Using computer packages to generate descriptive statistics

The only other quantile systems that are used with any regularity are quintiles, deciles and centiles. There are four quintiles, which divide data into five ranges, nine deciles for 10 ranges and 99 centiles that produce 100 ranges. The ninth decile is thus equivalent to the ninetieth centile and both indicate a point that ranks 10 per cent from the top of a set of values. 

Quantile systems divide ranked data sets into groups with equal numbers of observations in each group. Specifically  

3 quartiles divide data into four equal-sized groups  

5 Using computer packages to generate descriptive statistics 

The one thing at which Excel does not excel is statistical analysis. The (very basic) level of material covered in this chapter is about at (if not beyond) the limit of its capabilities. It can be used to generate means, medians, SDs and quartiles, but while the first three are OK, the quartile values generated are somewhat unconventional and will not be pursued further. The mean, median and SD of a data set can be generated by using either worksheet functions or the Data Analysis tool. 

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USING COMPUTER PACKAGES TO GENERATE DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS... 

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