Aisawan Chankarn. Efficiency comparison of Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Wondows applications in statistical analysis . Master's Degree(Applied Mathematics). Mahidol University. : Mahidol University, 2006.
Efficiency comparison of Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Wondows applications in statistical analysis
Abstract:
At present, software packages are essential tools in doing almost every branch of
research. Therefore, a great number of software packages have been developed.
Among programs of this kind, Excel and SPSS are well-known and have been used by
a lot of researchers.
The purpose of this study is to compare the two software packages in the
following three aspects: 1. capabilities in statistical analysis, 2. accuracy of calculated
values of statistics from the programs, and 3. convenience in using commands for
statistical analysis and managing results obtained from the programs. The comparison
was performed with six types of statistical procedures that the two programs can do.
Friedman two-way analysis of variance by ranks was applied for analyzing the first
aspect. For analyzing the second aspect, the study used the Wilcoxon matched-pairs
signed-ranks test. Finally, for the third aspect, data collected from questionnaires given
by the National Statistical Office to users between February 14, 2006 and March 7,
2006 were analyzed by using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test.
The results are that, for the same six types of statistical procedures, capabilities
in statistical analysis of the two programs are not significantly different. For the
second aspect, calculated values of statistics with SPSS were more accurate than that
of Excel in regard to descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA with replication for
integer data. Furthermore, the calculated values of statistics with SPSS were more
accurate than Excel in regard to two-way ANOVA with replication for real data.
Finally, for the third aspect, the results showed that there is no difference in
convenience of using commands for statistical analysis, but Excel is more convenient
than SPSS in managing results