Brief concept of Statistical Softwares

There are many softwares to perform statistical analysis and visualization of data. Some of them are SAS (System for Statistical Analysis), S-plus, R, Matlab, Minitab, BMDP, Stata, SPSS, StatXact, Statistica, LISREL, JMP, GLIM, HIL, MS Excel etc. We will discuss MS Excel and SPSS in brief. Some useful websites for more information of statistical softwareshttp://www.galaxy.gmu.edu/papers/astr1.html http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Rainer_Wuerlaender/ statsoft.htm#archiv http://www.R-project.org

Microsoft Excel
A Spreadsheet Application. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). There are many versions of MS-Excel. Excel XP, Excel 2003, Excel 2007 are capable of performing a number of statistical analyses. Starting MS Excel: Double click on the Microsoft Excel icon on the desktop or Click on Start --> Programs --> Microsoft Excel. Worksheet: Consists of a multiple grid of cells with numbered rows down the page and alphabetically-tilted columns across the page. Each cell is referenced by its coordinates. For example, A3 is used to refer to the cell in column A and row 3. B10:B20 is used to refer to the range of cells in column B and rows 10 through 20.

Microsoft Excel
Opening a document: File Open (From a existing workbook). Change the directory area or drive to look for file in other locations. Creating a new workbook: FileNewBlank Document Saving a File: FileSave Selecting more than one cell: Click on a cell e.g. A1), then hold the Shift key and click on another (e.g. D4) to select cells between and A1 and D4 or Click on a cell and drag the mouse across the desired range. Creating Formulas: 1. Click the cell that you want to enter the formula, 2. Type = (an equal sign), 3. Click the Function Button, 4. Select the formula you want and step through the on-screen instructions.

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Microsoft Excel
Entering Date and Time: Dates are stored as MM/DD/YYYY. No need to enter in that format. For example, Excel will recognize jan 9 or jan-9 as 1/9/2007 and jan 9, 1999 as 1/9/1999. To enter todays date, press Ctrl and ; together. Use a or p to indicate am or pm. For example, 8:30 p is interpreted as 8:30 pm. To enter current time, press Ctrl and : together. Copy and Paste all cells in a Sheet: Ctrl+A for selecting, Ctrl +C for copying and Ctrl+V for Pasting. Sorting: Data Sort Sort By Descriptive Statistics and other Statistical methods: ToolsData Analysis Statistical method. If Data Analysis is not available then click on Tools Add-Ins and then select Analysis ToolPack and Analysis toolPack-Vba

Microsoft Excel
Statistical and Mathematical Function: Start with = sign and then select function from function wizard f x . Inserting a Chart: Click on Chart Wizard (or InsertChart), select chart, give, Input data range, Update the Chart options, and Select output range/ Worksheet. Importing Data in Excel: File open FileType Click on File Choose Option ( Delimited/Fixed Width) Choose Options (Tab/ Semicolon/ Comma/ Space/ Other) Finish. Limitations: Excel uses algorithms that are vulnerable to rounding and truncation errors and may produce inaccurate results in extreme cases.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

A general purpose statistical package SPSS is widely used in the social sciences, particularly in sociology and psychology. SPSS can import data from almost any type of file to generate tabulated reports, plots of distributions and trends, descriptive statistics, and complex statistical analyzes. Starting SPSS: Double Click on SPSS on desktop or ProgramSPSS. Opening a SPSS file: FileOpen

MENUS AND TOOLBARS

Data Editor Various pull-down menus appear at the top of the Data Editor window. These pull-down menus are at the heart of using SPSSWIN. The Data Editor menu items (with some of the uses of the menu) are:

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

MENUS AND TOOLBARS
FILE EDIT used to open and save data files used to copy and paste data values; used to find data in a file; insert variables and cases; OPTIONS allows the user to set general preferences as well as the setup for the Navigator, Charts, etc. user can change toolbars; value labels can be seen in cells instead of data values

VIEW

DATA
TRANSFORM

select, sort or weight cases; merge files

Compute new variables, recode variables, etc.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

MENUS AND TOOLBARS ANALYZE GRAPHS UTILITIES ADD-ons WINDOW HELP perform various statistical procedures create bar and pie charts, etc add comments to accompany data file (and other, advanced features) these are features not currently installed (advanced statistical procedures) switch between data, syntax and navigator windows to access SPSSWIN Help information

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

MENUS AND TOOLBARS
Navigator (Output) Menus When statistical procedures are run or charts are created, the output will appear in the Navigator window. The Navigator window contains many of the pull-down menus found in the Data Editor window. Some of the important menus in the Navigator window include: INSERT FORMAT used to insert page breaks, titles, charts, etc. for changing the alignment of a particular portion of the output

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Formatting Toolbar

When a table has been created by a statistical procedure, the user can edit the table to create a desired look or add/delete information. Beginning with version 14.0, the user has a choice of editing the table in the Output or opening it in a separate Pivot Table (DEFINE!) window. Various pulldown menus are activated when the user double clicks on the table. These include:
EDIT undo and redo a pivot, select a table or table body (e.g., to change the font) used to insert titles, captions and footnotes used to perform a pivot of the row and column variables various modifications can be made to tables and cells

