Dear Mike
I suggest you also consider Stata. It is flexible, has excellent graphics capability, and seems more user-friendly (in my view) than SAS. Specifically (i) the syntax is more natural (ii) the `help' facility is easier to use (iii) very wide range of statistical applications, enhanced by the hundreds of user-written add-ons you can download from the Stata website (for free). There is also a version of Stata for `large' datasets.
Clearly, SAS is still used by major pharmaceutical companies. I don't know the reason for this, but curious to find out.
I've never used R.
I hope this helps you on your quest.
Dr Lachlan MacGregor, Biostatistics Fellow
Clinical Epidemiology & Health Service Evaluation Unit
Royal Melbourne Hospital
Parkville, Victoria 3050
Australia
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