our campus library and google gives you more solutions for R than for PDL when I have a problem. But if you know good resources for learning PDL I would try it again. Other reason to use R over PDL is because I have always problems with the sysadmins in order to dispaly charts or graphics from PDL (PLplot, pgplot) and plotting with R has no problems. – Pablo Marin-Garcia Sep 20 '10 at 23:01
  • About the Perl to R bridges, I know that there are at least two options but I have read several times that they are a bit problematic and is easier to write out your R code and exec from perl in batch mode. I never tried them so I can not verify these statements. – Pablo Marin-Garcia Sep 20 '10 at 23:05
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    Oh, the PDL page has been updated and refurbished!. When I tried to use in the 2007 and 2008 it seemed a bit dead, but seems that the modern perl revival has also awaken the PDL community with 4 releases since Nov. 2008. That is Good. Also [pdl-stats](http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdl-stats/) seems interesting – Pablo Marin-Garcia Sep 20 '10 at 23:16
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    The Perl-R bridge is currently undergoing significant maintenance after being adopted by a new maintainer! – tsee Sep 21 '10 at 18:12
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    @tsee: nice to see that statistics::R is active again since this August. I will give it a try again!. Thanks for the comment +1. – Pablo Marin-Garcia Sep 22 '10 at 13:31
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    for the people looking to this question and interested in PDL there is a perlmonks entry with a (Perl & Math: A Quick Reference)[http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=284324] (it is from 2003 but still informative) – Pablo Marin-Garcia Oct 10 '10 at 00:37