

See also:
Version 5.5 FAQ
Version 6 FAQ
Version 7.1 FAQ
Version 8 FAQ
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User-Exchange Forum/Library of STATISTICA BASIC programs (Version 5.5). A library of example programs (many of which were written by users of STATISTICA) is available (see User-Exchange Forum/Library of STATISTICA BASIC Programs). These programs include a wide variety of advanced illustrations of how to create highly customized reports, graphs, follow-up analyses that use STATISTICA output as input, and how to design your own complete application programs (e.g., statistical procedures) with user interface, and Scrollsheet and graphics output.
Library of Visual Basic Examples (Version 5.5). A library of example programs which show how to call STATISTICA (including STATISTICA BASIC) is available (see Visual Basic/STATISTICA Interface Programs). These programs include examples of calling STATISTICA from within Visual Basic, calling STATISTICA BASIC from within in Visual Basic and managing STATISTICA files from within Visual Basic via STATISTICA Development Environment.
Library of STADEV example programs (Version 5.5). A library of STADEV example programs is available (see STADEV Example Programs). These programs include illustrations on using STADEV in a variety of programming environments including Visual C++, Visual BASIC, Delphi, and STATISTICA BASIC.
On-line documentation (Electronic Manual). The quickest way to obtain comprehensive information on each of the topics mentioned here (including examples and technical notes) is to use the STATISTICA Electronic Manual -- that is, the context-sensitive Electronic Manual accessible by pressing the toolbar Help button, the F1 key, or double-clicking on the status bar (on the bottom of the STATISTICA window). The Electronic Manual offers Hypertext facilities, contains a Glossary, and provides a complete reference to all features of the system.
StatSoft Home Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS
Troubleshooting problems during installation of STATISTICA
Troubleshooting STATISTICA Electronic Manual problems
Troubleshooting general problems running STATISTICA
Troubleshooting problems with data import into STATISTICA
Troubleshooting problems with Animated Overviews
DATA MANAGEMENT
Cases, Variables, Formats
Text Values, Value Labels
Operations on Blocks of Values
Splitting and Merging Files
Formulas, Data Transformations, Recoding, Verifying, Cleaning Data
Analyses, On-line Statistics
Import, Export, DDE
General
SCROLLSHEETS
SAVING AND PRINTING REPORTS
GRAPHICS
General
Graph Customization - General Features
Graph Customization - Scales
Graph Customization - Titles, Legends, Custom Text
Fitting, Plotting Functions
Brushing, Interactive Analysis
3D Displays - Interactive Analysis
Compound Graphs, Embedding, Multiple Graph Management, Clipboard
Printing Graphs
GENERAL USER-INTERFACE CONVENTIONS
KEYBOARD INTERFACE
MOUSE CONVENTIONS
STATISTICS
STATISTICA Development Environment
STATISTICA BASIC
The STATISTICA Concurrent Network Version workstation (i.e., client) installation finishes successfully.
But I receive an error message that says "Active-X component cannot create object" when I try to logon to
STATISTICA for the first time from this workstation.
Under certain circumstances, the installation procedure does not successfully install a necessary
system update. If you receive this error message, please download a supplementary installation routine
called fix_COMDLG32.exe. This additional setup program is to be run, on each machine that experiences the
problem, after the Concurrent Network Version workstation installation is completed.
At the end of the installation procedure (before installing ODBC drivers) a General Protection Fault error message is issued and the installation process is aborted. How can I install STATISTICA correctly on my computer?
This problem is occasionally reported when STATISTICA tries to install ODBC-related dynamic link libraries (DLL) in your WINDOWS/SYSTEM directory where older versions of these files already exist. There are two workaround solutions to this problem:
After the installation procedure I get an error message about a DDE communication failure and the setup program is aborted. Does this mean that STATISTICA is not correctly installed on my computer?
No, STATISTICA is correctly installed on your system. However, we received occasional reports of this non-fatal error message. It usually indicates that the setup program could not create a STATISTICA program group. You can easily create a STATISTICA program group (Windows 3.x) or desktop shortcuts for your STATISTICA modules (Windows 95/NT 4.0) yourself. For details on how to create a program group or shortcuts (desktop icons) please consult your Windows documentation or the STATISTICA Quick Reference.
I tried to run the setup program, but I got the following error message: "Cannot find _mssetup.exe." and the installation failed. What did I do wrong?
This error message only occurs when installing STATISTICA from 3.5" diskettes. You have most likely accidentally deleted the file _msssetup.exe which is located on your first installation disk by trying to execute it. Since this file is vital for the setup program, you need to obtain a copy of this file and put it onto your first installation disk. If the file does not fit on your first disk, you can move the txt files to another location in order to free up disk space.
Note that the file _mssetup.exe is available in the DOWNLOAD area of our web site.
After installing STATISTICA on a system running Windows NT, every time I try to run the program I get a message saying the environment is too large. What is the problem?
This problem used to occur on some installations of Windows NT 3.xx; however, it has been corrected in programs which were purchased after July 20, 1997. Contact StatSoft at info@statsoft.com for more details.
When I try to access the Electronic Manual for STATISTICA, I receive the following message: "Cannot display this help file. Try opening the help file again, and if you still get this message, copy the help file to a different drive, and try again. (136)." How can I access the Electronic Manual?
According to ms, this behavior can occur if the help file you are trying to open is currently open on a computer running ms Windows NT. It appears to us that the problem is more generic and happens as users try to access shared files. It also seems to be fixed if you delete the STATHELP.GID file which is located in the STATISTICA program directory. The STATHELP.GID file is an index of keywords that Windows generates to optimize access to the help files. Deleting will only cause Windows 95 or NT to create it again.
When I print a 3D graph in STATISTICA the scale labels are missing, even though the graph looks fine on the screen. How can I print the complete graph?
This problem is occasionally reported with some printers under Windows NT. It usually occurs if your printer driver does not support a 3D representation of fonts properly. In order to print out the 3D graph correctly, de-activate the 3D Text check box in the General Layout dialog for the graph. You may also contact your printer manufacturer or hardware dealer for updated printer driver versions.
When I try to run STATISTICA I receive a message "Cannot read from drive A." If I click on Cancel, STATISTICA opens with the a new empty spreadsheet. What is the problem?
You probably saved a STATISTICA data file on a diskette the last time you exited the program. STATISTICA usually keeps a log of the recently used files and opens the last file that you saved. Therefore, the program is looking for the last file on the A: drive (or any other removable media drive). However, if your floppy disk drive is currently empty, STATISTICA cannot find it. If you have set the number of entries in the list of recently used files to 1 in the STATISTICA: General Defaults dialog, this message can reoccur everytime you open STATISTICA. In order to prevent it, you can either temporarily set the number of recently used files to 0 or delete the STATIST.INI file (STATISTICA will recreate this file next time you open the program). Note however, that you will lose customized STATISTICA settings if you delete the INI file. Alternatively, you might modify the list of the recently used files in the [file list] section of the STATIST.INI file.
I run Windows 95/NT, but all of sudden my dialogs for opening or saving files in STATISTICA appear in Windows 3.1 fashion. Also, long file names are not supported any longer. How can I make STATISTICA behave like a Windows 95 application again?
There are two possible solutions to this problem. First check you Statist.ini file for "LongNames=number" This turns off the long file names in STATISTICA. Removing this line from the Statist.ini file and placing Sta_lfn.exe in the STATISTICA directory (C:/STAT by default) will ensure that STATISTICA continues to use long file names.
If the line described above is not in your Statist.ini file, your registry information is probably damaged. STATISTICA runs on multiple Windows versions including 3.xx, Win95, and NT. If your STATISTICA registry information is damaged, it might not recognize your operating system as Windows 95 and therefore defaults to Windows 3.xx behavior. You need to re-install STATISTICA again in order to have it behave like a Windows 95 application.
Question: When launching STATISTICA under Windows NT, I get a "cannot run XX-bit application" message.
Cause: This problem may occur when a program attempts to access an incorrect version, outdated, missing, or damaged DLL file.
Resolution: Expand the following files from the original Windows NT compact disc to
the
Compobj.dll
NOTE: The Ver.dll file is located in the %SystemRoot%\System folder and
the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder, and both versions have the same file size
and date.
To complete this file "expansion" from the NT4.0 CD carry out the following steps:
[Note: it is very important to make sure you have a good emergency repair disk for your NT 4.0 workstation before you complete the following steps.]
Why do I get an error message when trying to import a Paradox (.db) file?
Why do I get strange values for my date variable when I import a SPSS portable file into STATISTICA?
I am unable to use the ODBC option with ms Access 7.0. What do I do?
I am trying to import a large ASCII file via Quick Import and the import fails. How can I import the file?
Every time I try to import a certain Excel file into STATISTICA, I get a General Protection Fault error message ("This program has performed an illegal operation.") and STATISTICA crashes. What am I doing wrong?
Troubleshooting problems with Animated Overviews
When I run the Animated Overviews they seem to run fine from the CD, but I
cannot run them from the Help menu. What is the problem?
We have received questions about this and the problem occurs for a few
different reasons and applies to network server/client type installations.
During a server installation, STATISTICA copies the "multimed.ini" file to the
network directory located on the server. In contrast, STATISTICA
does not install the "multimed.ini" file to any of the clients.
To get around this when performing a Server/Workstation installation, we suggest
to map a drive letter to the directory on the server that contains the STATISTICA
installation files. Then, reinstall using the workstation setup directory, "wrkinst."
To map the drive letter, use these steps:
1. Open Windows Explorer
How to add/delete variables (columns of data):
How to add/delete cases (rows of data):
How to select (highlight) the entire spreadsheet:
How to edit the contents of a cell (and not overwrite it):
How are dates
represented in STATISTICA data files?
How is time represented in
STATISTICA data files?