INSERT PIVOT FORMAT

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Additional menus CHART EDITOR SYNTAX EDITOR Show or hide a toolbar

used to edit a graph

used to edit the text in a syntax window

Click on VIEW TOOLBARS show it/ to hide it to

Move a toolbar Click on the toolbar (but not on one of the pushbuttons) and then drag the toolbar to its new location Customize a toolbar Click on VIEW TOOLBARS CUSTOMIZE

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Importing data from an EXCEL spreadsheet: Data from an Excel spreadsheet can be imported into SPSSWIN as follows: 1. In SPSSWIN click on FILE OPEN DATA. The OPEN DATA FILE Dialog Box will appear. 2. Locate the file of interest: Use the "Look In" pull-down list to identify the folder containing the Excel file of interest 3. From the FILE TYPE pull down menu select EXCEL (*.xls). 4. Click on the file name of interest and click on OPEN or simply double-click on the file name. 5. Keep the box checked that reads "Read variable names from the first row of data". This presumes that the first row of the Excel data file contains variable names in the first row. [If the data resided in a different worksheet in the Excel file, this would need to be entered.] 6. Click on OK. The Excel data file will now appear in the SPSSWIN Data Editor.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Importing data from an EXCEL spreadsheet: 7. The former EXCEL spreadsheet can now be saved as an SPSS file (FILE SAVE AS) and is ready to be used in analyses. Typically, you would label variable and values, and define missing values. Importing an Access table SPSSWIN does not offer a direct import for Access tables. Therefore, we must follow these steps: 1. Open the Access file 2. Open the data table 3. Save the data as an Excel file 4. Follow the steps outlined in the data import from Excel Spreadsheet to SPSSWIN. Importing Text Files into SPSSWIN Text data points typically are separated (or delimited) by tabs or commas. Sometimes they can be of fixed format.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Importing tab-delimited data In SPSSWIN click on FILE OPEN DATA. Look in the appropriate location for the text file. Then select Text from Files of type: Click on the file name and then click on Open. You will see the Text Import Wizard step 1 of 6 dialog box. You will now have an SPSS data file containing the former tab-delimited data. You simply need to add variable and value labels and define missing values.

Exporting Data to Excel click on FILE SAVE AS. Click on the File Name for the file to be exported. For the Save as Type select from the pull-down menu Excel (*.xls). You will notice the checkbox for write variable names to spreadsheet. Leave this checked as you will want the variable names to be in the first row of each column in the Excel spreadsheet. Finally, click on Save.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Running the FREQUENCIES procedure

1. Open the data file (from the menus, click on FILE OPEN DATA) of interest. 2. From the menus, click on ANALYZE DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS FREQUENCIES 3. The FREQUENCIES Dialog Box will appear. In the left-hand box will be a listing ("source variable list") of all the variables that have been defined in the data file. The first step is identifying the variable(s) for which you want to run a frequency analysis. Click on a variable name(s). Then click the [ > ] pushbutton. The variable name(s) will now appear in the VARIABLE[S]: box ("selected variable list"). Repeat these steps for each variable of interest. 4. If all that is being requested is a frequency table showing count, percentages (raw, adjusted and cumulative), then click on OK.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Requesting STATISTICS

Descriptive and summary STATISTICS can be requested for numeric variables. To request Statistics:
1. From the FREQUENCIES Dialog Box, click on the STATISTICS... pushbutton. 2. This will bring up the FREQUENCIES: STATISTICS Dialog Box.

3. The STATISTICS Dialog Box offers the user a variety of choices: DESCRIPTIVES
The DESCRIPTIVES procedure can be used to generate descriptive statistics (click on ANALYZE DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS DESCRIPTIVES). The procedure offers many of the same statistics as the FREQUENCIES procedure, but without generating frequency analysis tables.

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Requesting CHARTS One can request a chart (graph) to be created for a variable or variables included in a FREQUENCIES procedure. 1. In the FREQUENCIES Dialog box click on CHARTS. 2. The FREQUENCIES: CHARTS Dialog box will appear. Choose the intended chart (e.g. Bar diagram, Pie chart, histogram. Pasting charts into Word 1. Click on the chart. 2. Click on the pulldown menu EDIT COPY OBJECTS 3. Go to the Word document in which the chart is to be embedded. Click on EDIT PASTE SPECIAL 4. Select Formatted Text (RTF) and then click on OK 5. Enlarge the graph to a desired size by dragging one or more of the black squares along the perimeter (if the black squares are not visible, click once on the graph).

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

1. From the ANALYZE pull-down menu, click on DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS CROSSTABS. 2. The CROSSTABS Dialog Box will then open.
3. From the variable selection box on the left click on a variable you wish to designate as the Row variable. The values (codes) for the Row variable make up the rows of the crosstabs table. Click on the arrow (>) button for Row(s). Next, click on a different variable you wish to designate as the Column variable. The values (codes) for the Column variable make up the columns of the crosstabstable. Click on the arrow (>) button for Column(s). 4. You can specify more than one variable in the Row(s) and/or Column(s). A cross table will be generated for each combination of Row and Column variables

BASIC STATISTICAL PROCEDURES: CROSSTABS

Statistics Package for the Social Science (SPSS)

Limitations: SPSS users have less control over data manipulation and statistical output than other statistical packages such as SAS, Stata etc. SPSS is a good first statistical package to perform quantitative research in social science because it is easy to use and because it can be a good starting point to learn more advanced statistical packages.