Choosing Statistical Method

Number of Nature of Nature of How How How

Dependent Independent Dependent Test(s) to to to
Variables Variables Variable(s) SAS Stata SPSS
interval & normal one-sample t-test SAS Stata SPSS
ordinal or interval one-sample median SAS Stata SPSS
0 IVs categorical
(1 population) binomial test SAS Stata SPSS
(2 categories)
Chi-square goodness-
categorical SAS Stata SPSS
of-fit
2 independent sample
interval & normal SAS Stata SPSS
t-test

1 IV with 2 levels ordinal or interval Wilcoxon-Mann

(independent groups) SAS Stata SPSS
Whitney test
Chi- square test SAS Stata SPSS
categorical
Fisher's exact test SAS Stata SPSS
interval & normal one-way ANOVA SAS Stata SPSS
1 IV with 2 or more levels
ordinal or interval Kruskal Wallis SAS Stata SPSS
(independent groups)
categorical Chi- square test SAS Stata SPSS
interval & normal paired t-test SAS Stata SPSS
1 IV with 2 levels
Wilcoxon signed ranks
(dependent/matched ordinal or interval SAS Stata SPSS
1 test
groups)
categorical McNemar SAS Stata SPSS
one-way repeated
interval & normal SAS Stata SPSS
1 IV with 2 or more levels measures ANOVA
(dependent/matched ordinal or interval Friedman test SAS Stata SPSS
groups) repeated measures
categorical SAS Stata SPSS
logistic regression
interval & normal factorial ANOVA SAS Stata SPSS
ordered logistic
2 or more IVs ordinal or interval SAS Stata SPSS
regression
(independent groups)
factorial
categorical SAS Stata SPSS
logistic regression
correlation SAS Stata SPSS
interval & normal
simple linear
SAS Stata SPSS
regression
1 interval IV
non-parametric
ordinal or interval SAS Stata SPSS
correlation
simple logistic
categorical SAS Stata SPSS
regression
 multiple regression SAS Stata SPSS
interval & normal
1 or more interval IVs analysis of covariance SAS Stata SPSS
and/or multiple logistic
1 or more categorical IVs SAS Stata SPSS
categorical regression
discriminant analysis SAS Stata SPSS
1 IV with 2 or more levels
2 or more interval & normal one-way MANOVA SAS Stata SPSS
(independent groups)
multivariate multiple
2 or more 2 or more interval & normal SAS Stata SPSS
linear regression
2 sets of
0 interval & normal canonical correlation SAS Stata SPSS
2 or more
2 or more 0 interval & normal factor analysis SAS Stata SPSS
Number of Nature of Nature of How How How
Dependent Independent Dependent Test(s) to to to
Variables Variables Variable(s) SAS Stata SPSS

This page was adapted from Choosing the Correct Statistic developed by James D. Leeper, Ph.D. We thank
Professor Leeper for permission to adapt and distribute this page from our site.