How to use date-values as codes (e.g., as values of grouping variables):
How to convert date-values into text values and vice-versa:
How
to review and edit variable specifications (names, formats, notes,
formulas, etc.):
How
are Missing Data handled in STATISTICA?
How to change the Missing Data code for individual variables:
How can I create a variable which contains the values 1 through n, in a random order without repetition?
Can I use complex case selection conditions?
How can I generate subgroup identifiers (codes) for my quality control charts?
I have a data file (spreadsheet) with many (e.g., 400) variables. I would like to change the number of decimals that appear for all of the data. I know how to change the values for each variable, but is there a quick way to change the format for all variables?
How do I remove cases that have values greater than 2.5 (or some other multiple) of standard deviation for a variable (or set of variables)?
What is the "double notation" (text/numeric) of values?
How
to enter/edit the assignments between numeric and text values:
How to switch between displaying text and numeric values in the data
spreadsheet:
What are value labels?
How to display/edit the value labels:
How to copy a set of numeric/text
value assignments and long value labels to other variables and
other files:
Clipboard and Drag-and-Drop operations
in the spreadsheet
I imported a file from Excel into STATISTICA. I want to change the default numerical assignment given to my Gender variable. How do I change "Male" from 100 to 1 and "Female" from 101 to 2?
What are the Drag-and-Drop facilities?
How to rearrange blocks of data or ranges of cases and variables in
a data file:
How to expand a block in the spreadsheet
outside the current screen:
How to expand the data file size by using Drag-and-Drop:
How to split a STATISTICA data file into smaller files (how to
create subfiles):
How to merge two STATISTICA data files:
Can
I merge the long value labels (or text/numeric value assignments)
from two files?
How to calculate (transform) values of a variable:
Can STATISTICA automatically recalculate all spreadsheet
formulas when the data change?
How to generate values from a normally distributed random variable?
What
is the simplest way to recode values
of a variable (e.g., split a continuous variable into categories)?
How to create values of a new variable based on conditions met by other
variables:
How to verify and "clean" data:
Custom data verification and cleaning facilities:
How to perform a multiple sort:
How to rank-order values of a variable
(replace values with their ranks):
How to transpose data (convert cases into variables):
How to automatically fill ranges of data in the spreadsheet:
How does the extrapolation of blocks (AutoFill) work?
How to standardize values in a block:
I have noticed that when I use an ArcSin transformation in a STATISTICA spreadsheet formula, the results are given in radians, not degrees. Is there anyway I can change this?
How to select variables for an analysis:
Can variables be selected for analyses by highlighting them
in the spreadsheet?
How to select a subset of cases (observations) to be included
in an analysis:
How are the Case Selection Conditions stored/saved?
What
is the quickest way to review basic descriptive statistics for
a variable?
What is the quickest way to review ordinal descriptive statistics (median,
quartiles) for a variable in the spreadsheet or Scrollsheet?
What is the quickest way to review a sorted list of all values of a variable?
What
are Quick Basic Stats?
What are Block Stats?
Can matrix data (e.g., correlations or covariances) instead of
raw data be used for input?
How do I create a control chart for a data file where each column represents an observation in a sample? For example, I have 20 samples, each of size 5, so my data file has 20 rows and 5 columns.
How to access data from Excel and other foreign data files:
How to export data from STATISTICA to Excel and other foreign
data files:
Can STATISTICA access data from mainframe databases?
Does STATISTICA support ODBC?
How to set up DDE
(Dynamic Data Exchange) links between STATISTICA
and files created by other Windows applications:
DDE with Excel 7.0: Troubleshooting
Why do I get an error message when trying to import a Paradox (.db) file?
Why do I get strange values for my date variable when I import a SPSS
portable file into STATISTICA?
I am unable to use the ODBC option with ms Access 7.0. What do I do?
I am trying to import a large ASCII file via Quick Import and the import fails.
I am trying to establish a DDE link with another dataset and I get a "DDE Init
Failed" error message. The link is not established.
What are Workbooks?
Can I open more than one input data file simultaneously?
What is the STATISTICA File Server?
Does STATISTICA
support Drag-and-Drop opening of data files and graphs?
How much disk space is necessary to
perform database management operations?
In what circumstances does STATISTICA
issue the "Disk full" message?
What are the differences between the data management options accessible
in every module and the Data Management module?
What is
Megafile Manager?
Can I Undo editing operations?
How to restore an inadvertently overwritten
data file:
What is the difference between the Output header and the File
headers?
What are Scrollsheets?
What
are the differences between Scrollsheets and spreadsheets?
What
is the Scrollsheet queue?
How to keep a Scrollsheet from being replaced in the queue:
What is the difference between locking and saving Scrollsheets?
How to save a Scrollsheet:
Ddeml.dll
Ole2.dll
Ole2disp.dll
Storage.dll
Ctl3dv2.Dll
Ole2nls.dll
Stdole.tlb
Typelib.dll
Ver.dll
Troubleshooting problems with data import
I cannot create a DDE link with Excel. Every time I try to create the link I get an error message about a DDE initialization failure and a DDE Error dialog comes up. How can I establish the link?
This behavior is occasionally reported on some systems which have Excel 95 (Excel 7.0) or Excel 97 installed. The statement defining the link for older Excel versions (5.0) is specified as application, file, and range, and as part of the range you can specify in which sheet the data are located. However, the DDE server in Excel 95 or Excel 97 may produce a nonstandard statement (it includes a different specification of the sheet, and the link cannot be established; i.e., the Paste Link option in the Edit menu does not produce a working DDE link).
The first fix is to choose the Automatic Load option in the DDE Error dialog and then edit the statement (generated by Excel) that defines the link (in STATISTICA) by deleting out the nonstandard specification of the sheet. This statement is can usually be found in the Long Name section of the variable specifications dialog for the first variable. For example, if the DDE server creates the following link,
@Excel|C:\EXCEL\[DATA.XLS]Sheet1!R1C1:R11C1
you will need to delete the reference to Sheet1 in order for the link to be established. The link would then be
@Excel|C:\EXCEL\DATA.XLS!R1C1:R11C1
You can also edit links in the All Specs dialog (accessible via the All Specs spreadsheet toolbar button) or the Link Manager dialog (available by selecting Edit..Links from the Edit pull down menu. The limitation here is that you can only create a link with the first sheet in any Excel 95/97 file. If your data are in sheet one, this is not a problem. If the data are not in sheet one, you would need to link the data to a new Excel 95/97 file and place them in sheet number one.
The STATISTICA Quick Import facility does not support files from Paradox, release 5.0. The file must first be saved as either an earlier version Paradox file or as a .dbf (dBase) file. However, the ODBC interface may be used to import data from Paradox 5.0 directly.
STATISTICA stores date values in the standard Julian format while SPSS uses a different format. To resolve the problem after importing the SPSS portable file into STATISTICA convert the values into the standard Julian format. Enter the following statement:
=(v1-10010304000)/86400+1
into the Long Name section of the Variable Specs dialog for the date variable.
Windows 95 is shipped without an installation facility for ODBC drivers. You must obtain a special installation disk from ms. This file is also available from their BBS under the filename GE1263.exe. After you’ve extracted this file, you may use the following procedure to use your ms Access ODBC driver with STATISTICA functions.
Make sure you do not copy any ODBC32.dll file to your STATISTICA directory. This would lead to problems if the version you copied is not of the same date as the files currently installed.
Quick Import is limited to data files of small to moderate size. For large data files, you should use the Import Data—More option which is available only in the Data Management module.
This behavior can also happen with other source applications. It is most likely that you are trying to import a corrupted or damaged file. First of all, you should try to import any other file and see whether the same behavior occurs. If this is the case, you might have to re-install the source application and/or STATISTICA.
If the behavior is specific to one file, you should open the file in its source application (e.g. Excel), copy the contents into the Clipboard, paste it into an empty spreadsheet and save it under a new file name. Should the problem occur rather frequently, it's generally recommended to check your hard drive by using SCANDISK or advanced disk utilities.
2. Click on Tools (located on the Windows Explorer title bar)
3. Next, select Map Network Drive.
4. Depending on where your server installation is located, assign a Drive letter and Path to your
STATISTICA Installation directoryDATA MANAGEMENT
Cases, Variables, Formats
What are cases and variables?
STATISTICA data files are organized into cases and variables.
If you are not familiar with this notation you can think of cases
as the equivalent of records in a database management program
(or rows of a spreadsheet), and of variables as the equivalent
of fields (columns of a spreadsheet). Each case consists of a
set of values of variables.
Refer to the first section of this manual for information on the
organization of data files in STATISTICA.
GENDER AGE TEST1 TEST2 case 1 male 34 12 71.4 case 2 female 35 13 66.1 case 3 female 35 12 86.1 case 4 male 28 10 88.5 case 5 female 30 14 91.0 case 6 male 31 12 98.0
Variables may be added to and/or deleted from a data file either
by (1) using the Drag-and-Drop operation (
insert to add columns), or (2) selecting an appropriate option from
the spreadsheet menu of global operations on variables
accessible by pressing the Vars button on the spreadsheet
toolbar. For more information on those operations, see the section on
Drag-and-Drop, and the spreadsheet toolbar.
How to add variables before variable 1. The quickest way
to add variables before variable 1 is to use the Insert
action of the Drag-and-Drop facilities; you
can also add variables after variable 1 and then move variable
1 after those variables.
Cases may be added to and/or deleted from a data file either by
(1) using the Drag-and-Drop operation
(insert to add cases),
or (2) selecting an appropriate option from the spreadsheet
menu of global operations on cases accessible by pressing
the Cases button on the spreadsheet toolbar.
For more information on those operations, see the section on Drag-and-Drop,
and the spreadsheet toolbar.
