R or Python: Which Should You Learn in 2024?

In this video we're revisiting the R vs Python comparison in the year 2024. How do they stand in recent job reports and in indices like PyPL or the TIOBE index?

[os]

I’m a neurobiologist PhD… I’ve been using R for years and I’m aiming to work outside academia, now I’m learning python and isn’t that straight forward to me perhaps due to school bias… but python seems to be the norm outside academia and that’s why I’m trying to learn.

[blaisepascal]

Hi I have watched one of your video comparing R and Python a few year ago. At that time, I started learning Python. Then following your advices I learned R (that I really love). I would say that R is prefered for people with a math/stat background. Then I learned Julia and Nim for perfromance. Overall your advice helped me a lot, thank you!

[boneymaxfield]

For me it's all about how many jobs are available for any programming language, not just the 2 you covered.

[Xnozea]

Very objective take. As much as I love R I am seeing myself using Python a lot more. Especially for MLOps. Python is such a nice glue language that you have to use it eventually.

[halecj]

Both. I mainly do financial statistics. My main codebase is in R but I have Python helper files that can be loaded into an R script when needed, and then call those Python functions directly in the R script.

[djardar]

R is much easier to learn. I found Python hard to learn, and really struggled with all the environment issues..

[CharlesMartel]

Fiats are more common than tractors, but would you use a Fiat instead of a tractor as a farmer just because Fiats are more widely used?

[KEVWITHTHESS]

So I’m in a MS business analytics degree, and we had the opportunity to learn R programming. So I learned it, still learning it as we speak and becoming really efficient and effective at it as I go on Kaggle and practice with different types of datasets.

But so many companies are requiring Python. I just came to the conclusion that im not going to overwhelm myself and just stick with R and SQl and just say it is what it is. I’m not Superman out here, and these companies must stop acting like Gods and show some flexibility

[Sonntagssoziologe]

It remains vague. What exactly can you do with R that is not possible with Python?

[maoulegna]

I'm pretty much an R user but I too would suggest Python to someone new.

But the popularity and usage is also a self fulfilling prophecy. R as said is for statisticians while python includes way more people.
And ChatGPT will only expand this preference as the training model has more examples with Python. It's way easier to obtain an hallucinations for R.

So is R useless ? Hell no, as Richard said it's more entry level and some categories like biostatisticians or doctors will have less issues with R

Also when not doing ML, R is way more "reproducible-friendly" with the tidyverse
A one-time analysis or exploratory analysis is way faster to write

But of course that's from someone using both languages and biased

---

Still the message is:
For a general user Python is king
But some people shouldn't dismiss R
It all depends on the work activities

[alexwa]

asking for comments could boost your visabilty too.
i am not 100% certain, but a lot of youtubers ask for them and so it migth be a booster as well

[Flamechr]

R is good for pre analysis but for production python is better.

[Suchen_Wahrheit]

I usually don't subscribe, to avoid unnecessary suggestions. But with current YouTube algorithm. It doesn't really matter whether I am subscribed or not.

You should mention this as well. I doesn't hurt in anyway to subscribe to a channel. So hit the subscribe button😂😅

So why not.... I subscribed 😉👍

[chrishardy]

I can't believe FORTRAN is #12! I programmed my master's thesis project in 1995 in FORTRAN and I thought nobody used it anymore. As a statistician I'm guessing R is the way to go.

[YannC-pq]

lol Rust 2%
11:10 there is a great implementation of pytorch in R, called torch

[dimitrioskioroglou]

For me the greatest difference between the two languages is the mentality. R users are taught basic programming fundamentals and learn that for every solution there is a package they can use. Python users are taught programming first and how the language is used to create packages. So R users learn to use the language at a higher level, and when they go deeper then things get messy. Also in 2024 I wouldn't keep putting labels such as R for statistics and Python general purpose etc. This kind of labels is absolutely nonsense.

[fato]

I think the main point you should have learnt in the past 4 years is that it still does not make too much sense to compare R and Python. R is a statistical programming language, Python NOT. Python is an all purpose language, R NOT. Amen.

[ronaldkessel]

I do scientific computations in both R and Python, depending on the project team choice. R is best -- fastest to code, easiest to debug, better for plotting. Python is riddled with package conflicts that hugely increase debugging and lead to endless repeated google searches and AI queries to resolve maddening tiny conflicts that R does not have. That's why google searches touching Python are so high. Everyone always has to hunt to resolve its conflicts. It's a bad sign, not a good. R is for smooth very complex computing, Python is for "Hello World" stuff.

[jdean]

Python syntax feels very clunky for getting the job done. R just makes sense, but I have an econometrics background, not cs

[lorenzopeiyang]

R is more capable of doing amazing things better than python