[Steve Nott]

I know data science is kind of the hot thing right now so should I learn R or just stick with Python?

[thundereder9t8y]

R is used for all numerical analysis, so the answer is it depends on what you want to do. Into stats? Learn R.

[milkycoffee]

Depends on the other languages in your tool belt. If you're a relatively junior programmer I'd suggest sticking with python -it has a broad application beyond just data science into things like server management etc. The way it reads is fairly close to other languages and I've seen it used more in industry.

R is a different beast and scripts are quite peculiar in the way they're written. It's very good for numerical analysis, but less intuitive for most programmers to pick up so it's applied in more of an academic setting or companies that specialize in data science.

If you're thinking for a career, I'd find a company that looks like one you'd want to join and reach out to some of them on twitter or linkedin and ask what they used. Heck, it may even turn into a job/internship.

[[email protected]]

Learning is good, but it will be different what are you working.

In general, only python will okay for hobby

[gee Ar]

R is on the wanted list for a lot of companies, especially for business analyst, project management roles. Depends on what you want to do.

[Elusive One]

I think its based on what you want to do in the end!

[Phoenix-fire]

If you're into data analysis and machine learning R is probably one of the best languages there are together wirh Python.

[Pdixon]

In general, only python will okay for hobby

[GummeBearMonster]

I think itll be useful, Go for it

[Gukzilla]

I know a guy who works in R every day.  He's on £150k plus bonus!

[phlarebot]

you can do quite a bit of machine learning with the existing libraries in python, but if you're building custom models and want get really advanced, R will help.

It's a very desirable skill as well, but knowing the language doesn't help as much as knowing what to do with it.