What can R do that Python can't?

  • I can think of one specific reason why some people might prefer R. This is my understanding anyway... I'm not an R specialist, so sanity check what I'm about to say as you see fit:

    AIUI, most professional statistics researchers use R, and as a result, the newest, latest & greatest statistical techniques and algorithms pretty much always get implemented in R before any other environment. So IF your use case involves needing to be very close to the bleeding edge of modern statistics research, then R could have a compelling advantage.

    Otherwise, I guess it's down to personal preference. I dabble in both R and python, and neither strikes me as perfect. I go back and forth depending on what I'm doing.