Difference between revisions of "Documentation/How Tos/Calc: FTEST function"
From Apache OpenOffice Wiki
< Documentation | How Tos
(→FTEST) |
m (Reverted edits by Don alessandro (Talk) to last revision by Mwaller) |
||
| Line 2: | Line 2: | ||
== FTEST == | == FTEST == | ||
| − | + | Returns the result of an F-test. | |
=== Syntax: === | === Syntax: === | ||
Revision as of 16:34, 17 November 2009
FTEST
Returns the result of an F-test.
Syntax:
FTEST(data1; data2)
- data1 and data2 are ranges or arrays (possibly of different size) containing numbers, on which the F-test is performed. The F-test calculates the likelihood that two samples have the same variance.
- In effect, the sample variances of data1 and data2 are calculated. data1 and data2 are re-ordered if necessary so that data1 has the larger variance (σ1) and data2 the smaller (σ2), and an F_value is calculated as σ1/σ2. The result returned by FTEST is 2*FDIST(F_value; COUNT(data1)-1; COUNT(data2)-1). This is the two-tailed probability that the variances in data1 and data2 are not significantly different. (The internal algorithms used by Calc are more sophisticated than this).
- Advanced topic:
- The parameters data1 and data2 are always evaluated as array formulas.
Example:
FTEST({9;8;6;8}; {5;6;7})
- returns approximately 0.82. The probability that the variances of these two samples are not significantly different is about 82%. Note: a real world example would need more data than this.
Issues:
- Earlier versions of Excel and the ODFF draft specification incorrectly claimed this was a one-tailed test.