How to add cases before case 1. The quickest way to add
cases before case 1 is to use the Insert action of the
Drag-and-Drop facilities; you can also add
cases after case 1 and then move case 1 after those cases.
Following the standard spreadsheet convention, click in the upper-left
corner of the spreadsheet. This shortcut is useful, for example,
when you intend to copy the entire file to the Clipboard. Note
that by clicking twice in the upper-left corner, you will de-select
(i.e., select and then de-select) the entire spreadsheet.
Double-click on the cell. To avoid clearing the contents
of the cell (at the point when you start entering a correction),
before you start typing, first double-click on the cell. This
will enter the editing mode and will position the cursor
within the cell.
Press F2. Alternatively, you can follow the "old"
spreadsheet convention and press the F2 key, which will also enter
the edit mode for the currently highlighted cell.
Date values of variables are internally stored in Julian format,
that is, as a single integer value that represents the number
of days that have passed since January 1, 1900; for example a
date entered and displayed as 1/21/1968 will be stored
as the Julian date 24858; the (optional) decimals are interpreted
as time (see the next topic). Date values stored in this manner
can be used in subsequent analyses (e.g., in Survival Analysis
in order to calculate survival times, see below) and transformed
using arithmetic operations; at the same time, they can be displayed
as dates in reports or graphs (e.g., used to label scale values).
Julian date values can be displayed in the spreadsheet in numeric
(Julian) format or in one of several pre-defined date display
formats (e.g., 1/6/64, 6-Jan-64, Jan-1964,
01/06/64, 01/06/1964, 6-Jan).
To change the date display format, select the Date format
option in the Current Specs dialog (accessible by double-clicking
on the variable name in the spreadsheet or from the spreadsheet
Edit pull-down menu) and choose one of the pre-defined
display formats.
When entering dates into a new variable, you will first need to
change the variable display format from Number (the default
format) to Date in the Current Specs dialog and
select the desired date display format. Now, you can enter the
dates in any of the pre-defined date display formats (i.e., enter
the dates in the format that is easiest to key in, even if it
is different than the desired display format) and STATISTICA
will recognize those formats, convert the display to the desired
date format, and internally store the date values in Julian format.
Please refer to the on-line Electronic Manual for more
detailed information on entering new or pasting copied date values
into the data file.
You can create a single date variable from two (month, year or
day, month) or three (day, month, year) variables as well as split
a single date variable into two or three variables in the Date
Operations dialog accessible from the Date Values option
in the spreadsheet Vars pull-down menu.
Please refer to the on-line Electronic Manual (click the
Help button or press the F1 key in the Variable Specifications
dialog) for examples of creating date variables from numeric variables
and splitting date variables into numeric variables.
Time values of variables are stored as (optional) decimal values
representing the fraction of the day since midnight; for example,
6:00AM is stored as 0.25. Time values stored in
this manner can be used in subsequent analyses and transformed
using arithmetic operations; at the same time, they can be displayed
as times in reports or graphs (e.g., used to label scale values).
STATISTICA will format the display of time values according
to the current settings in the International - Time Format
option of the Windows Control Panel.
Please refer to the on-line Electronic Manual (click the
Help button or press the F1 key in the Variable Specifications
dialog) for examples of creating time variables from numeric variables
and splitting time variables into numeric variables.
Some procedures in STATISTICA require that values of grouping
variables (codes) be less than 32,000, i.e., less than the Julian
values of some dates [this does not apply to grouping codes used
in all Stats (and Quick Stats) Graphs procedures,
Quick Basic Stats, Quality Control, Experimental
Design, Process Analysis, and other procedures]. In
order to use date values as codes smaller than 32,000, convert
them into text values using the facility described below.
In some circumstances it may be useful to create text values with
date information (e.g., when using a date variable as a coding
variable with codes smaller than 32,000, see the previous topic).
In this case, you can transform the date variable into a variable
containing date text values with numeric equivalents in a range
that will allow them to be used as codes by all procedures of
STATISTICA (i.e., numeric values less than 32,000). Use
the Text Values/Dates dialog to convert dates into codes.
This dialog is accessible by pressing the Text Values/Dates
button in the Date Operations dialog.
Specifications of a single variable. Double-clicking on
the variable name in the spreadsheet will open a variable specifications
dialog where you can change the variable name, format, missing
data value, long label, formula,
or a DDE link for the current variable.
(As in most other facilities commonly used in STATISTICA, alternatively,
this dialog can also be accessed from the toolbar, flying menus
called by the right-mouse-button, and the pull-down menus.)
The dialog can also be used to access graphs, descriptive statistics,
and a listing of sorted numeric and text values for the current
variable (press the button Values/Stats or Graphs).
From this dialog, you can also access the Text Values Manager
(press the Text Values button) to review and change the
assignments between the text and numeric values for the current
variable.
Specifications of all variables. You can also press the
Variable Specifications button on the spreadsheet toolbar
or the All Specs button in the dialog shown above), to
bring up an editable, combined table of specifications of all
variables in the current data file.
The table format is convenient when you need to compare or edit
specifications of several variables, especially when you need
to paste and copy between variables (e.g., comments, formulas,
or links), or extend a format definition or missing data code
from one variable to subsequent variables (use the Fill Block
Down option from the flying menu).
Specifying Missing Data codes. A Missing Data
code, that is, a value which signifies that there is no data
for a particular case and variable (displayed as a blank cell
in the spreadsheet) can be specified separately for each variable.
To change the code, double-click on a variable name in the spreadsheet
to access the Variable Specifications dialog for that variable.
Alternatively, you can press the Combined Variable Specifications
button on the spreadsheet toolbar to access a combined table for
all variables (see above). The default Missing Data code
in STATISTICA (used when new files are created, new variables
are added, or data are imported) is -9999.
Processing cases with Missing Data. The way in
which missing data are handled when processing data can be adjusted
individually for each analysis (see the field MD deletion
in most analysis-definition dialogs). Whenever applicable, the
user has the choice to eliminate them from calculations in a casewise
or pairwise manner, substitute them with means, or reconstruct
or interpolate them (e.g., in the Time Series module).
Press the Help button or the F1 key in the respective analysis-definition
dialog to learn about the specific missing data handling options
available for the procedures of interest.
The value used to designate missing data values
for individual variables can be changed in all variable specification dialogs
(the default value is -9999; see also the section
on reviewing and editing variable specifications).
First, create a variable with random numbers between 0 and 1. You can do this with the spreadsheet formula =rnd(1). Then rank those numbers using the Rank option with sequential Ranks for Ties (this option will ensure that there is no repetition), available from the Vars toolbar button.
Yes, Case Selection Conditions can be used to set user-specified conditions (of practically unlimited complexity), which define a subset of cases on which to base an analysis (without physically subsetting the data file).
The Case Selection Conditions dialog can be accessed either by clicking on the Sel option from the Status Bar (on the bottom of the STATISTICA application window), clicking on the Select Cases button on the Startup Panel or an analysis definition dialog, or by choosing the Select option from the Options pull-down menu.
Logical conditions can be entered or edited in this dialog. Complex selection conditions can be created using logical operators and parentheses. For example,
Exclude if: (v1<=10) OR (GENDER=’MALE’)
This condition would exclude from an analysis those cases where the value of variable number 1 was less than or equal to 10 or those cases where the values of the variable GENDER equaled MALE.
A spreadsheet formula can be used to generate subgroup identifiers. For example, the formula:
=trunc((v0-1)/n)+1
where n is the number of times to repeat each value, can be used to generate the codes. For example, when n=4, then the following values (codes) of the grouping variable will be generated: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3,...
Note that the constant sample size option can also be used (instead of a grouping variable).
Yes, the number of decimals that appear for all of the data (or a range of variables) can be changed by pressing the toolbar Specs of All Variables (Table) button (or selecting the Vars toolbar button, and choosing All Specs), changing the format for the first variable of the range to be modified (e.g., 4.3 to 4.6 to add 3 decimal places), highlighting the desired range of variables in the Format column, clicking the right-mouse button, and choosing Fill Block Down. All formats in the selected block will be automatically modified.
You can write a STATISTICA BASIC program, using if then statements to find out which values are outside of +/-2.5 standard deviations and use the Delete command in Sequential Mode to delete those cases.
Text Values, Value Labels
In STATISTICA, each value may have two identities: numeric
(e.g., 1) and text (e.g., Male). This double notation
simplifies the use of text values. For example, when entering
data, you could enter the values 1 and 2 in variable
Gender to refer to males and females, respectively. Later,
you can type Male into any cell containing a 1,
and at the point when you complete the entry, all 1's in
this column will automatically change to Male. In other
words, because 1 did not have a text equivalent, the program
will understand that you intended to assign the text value Male
to 1 in this variable. You can repeat the same steps for
2 and Female.
This feature simplifies entering text values; at the same time
you do not lose any advantages of using the numeric data (they
can still be used in subsequent numeric analyses). For more information,
see also the next topic.
Normally, the assignments between text and numeric values are
handled automatically as you enter or edit data in the spreadsheet
(see the previous topic). However, in some circumstances, you
may want to review, edit or restructure all assignments of values
for a particular variable or copy text/numeric assignments from
one variable to another. These operations can be performed in
the Text Values Manager (accessible by pressing its respective
button on the spreadsheet toolbar, by pressing the Text Values
button in the variable specifications dialog for a particular
variable; or from a flying menu (accessible by pressing
the right-mouse-button anywhere on the respective variable in
the spreadsheet).
The Text Values Manager allows you to sort the assignments
by text or numeric values, perform the Fill Down operation
(to automatically reassign numeric values to text values), Copy
numeric/text assignments from other variables or from case names,
and perform other operations (press the Help button or
the F1 key in this dialog to access the Electronic Manual).
As explained in the previous two topics, STATISTICA supports
a double notation of values, where each value of a particular
variable can simultaneously have a numeric and text identity.
