Excel vs SPSS vs Python

COMPARISON

7/17/2020
Table of Contents
History.........................................................................................................................................................2
History of excel.......................................................................................................................................2
History of SPSS.......................................................................................................................................2
History of Python....................................................................................................................................2
Functionalities.............................................................................................................................................2
Functionalities of Excel...........................................................................................................................2
Functionalities of SPSS...........................................................................................................................3
Functionalities of Python.........................................................................................................................4
Implications.................................................................................................................................................4
Implications of Excel...............................................................................................................................4
Implications of SPSS...............................................................................................................................5
Implications of Python.............................................................................................................................5
Advantages..................................................................................................................................................5
Advantages of Excel................................................................................................................................5
Advantages of SPSS................................................................................................................................6
Advantages of Python..............................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages..............................................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages of Excel...........................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages of SPSS............................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages of Python.........................................................................................................................7

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 History
History of excel
Excel originally came into being when Microsoft Company launched a program launched similar
to the excel known as the Multiplan in 1982 but soon it lost its status and became less popular
among its users. That’s when Excel was made to provide customers with a better spreadsheet
program to use and do business analysis and find ease while handling the data and in its
interpretation. The first version of excel for windows came into being in the year 1987 while for
MAC users it was launched in the year 1985. Excel hence helped Microsoft to get its status again
and soon came up with new versions to provide its users with the updated tools. The latest excel
version is the 2019 16.0.

History of SPSS
SPSS or statistical package for social sciences was created by three students. SPSS was launched
officially in the year 1975 and was used in the computers that were manufactured by IBM. Soon
after in the year 2009 IBM took over the SPSS and owned it. Before Microsoft became popular
there also existed a SPSS-PC version for the use on computers. SPSS soon like excel started
updating its versions and the tools inside. The first version of SPSS was SPSS 6 that came out in
1968. After the possession by IBM it started to be denoted by IBM SPSS statistics.

History of Python
Python was created by Guido Van Rossum and was launched in the year 1991. This program
assists users in coding and programming and is suitable for those especially belonging to data
science. Python took over the basic ABC language and came up with a more comprehensive
approach to coding and programming. Like the other two discussed above python also updated
its versions to provided updated tools to its users. Python 3.0 came up with some major changes
and updates while python 2.7 was about to be launched in 2015 however its release date was
further pushed to 2020.

Functionalities
Functionalities of Excel
Excel can be used to implement some basic formulas and do statistical or mathematical analysis,
can help in visual presentation of data through help of charts, assists in sorting and filtering of
data and can also provide help through data validation. Excel allows various formulas and
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calculations. For instance conditional functions are implemented including the sum If function,
Count If function and average If functions. These functions can be used to average, sum and
count data on different conditions for example adding the salaries of only the IT department.
Moreover in excel data validation can also be practiced. Under this a business can set dates for
projects through formulas like today and weekday formulas through which a business can set its
selected working days. Other than this data validation also provides a very essential feature to set
the product codes by using combinations of functions including the AND, LEFT, RIGHT, MID
and LENGTH function. Moreover under the same data validation it can also help in budgeting
through the SUM function so that the expenses don’t grow out of the budget. Other than this it
can also help businesses to make lists of products under categories through dropdown function
by using the list option and connect the categories and list through the indirect function. Other
than this excel also provides functions like Look up, V Look up and H Look up which helps the
business to find the relevant data against provided information as businesses can have data of
hundreds of customers thus extraction of relevant data becomes easier. Moreover data can further
be sorted and compressed through the sorting and filtering option through which data of
customers can be sorted according to their names or any available information and also by
setting icon sets to it and filters like date, number or text filters can be put on the data. Further
excel also provides charts of different types for instance scatter, bar chart, histogram and many
more to have a visual presentation of data. It also helps businesses to spot trends and variations
and in forecasting.

Functionalities of SPSS
SPSS like excel also provides various functions which can be used inside the business. Business
can enter any sort of data in the data editor after setting the variable view. SPSS also contains the
sorting options under which the data can be sorted and filtered so only selected data can be
analyzed for instance a business might require the data of only the customers or employees under
a certain age limit. Moreover functions like frequency, descriptive statistics including mean,
median, mode and standard deviation can also be used for data analysis and calculating financial
information. Other than this the cross tab option can also be used by the business to compare
more than one variable for instance the business may require the information of employees in the
IT department under a certain age range. In this case cross tabs can be used to extract the
employee information. Coding and recoding of option can help display messages and remarks for

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instance range of salaries of 20,000-30,000 can be provided a comment of “good” for instance.
Moreover business when collecting data through questionnaires can put all the data in SPSS and
set value labels to it for easier entry of data and also in its analysis. It also helps in visual
presentation of data through use of charts made through chart builder so that data and its trends
can be viewed and better future decisions can be made. Moreover through compute variable
business can also make calculations for instance per day salary can be used to calculate gross
salary of employees.

