Schmuller - Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies

Statistical Analysis with Excel For Dummies, 4th Edition

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016943716

ISBN: 978-1-119-27115-4; 978-1-119-27116-1 (ebk); 978-1-119-27117-8 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

What? Yet another statistics book? Well this is a statistics book, all right, but in my humble (and thoroughly biased) opinion, its not just another statistics book.

What? Yet another Excel book? Same thoroughly biased opinion its not just another Excel book. What? Yet another edition of a book thats not just another statistics book and not just another Excel book? Well yes. You got me there.

So heres the story for the previous three editions and for this one. Many statistics books teach you the concepts but dont give you a way to apply them. That often leads to a lack of understanding. With Excel, you have a ready-made package for applying statistics concepts.

Looking at it from the opposite direction, many Excel books show you Excels capabilities but dont tell you about the concepts behind them. Before I tell you about an Excel statistical tool, I give you the statistical foundation its based on. That way, you understand the tool when you use it and you use it more effectively.

I didnt want to write a book thats just select this menu and click this button. Some of that is necessary, of course, in any book that shows you how to use a software package. My goal was to go way beyond that.

I also didnt want to write a statistics cookbook when-faced-with-problem-#310-use-statistical-procedure-#214. My goal was to go way beyond that, too.

Bottom line: This book isnt just about statistics or just about Excel it sits firmly at the intersection of the two. In the course of telling you about statistics, I cover every Excel statistical feature. (Well almost. I left one out. I left it out of the first three editions, too. Its called Fourier Analysis. All the necessary math to understand it would take a whole book, and you might never use this tool, anyway.)

Although statistics involves a logical progression of concepts, I organized this book so you can open it up in any chapter and start reading. The idea is for you to find what youre looking for in a hurry and use it immediately whether its a statistical concept or an Excel tool.

On the other hand, cover to cover is okay if youre so inclined. If youre a statistics newbie and you have to use Excel for statistical analysis, I recommend you begin at the beginning even if you know Excel pretty well.

Any reference book throws a lot of information at you, and this one is no exception. I intend it all to be useful, but I dont aim it all at the same level. So if youre not deeply into the subject matter, you can avoid paragraphs marked with the Technical Stuff icon.

Every so often, youll run into sidebars. They provide information that elaborates on a topic, but theyre not part of the main path. If youre in a hurry, you can breeze past them.

Because I wrote this book so you can open it up anywhere and start using it, step-by-step instructions appear throughout. Many of the procedures I describe have steps in common. After you go through some of the procedures, you can probably skip the first few steps when you come to a procedure you havent been through before.

This is not an introductory book on Excel or on Windows, so Im assuming:

• You know how to work with Windows. I dont spell out the details of pointing, clicking, selecting, and so forth.
• You have Excel 2016 installed on your Windows computer or on your Mac and you can work along with the examples. I dont walk you through the steps of Excel installation.
• Youve worked with Excel, and you understand the essentials of worksheets and formulas.

If you dont know much about Excel, consider looking into Greg Harveys excellent Excel books in the