You can select a display of text or numeric values using a toggle
switch button on the spreadsheet toolbar.
Value labels are comments or descriptions (up to 40 characters
long) that can be assigned to specific text/numeric values in
STATISTICA datasets. Each value of a variable can have
a label assigned to it. Value labels can be displayed and edited
directly in the spreadsheet (as well as in the Text Values
Manager dialog). Value labels are automatically used in the
output of all analyses which involve individual values (e.g.,
frequencies, crosstabulations, breakdowns, etc.).
To display value labels in the spreadsheet, press the button while
holding down the CTRL key or select the Text Values - Value
Labels option in the spreadsheet View pull-down menu.
Value labels can also be reviewed/edited in the Text Values
Manager, accessible by pressing the Text Values Manager
toolbar button.
One of the options available in the Text Values Manager
allows you to copy to the current variable the text values from
other variables or from case names (see the Copy from box
in the Text Values Manager dialog).
When you need to copy the numeric/text value assignments and long
value labels from one file to another, use the Merge files
facility (in the Data Management module). One of the merge
options available from the merge type selection dialog allows
you to concatenate or replace text values with values from another
file (see the topic on this merge option).
When you copy or move a block in the spreadsheet, the values which
are copied to the Clipboard will depend on the display mode of
the spreadsheet. If the spreadsheet is displaying numeric values
(or value labels) when the block is copied to the Clipboard, then
only those numeric values (or value labels) will be copied to
the Clipboard. If the spreadsheet is displaying text values when
the block is copied to the Clipboard, then not only are the text
values copied to the Clipboard, but also the corresponding numeric
values and value labels (if any). This may result in the assignment
of text values to numeric values that did not previously have text value equivalents.
First, click on the Gender variable and then press the Vars toolbar button and select Recode. Under Category 1 type Gender=100 and set the resulting value to 1. Analogously, for Category 2, type Gender=101 and set the numeric value to 2. Then go back into the Text Values Manager (e.g. double-click on the variable name in the spreadsheet and select the Text Values button) and change the numeric values associated with "Male" and "Female" from 100 to 1 and 101 to 2, respectively. Click OK and the text values will be correctly associated with the new numeric assignments.
Operations on Blocks of Values
STATISTICA supports the complete set of standard spreadsheet
(Excel-style) Drag-and-Drop facilities, as summarized below.
For information on variable-speed scrolling while dragging a
selection, and extending blocks outside the current window, please
refer to the topic on variable speed highlighting.
Moving a block. A selected block of data may be moved
by pointing to the border of the selection (the cross-cursor will
change to an arrow) and dragging it to the new location.
Copying a block. A block may be copied by pointing to
the border of the selection (the cross-cursor will change to an
arrow) and pressing the CTRL key (a "plus" sign will
appear next to the cursor) while dragging it to the new location.
The default action which occurs when dragging a block without
pressing the CTRL key may be changed from moving to copying in
the STATISTICA Defaults:General dialog.
Inserting a block. You may insert a
block between rows or columns by pressing the SHIFT key while
dragging the block and pointing the cursor between rows or columns
(if you also press the CTRL key, the block will be copied and
inserted instead of moved and inserted; a plus will
appear next to the arrow-cursor as in the Drag-and-Drop
copy operation, as shown in the illustration below).
Clearing a block. A portion (or an entire) block can be
cleared by dragging within a selected block (dimming the values
to be deleted when you release the mouse).
Extrapolating a block (AutoFill). Values within
a block may be extrapolated by using intelligent, Excel-style,
series extension facilities (see below).
Numeric values are extrapolated using linear regression, text
values are extrapolated following meaningful sequences (e.g.,
Q1, Q2, Q3, ..., or JAN, FEB,
MAR, ...), see extrapolating blocks
for more information.
There are three types of these operations: Clipboard-based, Global,
and Drag-and-Drop-based; they operate differently and may
produce different effects.
Clipboard-based operations. Clipboard-based operations
(invoked via the standard Clipboard keyboard, toolbar, or menu-commands)
affect only the contents of blocks of data, rows, or columns,
and they do not influence the overall size of the data file (e.g.,
they may empty a column but will not remove the column from the
spreadsheet).
The Global operations. The Global operations
option (accessible from the pull-down menu or the spreadsheet
Vars and Cases toolbar buttons) are performed on
entire rows or columns as "units;" for example, they
will move or delete entire columns and not only their contents.
Drag-and-Drop operations. STATISTICA
supports the standard (ms Excel-style) selection of Drag-and-Drop
facilities, allowing you to easily perform both Clipboard-style
(but without using the Clipboard) and Global (if the insert
mode is invoked by pressing the SHIFT key) operations; for details
see the previous topic.
Blocks may be selected (1) by drag-selecting (holding down the
left-mouse-button) with the mouse, (2) by clicking in one corner
of the block to be highlighted, then scrolling to the desired
opposite corner (the original cell will remain selected) and pressing
the SHIFT key while clicking in that cell, or (3) by holding down
the SHIFT key while using the cursor keys on the keyboard. To
expand a previously-selected block, you may use the SHIFT-cursor
key, or scroll the display with the mouse and press the SHIFT
key while clicking in the desired corner of the block. To highlight
a large block in "split-pane" mode (as shown below),
click in a cell in one pane, then scroll to display the diagonally
opposite corner in another pane and use SHIFT-click to select
the block.
Variable speed of block
highlighting. Note that you can control the speed at which you
scroll when you extend a block outside the current display window.
By moving the cursor a short distance away from the spreadsheet
(or Scrollsheet), you can scroll one line at a time when a block
is selected; you can scroll one page at a time by moving the cursor
further away from the spreadsheet (or Scrollsheet).
If you drag a block past the current boundary of the spreadsheet,
the data file will expand to make room for the new data. You can
also expand the spreadsheet by using the Insert operation.
This operation will insert the block between cases
or variables, thereby increasing the size of the spreadsheet.
Note that whether you move, copy, or insert new cases or variables,
when the block contains only part of a variable or case, then
STATISTICA will fill the remaining values in the variable/case
with missing data.
Note that if you work with large data files (e.g., more than 10
megabytes), you may wish to enable the option to Ask before
inserting rows or columns in the STATISTICA Defaults: General
dialog.
Splitting and Merging Files
Use the Create Subset option from the startup panel (or
the pull-down menu Analysis) of the Data Management
module. Selecting this option will bring up a dialog where you
can choose not only the variables to be included in the subfile,
but also Case Selection Conditions.
Once your selections have been made, the current data file will
be reduced to the requested subset, and you can continue the analyses
using the subset of data.
Saving subsets. When you intend to save the subset, be
sure to use the Save As... (and not the Save) option,
unless you wish to overwrite the original (complete) data file.
Permanent vs. temporary subsets. The subset creation option
is designed to be used mostly to create permanent subset files,
because in order to temporarily select a subset of data to be
analyzed, the on-line Case Selection Conditions are more
convenient to use.
A selection of data file merging procedures is available in the
Data Management module (see the startup panel or the pull-down
menu Analysis). Selecting this option will open a dialog
of merge options. Either cases (rows of data) or variables (columns
of data) can be merged. In other words, either the second file
is appended to the "bottom" of the first one or it is
appended to the "right side" of the first one.
If you select to merge variables (see the first option above)
then a number of additional options are available.
For example, you can select one of two relational merge
options, where a key variable (in each file) is used to "match"
cases based on the corresponding values of the key:
Relational merge of variables. When you
select this mode, the cases from the second file will be matched
with those of the first file, based on the values of a specified
key variable.
Relational hierarchical merge of variables.
This mode differs from the simple relational mode (see
above) in the handling of multiple records with the same key value
in either the primary or secondary file. In the simple relational
mode (see above), successive records with identical key values
will be merged. If there are uneven numbers of records with identical
key values in the two files, missing data are added to "pad"
the file with the lesser number of records. In contrast, in the
relational hierarchical mode the file is padded with the
values found in the last identical key record that was matched.
For more information, refer to the Electronic Manual for
the Merge Variables dialog (press the Help button
or the F1 key).
Yes, when you select the Merge files option in the Data
Management module (see above), in addition to the Merge
Cases and Merge Variables, you will be able to choose
the Merge Text Values option. In the subsequent dialog
you will be able to select the way in which the text values from
the two files are to be merged.
Formulas, Data Transformations, Recoding,
Verifying, Cleaning Data
Spreadsheet formulas.
To perform single-line data transformation and recoding operations
on single variables, you can use the data spreadsheet formulas.
Double-clicking in the spreadsheet on the name of the variable
which you want to transform will open the Variable Specification
dialog (see below) where a data transformation or recoding formula
can be entered directly into the Long name (label, link, or
formula) field.
Following the Windows spreadsheet formula conventions (e.g., ms
Excel), start the formula with an "=" (otherwise STATISTICA
will not recognize that the text is to be interpreted as a formula).
For example, enter =(v1+v2)/2. Variables can be referenced
by their names (e.g., Income, profit, TEST1)
or numbers (e.g., v1, v2, v3, ...); v0
is the case number. Logical operators can be used to define conditional
transformation expressions.
Press the Functions button when you are in this dialog
to access the Functions Wizard facility that can be used
to select functions and other elements of the syntax (for the
formulas) and insert them into the formula editor. The Wizard
also allows you to quickly access information on any of the functions
and the complete on-line syntax documentation.
After entering a formula and pressing OK, you are given
the option to recalculate the variable now. If you choose not
to recalculate at this time, you can do so later by pressing the
spreadsheet toolbar Recalculate button or the Recalculate
All key (F9).
The STATISTICA
BASIC programming language. If you need to write more complex
data transformation programs than those which can be entered via
spreadsheet formulas, an integrated programming language (STATISTICA
BASIC) can be used. The language can be accessed from the
pull-down menu Analysis in each module.
