You might be familiar with using Excel to do basic statistical analysis such as finding the mean or median of a column. But Excel can be challenging to use when performing more complex data analysis. Duquesne University makes two different statistical software, SAS and SPSS, available to current students, faculty and staff. These programs can be downloaded from Duquesne's Software Catalog. In addition to SAS and SPSS, the programming languages R and Python are commonly used for data analysis. Below you'll find some good online tutorials if you'd like to get your feet wet with data analysis.
R is an open-source, free language that is commonly used for statistical computing.
Python is an open-source, free language that is commonly used for statistical computing and machine learning.
SAS is used widely in certain businesses/industries and it is also a very powerful analysis tool. The learning curve for SAS is a little steeper than for SPSS, but it's not as difficult as R. Downloadable from DORI.
SPSS is a program created by IBM that allows you to analyze large data sets by pointing and clicking on drop down menus. It isn't as difficult to learn as some of the other statistical software and it's widely used in the social sciences. Downloadable from DORI.
