Numerous general purpose spreadsheet and database software packages are available for use on PCs, Macs and Unix computers. These are useful for storing, organising, manipulating and displaying data and information. Some of the better known are:

• Lotus 1, 2, 3
• Excel
• Foxbase
• Filemaker Pro
• Dbase IV
• Oracle
• Sybase
• SQLBase

There are also many specialist packages tailored for specific uses such as accounting, purchasing etc.

Statistical Software

Many of the generic spreadsheet software packages described above in "spreadsheets and databases" include statistical functions either as built-in features or as add-on features. There are also many statistical packages available that can take data input from, e.g. a spreadsheet and carry out advanced statistical operations on it. These however tend to require a reasonable working knowledge of statistics and statistical processes in order to take advantage of their scope.

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