STATISTICA BASIC is a comprehensive programming language,
supporting loops, nested conditional statements, compound instructions,
multidimensional arrays, matrix operations, random access to individual
records, custom-designed recoding functions, calls to external
DLL procedures, allows you to access STATISTICA
graphics facilities, etc.
The language comes with an integrated environment that allows
you to write, edit, debug, and execute your programs (you may
open multiple STATISTICA BASIC programs in separate editor
windows in the same module and copy and paste between them).
The central part of the BASIC environment is a flexible
Function Wizard facility that allows you to select the
respective functions or keywords and insert them into the program.
The syntax of STATISTICA BASIC is very simple. While writing
your programs, you can access Examples (shown below) and
a concise Syntax summary by pressing the respective toolbar
buttons (see the Help:Examples and Help:Syntax buttons).
It is convenient to have the help screen available while you
write your programs; you can keep the Help window always
on top of the STATISTICA window if you press the Always
On Top button in the Help window.
For more information on STATISTICA BASIC, please refer
to the STATISTICA BASIC section.
Yes, by setting the option Auto-recalculate when the data change
in the Recalculate dialog (accessed by pressing the Recalculate
button in the toolbar), all spreadsheet formulas will be automatically
recalculated when the data are changed in the spreadsheet. Alternatively,
you can press F9 in the program in order to manually recalculate
the formulas in the spreadsheet.
There are several ways in which to do this. You may use
the spreadsheet formulas to fill a variable with random values from a normal
distribution with a given mean and standard deviation. This is accomplished by
using the inverse function for the normal distribution (vnormal(x)). As
an example, to fill a variable with values from a normal distribution with a
mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 3, type the following formula in the
long name edit field of the current specs dialog for the variable:
=vnormal(rnd(1),50,3)
The inverse function can also be used in a STATISTICA
BASIC program. Additionally, you can generate values fom the standard
normal distribution (mean = 0, standard deviation = 1) by using the normal(x)
function in STATISTICA BASIC.
Recoding functions of practically unlimited complexity can be
custom-defined in STATISTICA BASIC and used
repeatedly in your data transformation programs. However, a quick
on-line recoding facility can also be accessed directly from the
spreadsheet at any point (see Recode option, accessible
from the spreadsheet Vars toolbar button). The scrollable
Recode Values dialog which will be displayed allows you
to define new values of the current variable depending on the
specific conditions, which you define.
When specifying the conditions, follow the standard syntax conventions
which are common in STATISTICA to all those procedures
which involve any operation of "selecting cases" based
on their values. For example, the recoding conditions specified
above would "translate" the negative values of the current
variable (Measur1) into -1 and positive values into
1. Note that the 0's (the only value which is not
included in the two recoding conditions) would be left unchanged,
as set using the radio button unchanged (see the box Other
in the lower right corner of the dialog). You can also use here
Case Selection Conditions that have been specified somewhere
else and saved to disk files (either as individual conditions
or sets). Note that recoding conditions may be much more complex
(see the Electronic Manual by pressing the Help
button or the F1 key in this dialog) and they can be defined such
that the new values of the current variable do not depend on the
old values of that variable, but only on values of some other
variables in the dataset. Thus, this facility can be used not
only to recode existing data, but also to create values of a new
variable based on conditions met by other variables (as illustrated
in the next topic).
You can use any of the data transformation facilities: spreadsheet
formulas or STATISTICA BASIC.
However, often the quickest way to do it would be to use the
on-line data recoding facility described in the previous topic,
which is accessible at any point from the data spreadsheet (see
the spreadsheet Vars toolbar button). As mentioned in
the previous topic, the currently highlighted variable does not
even have to be included in the text of the recoding conditions.
Thus, you can use this facility to create values of a variable
based on conditions met by other variables.
For example, you can add a new (empty) variable to the data file,
and then use this facility to create the new values. For instance,
the recoding conditions could be used to assign 1's to
the new variable for all "male subjects, 18 to 25 years old
with cholesterol levels below 200;" 2's -- to "male
subjects 18 to 25 years old with cholesterol levels above 200;"
and assign the missing data value to all other subjects.
An interactive data-verification and cleaning facility is provided
in the Data Management module. In order to verify data,
bring up the Data Management module, and select the option
Verify Data Values from the startup panel or the pull-down
menu Analysis. The Verify Data dialog which will
appear allows you to enter the conditions to be met by the data.
Follow the standard syntax conventions which are common in STATISTICA
to all those procedures which involve any operation of "selecting
cases" based on their values. You can also use here Case
Selection Conditions that have been previously saved to disk
files (either as individual conditions or sets). Pressing the
Help button or the F1 key in this dialog will bring up
a comprehensive description of all verification options with examples.
The verification can be as simple as checking whether values in
a variable are "legal" (e.g., only 1 and 2
might be allowed for Gender) or whether they fall within
allowed ranges of values (e.g., Age must be more than 0
and less than 200). It can also be as complex as checking
multiple logical conditions that some values must meet in relation
to other values.
Consider the following example of conditional verification:
If a person is a male or less than 14 years old, then the number
of pregnancies for that person cannot be more than zero.
In order to apply these conditions, you would specify (for example):
Invalid if: (v1='MALE' or AGE<14) and PREGN>0
After you specify the verification conditions, press the OK
(Verify) button and the dataset (or the selected range) will
be tested sequentially (one case at a time) for its consistency
with the set of conditions which you have specified.
When a case is found which does not meet the conditions, then
the respective row of data in the spreadsheet will be brought
up and highlighted and the Data Verification dialog will
open allowing you to either ignore the inconsistency (and continue
or stop the verification) or edit (correct) the case.
Now you can press Review/Edit the Data (or press Enter)
to edit the case which is highlighted in the spreadsheet. Alternatively,
you can Ignore and Continue or Ignore and Exit the
verification. Note that if you decide to edit the case, then
after you are done, pressing the floating Cont (continue)
Verify Data button in the lower left corner of the screen
will continue the verification.
For some (probably less common) applications, you can easily develop
interactive data cleaning and verification applications using
STATISTICA BASIC. A single statement (PauseAndEdit)
can be used to bring up an interactive dialog allowing you to
review and edit any variables in the data file.
Use the Sort option from the startup panel (or the pull-down
menu Analysis) of the Data Management module. This
will bring up a dialog where you can specify the key variables
and the type of sort. If you need to sort based on more than
3 keys, press the More Keys... button to switch to a larger
dialog.
Select the Rank option by pressing the Vars button
on the spreadsheet toolbar to bring up the Rank Order Values
dialog, then press the Variables button to select the variables
to be ranked. Optionally, you can also specify a subset of cases
to be affected by the operation, use case weights, and set a number
of options to perform particular (non-default) types of ranking
(press the Help button or the F1 key in this dialog to
access the Electronic Manual).
Use the Transpose option accessible from the data spreadsheet
Edit menu. A hierarchical menu will allow you to select
either the Block or Data file transposing option.
Transposing a block of data. The block transposing operation
will affect only the contents of cells in the currently selected
block highlighted in the data spreadsheet (the block must be square);
the variable names and case names will not be affected.
Transposing a data file. The data file transposing option
will restructure the entire file. Note that when you transpose
a file, case names become variable names and variable names become
case names (for details, press the F1 key to access the Electronic
Manual).
In addition to the custom-defined operations of filling specific
ranges of data with values, available via the data
transformation options, STATISTICA can fill selected blocks
with random values, and also supports standard (ms Excel-style)
block extrapolation operations, which can be invoked by dragging
a border of the block onto the adjacent area of the spreadsheet
that is to be filled following the extrapolation rules.
Random value fill. Select the Fill Random Values
suboption of the Fill/Standardize Block option in the spreadsheet
flying menu (click the right-mouse-button). The currently highlighted
block will be filled with random values (following a uniform distribution)
in the range of 0 to 1.
Extrapolation of values (AutoFill). A selected
series of values (consisting of at least two values) will be extended
using linear regression to extrapolate values (see also the next
topic). If a single value (or a repeated value) is selected,
the value will be copied into the extrapolated block; also sequences
consisting of names of months, days, or quarters can be automatically
extended.
Fill Down or Right. Finally, simple spreadsheet-style
"fill block" (Down or Right) options are
available which fill the currently selected block by duplicating
the first row or column (respectively) of the block. To use this
facility, first, select a block to be filled in the spreadsheet.
Then, use the Fill/Standardize Block option accessible
from the data spreadsheet Edit menu and the spreadsheet
flying menu. A hierarchical menu will allow you
to select either the Fill Down or Fill Right option.
The former will copy (duplicate) the first row of the block to
all remaining rows of the block; the latter will copy the first
column of the block to the remaining columns of the block. Both
options work in a manner similar to ms Excel's Fill Right
and Fill Down facility (also available in Excel from the
Edit menu).
A horizontal or vertical series in a
block can be extrapolated by dragging the block Fill Handle
(a small, solid square located on the lower-right corner of the
block). This is illustrated in the example in the previous topic.
STATISTICA can create series of values such as sequential
numbers, linear extrapolations and dates (e.g., you can extend
a series such as 1, 2, 3 to include 4,
5, 6, ...).
You can extrapolate a block in the following ways:
Extrapolating a block upwards or to the left. In the same
manner as extrapolating a block in one direction (down or right),
a block may be extrapolated in the opposite direction by dragging
the fill handle up or to the left past the original start of the
block.
NOTE: If you drag the fill handle up or to the left and stop
within the original selection without going past the top or left
side of the selection, you will delete data within the selection
(data to be deleted are indicated in gray as you drag within the
selection).
Note that you can also use the Fill Block commands on the
pop-up menu or Edit pull-down menu to copy a cell or range
of cells to adjacent cells within the currently selected block.