Functionalities of Python
Python is used inside business when handling big data and implementing data analysis and data
science technique. Python allows businesses to make various calculations through its installed
libraries for instance the math library. The libraries can help in calculating and analyzing various
concepts for instance calculating employee productivity or salaries and the print function can be
used to obtain results. It can also provide simpler functions like square root, COS and SIN for
example. Moreover python also allows businesses to get inputs from its stakeholders. It is done
by implementing the input function that can assist business in getting some information about
employees or even in getting the feedbacks about its products. In addition python’s typecasting
function to change the types of variables so calculations can be carried out to the inputs
provided. Python also allows businesses to use the comparison and logical operators like AND,
OR, NOT, If and else in order to get outputs under certain specified conditions through the use of
simple codes. For instance businesses can enter the code to only get the expenses below or above
a certain range prescribed in the code.

Implications
Implications of Excel
The foremost function that excel provides to the businesses is of the data storage and entering
business data regarding its employees, customers, sales, budgets, statistics and much more.
Although it has limited number of rows and columns but small and medium enterprises can put it
in effect. Moreover excel can help business in forecasting the trends of for instance sales by
implementing the statistical techniques. Other than this excel can also be used to make invoices
for instance of a store to keep a record of all transactions. Not just invoices but paying bills and
contacting suppliers and clients and keeping a record of them has also become easier for instance

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in a pharmacy. Excel can also be used in inventory management so inventory record can be
maintained. Moreover excel can be used to get detailed yet manageable information about the
stakeholders. In addition tables and pivot tables can be used in selecting relevant data and do
forecasting budgeting and other analysis. It can also assist businesses to make stock and sales
report so reporting becomes so much easier with excel. In addition it also allows visual
presentation of data that can be used to plan and manage resources inside the business efficiently
and with ease.

Implications of SPSS
SPSS like excel helps businesses in compiling data and also interpreting it and can be used in
businesses related to technology and human science. It helps businessmen to analyze the
information and draw conclusions out of it. The foremost help that SPSS can provide businesses
is in research and development. Businesses can gather questionnaire and feed its data in SPSS
which will give them feedback and help them improve their business. It can also help business in
forecasting and analysis through the use of different techniques and charts as well. It can also
assist in assembling the employee data and keeping records.

Implications of Python
Python is a very useful tool that can provide ease to the business in coding and programming and
especially benefit those in data science. It can be used in the telecom industry for instance by
Jazz to handle data of millions of customers. It can assist businesses to enter the day to day
important transactions for instance sales as variables and can perform several analysis on them.
The libraries installed can help businesses to analyze any set of data and get the output in the
same window right below the variables. Python is used by businesses that involve handling the
big data so utilizing this the management of big data becomes so much easier. Python can be
used inside businesses to create databases and software for their websites and applications to
connect with its stakeholders.

Advantages
Advantages of Excel
Excel’s primary advantage is that it is very user friendly and very easy to learn. It uses easy to
understand language and functions that can be easily implemented. Moreover it brings no cost to
the business as it is available free and hence brings no expense to the business. It allow several

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features like data validation, charts and use of formulas to analyze data, interpret it and put it into
a visual form which makes meetings and presentations effective. Other than this while using
excel businesses can save time as they don’t have to put formula every time for the same
calculation, simply drag it along the data and the results are provided. The data is easy to share
through it and can be sent to all the employees anytime anywhere.

Advantages of SPSS
SPSS can bring many advantages to the businesses. SPSS has a wide variety of statistical
techniques like mean, standard deviation and also a variety of charts for the visual presentation
of the data. SPSS can manage a large amount of data as well and information can be easily
entered into it. It is also user friendly and also free of cost for the business hence saving a lot of
amount. Quick analysis can be drawn both by using statistical techniques and also charts.

Advantages of Python
Python like other two tools carries certain advantages as well. Python has inbuilt libraries that
helps analysis and calculations so much easier and quicker. Moreover python is a tool that uses
high level language that is easily readable by the businessmen and they won’t have to spend
extra on training to use and operate this tool. Also python is essential when big data is involved.
It allows ease in managing the data.

Disadvantages
Disadvantages of Excel
Excel may provide business with lots of advantages however its operations are limited. Excel has
limited amount of rows and columns which means that is unable to handle big data and can only
be used for the small and medium enterprises. Moreover excel is not a secure tool which can
compromise business’s confidentiality and secrecy. It might be user friendly but the people who
are not properly trained can face several difficulties. For instance the conditional formulas
requires the user to understand the syntax first. As it is not made to handle big data, entering a lot
of data can lead to inefficient decisions as proper calculations couldn’t be made. To add if a
formula is entered wrong it might give a zero as an answer and not indicate that the formula
written is wrong.

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Disadvantages of SPSS
SPSS on the other hand requires defining every variable that user enters so it can be very time
consuming for the business which is not ideal. Additional features in the SPSS which will be
required for leading business needs a certain fee to be charged hence will raise a cost for the
business. To add it also requires a proper training to be used by the employees. The charts in
SPSS are not very presentable and not of very good quality unlike excel. SPSS cannot also
handle big data and can process limited data hence it is not the foremost option by many
businesses.

Disadvantages of Python
Python like other two tools also comes up with certain disadvantages. Python according to other
data science tools is slower and does not provide enough features to the businesses. It certainly
required trained people to use it without training it cannot be understood. Moreover when input
is required the variable types has to be changed as it is always treated as string, which if not does
not provide the required results. Other than this downloading anaconda and understanding its
execution also requires expertise and training.