Amongst many, one of the new exciting feature in SQL Server 2016 is the inclusion of Revolution Analytic popularly known as R or Advanced Analytic. For the seasoned SQL professionals like me R was the 18^th letter of the alphabet but not for long. The kid in me that likes new shiny things went digging to figure what this “R” was.

So what is R?

R is the sequel (pun intended) of a language called S developed by some AT&T dudes back in the 90’s which presumably “altered how people analyze, visualize and manipulated data.” R expands on this idea and it’s quite common in the data scientist field. It has very extensive and powerful graphic abilities tightly linked to analytical capabilities.

From SQL Server perspective, incorporation of R allows us to do advanced analysis without having to export the data out of SQL Server and it grows a new breed of data analysts to bring big data analytic to SQL Server.

Oohh and its open source too, so trend knowing attention may be limited.

Knowing that, combined with the love of data, we’ll try to become scientisty with the tools in our hands.