Highlight a block of values in the spreadsheet, then from the
spreadsheet flying menu (click the right-mouse-button) select
either Standardize Rows or Standardize Columns.
The standardized values are computed as follows:
Std. Value = (raw value - mean of highlighted row/column) /
std. deviation
You can also standardize selected variables via the option Standardize
Variables in the Data Management module (that procedure
works independent of the currently selected block but takes into
account the current case selection conditions and weights).
While there is no option which allows toggling between the two types of results, multiplying the spreadsheet formula by 180/Pi will convert the radians into degrees.
Analyses, On-line Statistics
Every analysis definition dialog in STATISTICA contains
at least one Variables button which allows you to specify
variables to be analyzed. You can click on it (or press V).
If you forget to specify variables and press OK to start
the analysis, STATISTICA will ask you for the variables
to be analyzed. The Variable Selection window which will
appear supports various ways of selecting variables and it offers
various shortcuts and options to review the contents of the data
file.
Yes, this shortcut method is supported. If you select a block
in the data spreadsheet, then the variables included in the block
will automatically become pre-selected for the next analysis.
Note that this shortcut is designed to limit the chance of producing
unintended results in the following ways:
The pre-selection of variables by marking a block in the spreadsheet
works only as long as you have not selected a specific list of
variables for the analysis (i.e., it will never overwrite your
previous choices; STATISTICA will remember your previous
choices).
Also, if the variables from the block are not what you intend
to analyze, you do not need to "undo" the selection:
When you enter the Variable Selection window, the list
of pre-selected variables will be highlighted, thus, the first
click of the mouse will de-select the previous range (unless you
keep the CTRL key pressed). If you prefer to use the keyboard
to specify the list, then the first (non-cursor moving) key you
press will delete the previous entry in the variable selection
edit field.
Before an analysis begins (i.e., before the data are processed),
you can instruct the program to select only cases (i.e., rows
in the spreadsheet) which meet some specific selection criteria.
A facility to define and manage such Case Selection Conditions
can be accessed from the pull-down menu Options, by pressing
F8, or simply by double-clicking on the status bar field Sel:
OFF which normally shows the current status of the Case
Selection Conditions (when disabled, the field reads Sel:
OFF, when enabled, the field reads Sel: ON). For a
complete reference, access the Electronic Manual when the
Case Selection Conditions window is displayed.
Currently-specified Case Selection Conditions (definitions
of subsets of data) are automatically stored by STATISTICA
when you change modules. You can also save and open them (and
maintain libraries of Case Selection Conditions) by using
the Open or Save As buttons in the Case Selection
Conditions dialog. The list of supplementary files associated
with the current dataset (maintained in the Workbook dialog)
offers easy access to those libraries, and the list is accessible
from every Open/Save dialog.
Note that the saved Case Selection Conditions can also
be used in all STATISTICA facilities which allow you to
define subsets of cases. For example, the same conventions apply
to the data Recoding facility (available by pressing the
spreadsheet Vars toolbar button), data
verification facilities (available in the Data Management
module), or all procedures which allow you to custom-define
multiple subsets of data (such as frequency tables, or multiple-subset
scatterplots).
You can either use the Quick Basic Stats option accessible
from the flying menu in all spreadsheets and Scrollsheets, or
the data listing option Values/Stats in the Quick Stats
Graphs menu in the following manner. Highlight any cell in
the desired variable in the spreadsheet (or Scrollsheet), then
press the toolbar button Quick Stats Graphs to bring up
the menu of statistical graphs and options. Alternatively, press
the right-mouse-button and select Quick Stats Graphs from
the flying menu. Then double-click on the Values/Stats of...
option (or highlight this option and press Enter). The
resulting window will display information about the selected variable,
a sorted list of its values, and descriptive statistics. The
descriptive statistics can be copied to the Clipboard by pressing
the Copy button (see the lower part of the window).
Note that a more extensive selection of descriptive statistics
and other basic statistics (correlations, frequency tables, distributions,
analyses by..., etc.) can be requested from the Quick
Basic Stats menu available from the toolbar button or right-mouse-button
flying menus in all spreadsheets and Scrollsheets and from all
pull-down Analysis menus.
For information about a facility to produce descriptive statistics
for columns or rows of the currently selected block of values,
see Block Stats.
You can either use the Quick Basic Stats option accessible
from all toolbars, or the flying menu in all spreadsheets and
Scrollsheets, or the option Box-Whisker in the Quick
Stats Graphs menu. The latter method will also visualize
the statistics in a graph. Highlight any cell in the desired
variable in the spreadsheet (or Scrollsheet), then press the toolbar
button Quick Stats Graphs. Alternatively, press the right-mouse-button
and select Quick Stats Graphs from the flying menu which
will pop up. Either method will bring up the menu of statistical
graphs and options.
Depending on what kind of descriptive statistics you would like
to review, select one of the Box-Whisker of... options
for a single variable (e.g., to review ordinal descriptive statistics
and the range, select the option Median/Quart/Range):
The graph will appear on the screen, including the specific values
of the respective descriptive statistics.
For a more complete description of the distribution of the variable,
you can paste into the graph the basic descriptive statistics
(copied from the dialog described in the previous topic). Note
that many other statistical graphs of distributions of variables
(e.g., a large selection of user-defined, univariate and multivariate
box and whiskers plots with outliers) can be requested from the
Stats Graphs menu (available in the pull-down menu Graphs).
Make sure that the cursor is (anywhere) on the desired variable
in the spreadsheet (or Scrollsheet). Press the Quick Stats
Graphs button on the toolbar. From the Quick Stats Graphs
menu (see the previous two topics), select the Values/Stats
of... option. A sorted list of all numeric- and corresponding
text-values (if there are any) for that variable will appear.
Note that the assignments between the numeric and text values
for the variable can be edited in the Text Values Manager.
To produce a frequency table of values, use the
Quick Basic Stats facility (see the next topic).
The Quick Basic Stats options are available from either
the spreadsheet or Scrollsheet toolbar button, the right-mouse-button
flying menu, or from the Analysis pull-down menu of any
module of STATISTICA. Quick Basic Stats can be
invoked at any point of your data analysis (e.g., to provide supplementary
information when you review output from any STATISTICA
module).
These procedures include a selection of basic statistics which
can be performed on long lists of variables (e.g., correlation
matrices for all variables in the dataset), and all analyses
can be performed by groups, for every value (i.e., code)
of a selected grouping variable.
One of the advantages of this facility is that usually you do
not have to select variables for Quick Basic Stats analyses
via dialogs; instead, the variables are automatically selected
from the currently highlighted block in the spreadsheet or Scrollsheet.
For more information, press the Help button or the F1 key
to access the Electronic Manual; see also the next topic.
Statistics for each row or column in a selected
block may be computed and added to the spreadsheet or Scrollsheet
(i.e., appended at the end) by selecting the desired Block
Stats from the flying menu (or from the Edit pull-down
menu). The selected statistics will be added to the end of
the data file or Scrollsheet as additional rows or columns. The
variable name will contain the name of the selected statistic
and the long name will include the range description.
If you select Block Stats/Columns, the results of the selected
statistic will be appended as a new case and the case name will
contain the name of the selected statistic and the range description.
In addition, Block Stats Graphs are also
available from this flying menu to produce statistical graphs
for the values in each row (if Block Stats/Rows was selected)
or each column (if Block Stats/Columns was selected) of
the currently highlighted block in the spreadsheet.
Yes, STATISTICA supports a variety of matrix-file types
as input data (e.g., for Regression, Factor Analysis,
Reliability, and other modules). Matrix files can be edited
in the spreadsheet (as if they were raw data files), however,
in order to be properly interpreted as matrices by the program,
they need to meet specific content and format conditions (depending
on the matrix type). STATISTICA also supports the multiple
matrix data file format for input in procedures (such as Structural
Equation Modeling) which support matrix data for groups.
Refer to the respective module of STATISTICA for details
on matrix file input (press the Help button, the F1 key,
or use the Electronic Manual for specific descriptions
of the matrix file formats supported by STATISTICA).
You can use the Block Stats/Rows option by right mouse clicking on the desired row to compute columns of means and standard deviations. Add a column using the Vars toolbar button and fill in the sample size with a spreadsheet formula (e.g. =5). Then use the means, standard deviations, and sample sizes as the input instead of the raw data.
Import, Export, DDE
Clipboard. The quickest, and in many cases easiest way
to access data files from other Windows applications (e.g., spreadsheets)
is to use the Clipboard, which in STATISTICA supports special
Clipboard data formats generated by applications such as ms Excel
or Lotus for Windows. For example, STATISTICA will properly
interpret formatted cells (such as 1,000,000 or $10)
and text values.
File import facilities. Data files from a wide variety
of Windows and non-Windows applications can also be accessed and
translated into the STATISTICA format using the file import
facilities which also include access to virtually all databases
(via STATISTICA's flexible ODBC support) and options
to access formatted and free format text (ASCII) files.
The main advantages of using the file import facilities (over
the Clipboard) are that:
DDE links. Finally, STATISTICA supports
the Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)conventions, thus
you can dynamically link a range of data in its spreadsheet to
a subset of data in other (Windows) applications. The procedure
is in fact much simpler than it might appear, and may be easily
employed without technical knowledge about the mechanics of DDE,
especially when you use the Paste Link (instead of the
script-entry) method. See the section on DDE
for an overview, and the Electronic Manual for details.
Formats of Date and Time values. In STATISTICA
data files (which follow a "data-base style" organization),
value display formats apply to entire variables and not individual
cells (like in Excel). Therefore, values which were formatted
as dates in Excel will be displayed in STATISTICA as Julian
(integer) values (e.g., 34092 instead of May 3, 1993)
unless you set the format of the appropriate variables to Date
(or Time formats).
