What statistical analysis should I use?

The following table shows general guidelines for choosing a statistical analysis. We emphasize that these are
general guidelines and should not be construed as hard and fast rules. Usually your data could be analyzed in
multiple ways, each of which could yield legitimate answers. The table below covers a number of common
analyses and helps you choose among them based on the number of dependent variables (sometimes referred
to as outcome variables), the nature of your independent variables (sometimes referred to as predictors). You
also want to consider the nature of your dependent variable, namely whether it is an interval variable, ordinal or
categorical variable, and whether it is normally distributed (see What is the difference between categorical,
ordinal and interval variables? for more information on this). The table then shows one or more statistical tests
commonly used given these types of variables (but not necessarily the only type of test that could be used) and
links showing how to do such tests using SAS, Stata and SPSS.

Number of
Dependent
Variables

Nature of

Nature of

Independent

Dependent

Variables

Variable(s)

How
Test(s)

to
SAS

interval &

one-sample t-test

normal
0 IVs

ordinal or interval

How
to
Stat
a

How
to
SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

one-sample
median

SAS Stata SPSS

(1 population)
categorical
(2 categories)

binomial test

SAS Stata SPSS

Chi-square

1 IV with 2 levels
(independent groups)

categorical

goodness-of-fit

interval &

2 independent
sample t-test

normal

ordinal or
interval

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

WilcoxonMann Whitney SAS Stata SPSS

test

categorical

Chi- square test

SAS Stata SPSS

Fisher's exact

SAS Stata SPSS

test
interval &
1 IV with 2 or more
levels (independent
groups)

1 IV with 2 levels
(dependent/matched
groups)

1 IV with 2 or more
levels
(dependent/matched

one-way ANOVA

normal
ordinal or interval

Kruskal Wallis

categorical

Chi- square test

interval &

paired t-test

normal
ordinal or

Wilcoxon signed

interval

ranks test

categorical

McNemar

interval &

one-way repeated

normal

measures ANOVA

ordinal or interval

Friedman test

categorical

measures logistic

groups)

interval &

factorial ANOVA

normal
2 or more IVs
ordinal or interval

categorical
1 interval IV

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS
SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS
SAS Stata SPSS
SAS Stata SPSS

repeated
regression

(independent groups)

SAS Stata SPSS

interval &
normal

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

ordered logistic
regression

SAS Stata SPSS

factorial
logistic regression
correlation
simple linear
regression

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS
SAS Stata SPSS

ordinal or interval

categorical

interval &
1 or more interval

normal

IVs and/or

correlation

SAS Stata SPSS

simple logistic
regression

SAS Stata SPSS

multiple regression

SAS Stata SPSS

analysis of

SAS Stata SPSS

covariance
multiple logistic

1 or more
categorical IVs

non-parametric

regression

SAS Stata SPSS

categorical

discriminant

SAS Stata SPSS

analysis
1 IV with 2 or more
2 or more

levels
(independent groups)

2 or more

2 sets of
2 or more

2 or more

interval &

one-way

normal

MANOVA

interval &

multivariate
multiple linear

normal

regression

interval &

canonical
correlation

normal
2 or more

interval &

factor analysis

normal
Number of
Dependent
Variables

Nature of

Nature of

Independent

Dependent

Variables

Variable(s)

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

SAS Stata SPSS

How
Test(s)

to
SAS

How
to
Stat
a

How
to
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.