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An Easy To Use Statistics Program
by By William D. Allen Sr—NOCCC , ballensr@home.com - December 18, 2000 at 15:00:01:
Want to know the average value of a range of data? Would you like to determine the relationship between two columns of data? Need to estimate the parameters of a population from samples? Then you need statistical analyses. Maybe you took a statistics course in the past but lack confidence in being able to apply what you had learned. Rest easy, help is on the way.How about a program that automatically decides which statistical tests are appropriate for your data and then generates all the applicable test parameters for you. Not only that, but after you are satisfied with the program’s statistics and graphics you may copy and paste the results into MS Word or MS PowerPoint.
The program is XL Statistics, written by Dr. Rodney Carr of Deakin University in Australia. It consists of a set of templates for Microsoft Excel. The program is truly unique because you are only required to identify your numerical and categorical [string] data variables and paste/link your data into the program. All else is automatic. For example, assume your data consists of height, weight, and gender records of army recruits for determining the numbers of different uniform sizes needed. You would select the program’s “2 numerical” [height, weight], “1category” [male, female] variables profile. Once you paste/link your data into the program XL Statistics then selects all applicable tests and does the calculations automatically. So, you need only decide which of the resulting test parameters and graphs best illustrate your results.
The program generates histograms, whisker diagrams, scatter plots, etc., as well as lines of regression, correlation coefficients, means, medians, standard deviations, analyses of variance, etc. The program will also test data distribution for Gaussian normality to be able to relate population/sample percentage ranges to standard deviation multiples of the distribution, if appropriate. The program additionally provides ten different common statistical distributions such as Gaussian, Binomial, Gamma, and Poisson etc. It can also generate random samples, with or without replacement, from a user provided distribution.
I have reviewed a number of other PC based statistics programs, including some costing many hundreds of dollars. None of them was as easy to use as this program. XL Statistics is definitely the program for those of us who are not statistics professionals but have occasion to assess and illustrate statistics on opinion sampling, laboratory tests, product quality or inventory, or such. The most significant feature of the program is the ease of use. Most importantly, you do not need to guess which statistical tests are most appropriate for your data.
The program costs $30 Australian. Dr. Carr also provides prices in American dollars on his web site. The accompanying “Statistics In A Day” book that leads you thorough the program is $10 Australian. The 2.1 Meg XL Statistics program can be directly downloaded or received on a floppy disk. The “Statistics In A Day” book is also downloadable or on floppy. Once they have been received and paid for Dr. Carr provides a password by e-mail to unlock the program. There is also a free demo version of XL Statistics on the website as well. They can all be found at: http://www.man.deakin.edu.au/rodneyc/XLStats.htm. Dr. Carr is been very forthcoming and quite willing to answer questions. His e-mail address is: rodneyc@deakin.edu.au.
XL Statistics definitely meets the need for an easy to use statistical program at a very reasonable price.
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