The Clipboard and data file translation facilities described in
the previous topic in the context of importing foreign file formats
can also be used to export data from STATISTICA to other
formats. The same selection of formats and data types is supported
when importing data to and exporting them from STATISTICA
(see the previous topic).
Yes, a flexible ODBC interface (including options to combine
fields from multiple tables) is provided via the Import Data
facilities, available in the File pull-down menu in every
module.
Yes, via the Import Data facilities, available in the File
pull-down menu in every module. The STATISTICA ODBC
interface includes options to combine fields from multiple tables
and provides flexible access to a wide variety of database management
files, including both mainframe and microcomputer formats (e.g.,
dBASE for Windows, Paradox, Sybase, Oracle, SAS, etc.).
You can establish DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) links
between a "source" (or server) file (e.g., a ms Excel
spreadsheet) and a STATISTICA data file (the "client"
file), so that when changes are made to the data in the source
file, the data will be automatically updated in the respective
part of the STATISTICA spreadsheet (client file).
A common application for dynamically linking two files would be
in industrial settings, where the STATISTICA data file
would be dynamically linked with a measurement device connected
to the serial port (e.g., in order to automatically update specific
measurements hourly).
DDE links can be established using the quick, "paste-like"
Paste Link option in the spreadsheet pull-down menu Edit,
or by entering a definition of the link into the Long name
(label, formula, link): field of the Variable Specifications
dialog. When a link is established, it can be managed using the
Links Manager (accessible via the Links... option
in the spreadsheet pull-down menu Edit).
Refer to the Electronic Manual (accessible by pressing
the Help button or the F1 key from either of the two options)
for details and examples. There are also other applications for
the DDE data integration facilities in STATISTICA;
see the Electronic Manual on DDE for details.
The statement defining the link for Excel 5.0 is
specified as application, file, and range, and as part of the range
you can specify in which sheet the data are located. However,
the Excel 7.0, DDE server may produce a nonstandard statement
(it includes a different specification of the sheet, and the link cannot
be established; i.e., the Paste Link option in the Edit menu does not
produce a working DDE link).
The first fix is to edit the statement (generated by
Excel 7.0) that defines the link (in STATISTICA) by deleting out the
nonstandard specification of the sheet. For example, if the DDE
server creates the following link,
@Excel|C:\EXCEL\[DATA.XLS]Sheet1!R1C1:R11C1
you will need to delete the reference to Sheet1 in order for the
link to be established. The link would then be
@Excel|C:\EXCEL\DATA.XLS!R1C1:R11C1
You can edit links in the Current Specs dialog
(accessible by double-clicking on the name of the variable, to
which the link is to be established), the All Specs dialog
(accessible via the All Specs spreadsheet toolbar button) or the
Link Manager dialog (available by selecting Edit..Links from the
Edit pull down menu.
The limitation here is that you can only create a
link with the first sheet in any Excel 7.0 file. If your data are in
sheet one, this is not a problem. If the data are not in sheet one,
you would need to link the data to a new Excel 7.0 file and place
them in sheet number one.
The STATISTICA Quick Import facility does not support files from Paradox, release 5.0. The file must first be saved as either an earlier version Paradox file or as a .dbf (dBase) file. However, the ODBC interface may be used to import data from Paradox 5.0 directly.
STATISTICA stores date values in the standard Julian format while SPSS uses a different format. To resolve the problem after importing the SPSS
portable file into STATISTICA convert the values into the standard Julian
format. Enter the following: =(v1-10010304000)/86400+1 into the Long
Name section of the Variable Specs dialog for the date variable.
Windows95 is shipped without an installation facility for ODBC drivers. You must obtain a special installation disk from ms. This file is also available from their BBS under the filename GE1263.exe. After you’ve extracted this file, you may use the following procedure to use your ms Access ODBC driver with STATISTICA functions.
Make sure you do not copy any ODBC32.dll file to your STATISTICA directory. This would lead to problems if the version you copied is not of the same date as the files currently installed.
Quick Import is limited to data files of small to moderate size. For large data files, you should use the Import Data—More option which is available only in the Data Management module.
One of the steps in the DDE procedure is to ask the source to give up the data.
STATISTICA cannot wait for ever for a reply in case there is a problem
because this would hang the system so there is a time limit. The default for this is 1 second.
On a fast computer this is not a problem, but on slower machines such as a 75MHz, sometimes (especially when STATISTICA is still loading in the background on start-up) the computer has not linked in that first second.
The solution is to go into STATIST.INI and add the following...
in the [Statistica] section:
DDEDelay=5000
where 5000 = 5 seconds because it is in milliseconds (use another number as
necessary).
General
Workbooks help to organize sets of supplementary files (e.g.,
Scrollsheets, graphs, text/graphics reports, user programs, recodes,
etc.) which have been created or used (e.g., reviewed) during
the analysis of a dataset. The STATISTICA Workbook facility
maintains a list of all files used with the current dataset.
An updated list of these files is automatically
saved with the data file. Selected files in the list can be marked
Auto Open, they will then be automatically brought up whenever
you open the current dataset.
Different data files can be used simultaneously for input in different
modules (as mentioned before, different modules can process the
same or different data files). From the File Manager,
data files may be opened directly (into the STATISTICA
File Server application, see below) by double-clicking
on them. Each data file will be opened into a separate File
Server application window (see the next topic); in this manner,
you may simultaneously open as many data files as you wish.
In one module, only one file (i.e., Workbook) at a time can be
used as the main input data file and reside in the data spreadsheet;
other files can be opened simultaneously in one module for reference
only, thus, they can be opened only as Scrollsheets (if they were
previously saved into Scrollsheet files). Refer to the section
on differences between spreadsheets
and Scrollsheets for more information.
Multiple Megafile Manager files can be opened simultaneously
in the Data Management module, allowing you to easily move
data from standard STATISTICA data files to different aggregated
(or archival) databases, or to create STATISTICA data
files from data stored in various Megafile
Manger databases.
This small, rapidly-loading module of STATISTICA
provides facilities for accessing and modifying all STATISTICA
files, including data files (file name extension *.sta),
Scrollsheets (*.scr), graphics (*.stg), and STATISTICA
BASIC files (*.stb). STATISTICA files may be
opened from the Windows File Manager by simply double-clicking
on the file name. One of the advantages of using the STATISTICA
File Server application is that you may have as many instances
of the File Server open at once as your operating system
will allow, permitting you to review many data files at one time
(see the previous topic).
In addition, the STATISTICA File Server application
provides OLE support for STATISTICA files in other
applications (if there is not any other module of STATISTICA
currently running).
Custom-designed, new modules of STATISTICA. The
File Server can also be used as a foundation to develop
new STATISTICA modules (using STATISTICA
BASIC) with their own startup panels, and Scrollsheet and
graph output.
Yes. In the Windows File Manager you may simply drag any
STATISTICA data file (file name extension *.sta),
Scrollsheet file (file name extension *.scr), or graphics
file (file name extension *.stg) onto the icon for a STATISTICA
module in order to automatically open the file in the respective
STATISTICA module.
In order to allow the user to revert back to the original data
file after file editing, STATISTICA creates temporary and
backup files. Thus, in order to edit a data file, the program
will need at least twice as much free disk space as the size of
the file to be edited. More disk space is necessary if you perform
large-scale editing operations (e.g., changing large blocks) on
very large data files: to allow for the Undo function,
STATISTICA will then need to store multiple copies (up
to 16) of the modified sections of data. Some operations (e.g.,
import/export) use intermediate scratch files, thus they may need
additional space.
STATISTICA uses the disk drive which is designated for
temporary files in your Windows configuration for its temporary
files. On some systems, this disk may be a RAM drive of a relatively
small size. The limited space on that drive may be quickly used
up (by STATISTICA and other Windows applications) and the
Disk full message issued even though there is still free
space on some other drive. To check the current setting, look
for the SET TEMP= line in your autoexec.bat file
(in the root directory of the boot disk). To remedy the situation,
set the location for temporary files to your largest disk.
Note also that because the ms Windows system and various Windows
applications use large temporary disk files, the actual amount
of disk space effectively available to an application may be much
smaller than the amount reported by File Manager immediately
after starting the computer.
Most of the commonly-used data management facilities are integrated
with the spreadsheet and available from the data spreadsheet in
every module (either from the toolbar, pull-down menu Edit,
or the flying menus). These commonly-available facilities include
all spreadsheet operations on cases and variables, transposing
data, data transformations through the spreadsheet formulas, the
STATISTICA BASIC programming language, and
the on-line recoding facilities, ranking, filling ranges, shifting,
DDE, management of text values, date values, long value
labels, and many other options (including direct import/export
functions and import via ODBC).
The Data Management module includes all of these options
and additional, specialized data management facilities such as
relational merge, interactive data verification and cleaning,
specialized import/export facilities (e.g., allowing
import/export of double notation of values to file formats which
normally do not support double notation), and others.
Access to Megafile Manager facilities. In addition,
the Data Management module of STATISTICA provides
access to all facilities of the Megafile Manager database
system (see the next topic), which offers options to access and
process data in unusual data formats (e.g., data organized into
extremely large records or data with very long text values).
A unique feature of Megafile Manager is that it can process
data with extremely long records (up to 8 megabytes per record).
Megafile Manager also can be used as an archival data
base system to store data combined from various sources (preserving
their original formats). Easy to use (one step) and flexible
facilities are provided in the Data Management module to
move data in and out, between STATISTICA data files and
archival Megafile Manager databases.
Overview. Megafile Manager is a specialized data
base management system accessible from the Data Management
module of STATISTICA (see the previous topic). Its unique
feature is that it can manage and directly process types of data
which need to be transformed, aggregated, extracted, or cleaned
before they can be directly accessed by any STATISTICAl
or graphics procedures of STATISTICA (e.g., data organized
into very long records or data embedded inside very long text
values).
Megafile Manager can process extremely large records of
data (rows): up to 32,000 columns with up to 255 characters
each (up to 8 megabytes per row). Data organized in such long
records can, for example, be produced by some automated quality
control measurement devices or other data acquisition or monitoring
equipment. Also, such files are sometimes useful in maintaining
integrated, large archival data banks consisting of numerous merged
or concatenated files.
Megafile Manager and other STATISTICA
facilities. Most likely, the majority of common data processing
needs can be easily addressed with the standard procedures available
in every module of STATISTICA. Therefore, Megafile
Manager will typically be used only when there is a need for
facilities to handle very unusual data importing, management,
and pre-processing needs, for example, in order to maintain very
large databases, or perform pre-processing of imported long text
values, etc. Note that the standard procedures (offered in every
module of STATISTICA) can also handle large size
and very complex tasks; for example:
Maintaining large, archival data banks; hierarchical relations
between databases. Megafile Manager offers options
for aggregating datasets from other applications and setting
up very large (e.g., 8 megabytes per record), efficient archival
databases. It also supports links between related (and hierarchically
organized) datasets. Subsets of columns from such archival data
banks can be extracted and used with other applications (such
as STATISTICA, Excel, or Paradox).
Preprocessing large records of raw data. Another unique
application of Megafile Manager is at the stage of analysis
when raw data need to be aggregated or preprocessed before meaningful
indices are obtained for use in data analysis. Such raw data
sets (e.g., from automated quality control measurement devices
or other data acquisition equipment) may feature records that
are too long to fit into any standard application (e.g., 32,000
measures per row). Megafile Manager can be used to access
such datasets, convert them into meaningful indices, and transfer
to another application (such as STATISTICA or Excel) for
further analysis. Such raw data often need to be cleaned and
verified before they can be preprocessed. Custom-designed data
verification (and interactive correction) can be performed in
Megafile Manager using its integrated programming language
which features specialized functions for interactive data editing
and verification.
Data processing, analysis, MML language. Thus,
Megafile Manager not only offers facilities to aggregate,
store, and maintain long-record files, but it can also efficiently
process them. Its integrated programming language (MML)
features a variety of data analytic options and a library of functions.
Megafile Manager also includes basic statistics facilities
that can process data regardless of the record size. For example,
it can tabulate data, compute descriptive statistics, or generate
correlation matrices of practically unlimited size (the size of
correlation matrices that could be generated by Megafile Manager
exceeds the capacity of any existing storage device).
Long text values. Another specific feature of Megafile
Manager is its ability to process very long text values.
Also, its integrated programming language (MML) offers
a comprehensive selection of functions to manipulate text data.
Exchanging data with STATISTICA data files. Megafile
Manager uses a specialized file format optimized for its specific
applications (e.g., maintaining data types from a variety of programs).
However, easy to use and flexible facilities are provided in
the Data Management module to move data in and out between
STATISTICA data files and archival Megafile Manager
databases. For more information about Megafile Manager,
please refer to Volume III.
When you click the Undo toolbar button or select Undo
from the spreadsheet Edit pull-down menu, you will be able
to undo most operations such as editing, moving or copying blocks,
random fill, recoding or ranking variables, etc. Multi-level
undo is supported (with 16 buffers), so you can undo up to 16
of the most recent spreadsheet operations.
When you are overwriting an existing data file (while performing
the Save As... operation), STATISTICA will give
you an option to create a backup (under the same file name but
with the file name extension *.bak). As long as you do
not use Save As... twice in a row (which will overwrite
the backup), you can return to the file as it was before being
saved by using the backup.
Output header. The output header is an optional one line
of text which you can enter into the Output Header field
of the Page/Output Setup dialog. The text can be used
to identify the current project or stage of data analysis and
it will appear in the running head of your reports. It will be
in effect as long as you do not change it (even after you turn
off the computer). It can be automatically included in title
areas of graphs and used in other procedures.
File headers. The file One-line Header (an optional
one-line summary title or other identification of the dataset)
as well as File Information/Notes (a paragraph of comments)
are stored along with the data file and can be entered or edited
in the Workbook Info dialog, accessible from the Workbook
Info option in the spreadsheet pull-down menu Edit
(or by double-clicking on the title field of the spreadsheet displaying
the header).
The one-line header is automatically used in reports and graphs
produced from the respective dataset. For example, it is included
in printed reports if the selected report style is set to at least
the Short setting. The header is also transferred to the
title field of custom graphs created from the spreadsheet; it
can also be automatically included in the title fields of all
graphs created using the Stats Graphs facilities (in the
pull-down menu Graphs).
The File Information/Notes can be reviewed in the dialog
shown above (accessible by double-clicking on the title field
of the data spreadsheet) and printed, if requested, in the
data printing options dialog.
Back to Top
SCROLLSHEETS (Scrollable Tables with Results)
In STATISTICA, all numeric and text output is displayed
in spreadsheet-like windows called Scrollsheets. Their content
can be anything from a short line to megabytes of output, and
they offer a variety of options to facilitate reviewing the results
and visualizing them in predefined and custom-defined graphs.
All differences between these two--on the surface very similar--main
types of "documents" in STATISTICA are related
to the difference in their contents: Scrollsheets are used to
display results from analyses, whereas spreadsheets hold input
data files. Both types of tables look similar and they offer
very similar facilities, including the graphics options (both
Custom and Stats graphs are available
from Scrollsheets and from spreadsheets). Also, both offer easy
access to Quick Basic Stats facilities and Block Stats
facilities.
However, each of them offers specialized features and options
which are applicable to their respective contents. For example,
data spreadsheets feature integrated data management, restructuring,
transformation and recoding facilities, whereas Scrollsheets offer
specialized graphs related to the types of statistical output
they contain or integrated facilities to identify cells or rows
containing results which meet particular statistical criteria
(e.g., significance level).
Drag-and-Drop facilities. The standard (ms
Excel-style) Drag-and-Drop facilities (moving, copying,
clearing, inserting, duplicating, and extrapolating series) are
supported in spreadsheets; moving, copying, clearing, duplicating
and extrapolating of selected blocks are supported in Scrollsheets.
Toolbars, flying menus. These differences and similarities
are reflected in the appearance of the toolbars which accompany
each of the two types of document-windows, as well as in the contents
of the flying menus which can be brought up by clicking the right-mouse-button
on individual cells.
Note that these two types of documents can easily be converted
into one another (see the next two paragraphs).
Converting data spreadsheets into Scrollsheets. The Convert
to Scrollsheet... option (see the spreadsheet File
menu; keyboard shortcut is the F11 key) can be used to convert
the data file or the currently highlighted block of data into
a Scrollsheet; an intermediate dialog will allow you to select
options. A data file saved this way into a Scrollsheet can later
be opened (e.g., for reference) at any point of the data analysis
without affecting the main data file residing in the data spreadsheet
and used as input data (the default file name extension for Scrollsheet
files is *.scr).
Converting Scrollsheets into standard data files (spreadsheets).
The Save as Data... option (see the Scrollsheet File
menu) can be used to convert the contents of the current Scrollsheet
or the currently highlighted block into a standard STATISTICA
data file. A data file created this way can later be opened for
input as a regular data file, thus allowing you to submit output
from one analysis as input for another.
Queues of Scrollsheets (and graphs) Statistical analyses
may produce large amounts of output. Scrollsheets offer flexible
ways to organize the output regardless of its size. New Scrollsheets
are generated by subsequent analyses in a "queue," where
older Scrollsheets are closed automatically as new ones are created
(to avoid having too many open windows at once). The Scrollsheets
are closed on a first-in-first-out basis, and the default length
of the queue is 3. In other words, when the fourth Scrollsheet
is created, then the first one is closed (with no warning unless
you have edited or customized it). The same queue conventions
apply to graph windows.
Note that an option is provided to automatically print (or send
to the output file and/or the on-screen Text/output Window)
each Scrollsheet which is generated on the screen (see below).
Auto-report (Automatically Print All Scrollsheets).
In order to create a log of all Scrollsheets, select the Automatically
Print All Scrollsheets (and optionally graphs) option(s) in
the Page/Output Setup dialog (accessible in the pull-down
menu File or by double-clicking on the Output field
on the status bar at the bottom of the STATISTICA window).
In the same dialog, you will be able to specify where to direct
the output: to the printer, a disk text output file, or the scrollable
Text/output Window, and adjust other output settings.
The length of the queues. In some instances, you may want
to increase the length of this queue. Use the Scrollsheet
Manager in the pull-down menu Window to temporarily
change the length of the queue for the current session (the setting
will return to the default length when you close the current module
of STATISTICA). In addition, the Scrollsheet Manager
dialog (see above) can be used to "lock" specific Scrollsheets
(see the next two topics).
The pull-down menu Options can be used to adjust the queue
length permanently (the default length of the Scrollsheet queue
is 3 windows):
Regardless of the length of the queue, you can "lock"
individual windows (i.e., "remove" them from the queue;
use the Scrollsheet Manger accessible from the pull-down
menu Window, shown in the previous topic), so that they
will not be automatically closed as long as you do not exit the
program. Locked Scrollsheets are marked with the @ character
appended to the Scrollsheet name in the title bar.
Locking a Scrollsheet (see the previous topic) will preserve the
Scrollsheet as long as you do not close the current module. Saving
Scrollsheets (see below) allows you to preserve them across analyses
(e.g., in different modules or sessions), because saved Scrollsheets
can be opened again at any point of the analysis in any STATISTICA
module. Also, saved Scrollsheets (file name extension *.scr)
can be printed in batch using the Print Files...
facility (in the pull-down menu File).
Saving Scrollsheets in a Scrollsheet format. Use the option
Save (SHIFT+F12) or Save As...