STATISTICAL DATA

ANALYSIS – I
& MINISTATISTICAL DATA ANALYSIS - 1
Step by Step Guide to SPSS & MINITAB
Second Edition
Copyright © (2020) Lakmini U. Mallawarachchi

Second Edition June 2020

ISBN: 979-8653934339

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the
publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews
permitted by copyright law.

i
STATISTICAL DATA ANALYSIS - 1
Step by Step Guide to SPSS & MINITAB

Lakmini U. Mallawarachchi

MSc in Business Statistics Degree (University of Moratuwa,

Sri Lanka)

Master of Financial Economics Degree (University of Colombo,

Sri Lanka)

BSc in Business Management (Special-Project Management) Degree

(NSBM Green University, Sri Lanka)

ii
Preface

Statistical Data Analysis -1, Step by Step Guide to SPSS & MINITAB, takes a
straight forward, step by step approach that makes familiar to SPSS and
MINITAB softwares.

This book covers the basics of descriptive statistical analysis and data
presentation techniques using SPSS and MINITAB, in a simple language
with several examples to make easier for a beginner to understand with
less effort. Most importantly, this book is ideal for undergraduates who
need to complete their data analysis in research studies using SPSS and
MINITAB softwares.

I hope that this book will be very much useful to students, instructors and
researchers in applied and social sciences. Additionally, this book can also
be used as a self-study material and text book.

Any suggestions to further improve the contents of this edition would be

warmly appreciated.

Lakmini U. Mallawarachchi

June 2020

iii
Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1

1.1 Introduction to SPSS software................................................................................................1

1.1.1 Opening SPSS software ...................................................................................................................... 1

1.1.2 Entering the data in to SPSS ........................................................................................................... 2

1.1.3 Saving the data in to SPSS ................................................................................................................ 7

1.2 Introduction to MINITAB ..........................................................................................................7

1.2.1 Opening MINITAB software ........................................................................................................... 8

1.2.2 Entering the data in to MINITAB ................................................................................................ 8

1.2.3 Saving the data in to MINITAB .................................................................................................... 9

CHAPTER TWO: SUMMARY STATISTICS ............................................................................... 11

2.1 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................................................ 11

CHAPTHER THREE: GRAPHICAL PRESENTATION ........................................................... 22

3.1 Frequency Distribution ........................................................................................................... 22

3.2 Graphical presentation of data in SPSS & MINITAB .................................................. 29

3.2.1 Bar Graph.................................................................................................................................................. 30

3.2.2 Histogram ................................................................................................................................................. 41

3.2.3 Pie Chart .................................................................................................................................................... 45

3.2.4 Scatter plot .............................................................................................................................................. 48

3.2.5 Line graph ................................................................................................................................................ 53

3.2.6 Box plot ...................................................................................................................................................... 57

REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................................................... 63

iv
Examples

Example 1.1 .............................................................................................................................................4

Example 1.2 .............................................................................................................................................7

Example 2.1 .............................................................................................................................................8

Example 3.1 .......................................................................................................................................... 19

Example 3.2 .......................................................................................................................................... 21

Example 3.3. ......................................................................................................................................... 26

Example 3.4 .......................................................................................................................................... 29

Example 3.5 .......................................................................................................................................... 32

Example 3.6 .......................................................................................................................................... 35

Example 3.7 .......................................................................................................................................... 37

Example 3.8 .......................................................................................................................................... 39

Example 3.9 .......................................................................................................................................... 40

Example 3.10 ....................................................................................................................................... 44

Example 3.11 ....................................................................................................................................... 48

Example 3.12 ....................................................................................................................................... 53

v
 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction to SPSS software

The “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences” (SPSS) is a package of

programs that is widely used in social and behavioral science for
manipulating, analyzing, and presenting data.

1.1.1 Opening SPSS software

To open the SPSS software, double click the icon on desktop or go

through the windows start menu and click on the SPSS

window will appear as follows.

There are three main categories in the SPSS window such as menu bar,
tool bar and output viewer window.

1
 Menu
Bar Tool Bar

Menu bar indicates menus with all the features that are required to
manage data and other files. Tool bar is useful to access many features.
SPSS directly sends the output to output viewer window.

1.1.2 Entering the data in to SPSS

After opening the SPSS sheet, you can see this at left hand bottom of the
SPSS sheet.

Usually, data is entered in to data view and the characteristics of the

variable are assigned through the variable view.

Attributes of Variable View

 Name: When typing the name of the variable, must start with a letter,
no spaces are allowed, no special characters or symbols should be
included, must be unique with the data set.
 Type: It depends on the data entered on the Name Column. Default
Type is Numeric with two decimal places. There are various types
available as shown below.
2
 Width: It indicates the maximum number of characters that is
allowed for each response.
 Decimals: Number of decimal places available especially for the
numerical variables.
 Label: Indicates the full name of the variable. Unlike in the variable
name, the label may include spaces or special characters.
 Values: This includes the list of valid options available for the
variable. Example: For the Gender variable, values are 1- Male and 2-
Female.
 Missing: This shows the values being used when response is not
applicable or not answered.
 Columns: It is about the width of the data column for this variable.
i.e. the number of characters included.
 Align: It is whether the data should be presented on either left, right
or center.
 Measure: It’s about the level of measurement of the variable. There
are four types of measurements. i.e. nominal, scale and ordinal.

3
 - Usually, nominal variable is for the qualitative variable, and do
not represent any ranking such as sex, race, district etc.
- Scale variable measures the quantity such as no of people, age,
distance, weight, amount of money. i.e. for quantitative variables.
- Ordinal variable is for the qualitative variables such as level of
education, level of satisfaction, etc.

Example 1.1: Enter the following data set in to SPSS work sheet.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A
2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B
2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

Step 1: Click the ‘variable view’ tab. Type the names of the variables
under the ‘Name’ column.

4
Step 2: Click ‘data view’ tab. Each variable name that is entered under
the ‘variable view’ will now be included in columns as shown below.

Step 3: Enter the values in to each case.

Step 4: Repeat these steps to enter all the data included in the table
given in Example 1.1.

5
1.1.3 Saving the data in to SPSS

Step 1: File  Save as

Step 2: In the ‘Save Data As’ dialogue box, enter the name you want to
save the data, inside the white space given in front of ‘ File name’ .
Usually, in SPSS files save as .sav type.

Step 3: Press ‘save’ button to save the file on the computer.

6
1.2 Introduction to MINITAB

MINITAB is another software used for Statistical Analysis. It is very user

friendly as it uses pull-down menus. The functionality of MINITAB is
accessible through interactive windows and menus, or through a
command language called session commands.

In MINITAB, there are three windows such as Data window, Session

window and The Project manager. Data window is a worksheet in a
spreadsheet format, with rows and columns that intersect to form
individual cells. The text output generated by the analyses is displayed
in this Session window. The Project Manager window contains folders
that allow one to navigate, view, and manipulate various parts of the
project.

Session
Window

Data
Window

7
1.2.1 Opening MINITAB software

From the Windows Taskbar, choose Start  Programs  MINITAB

14 . The first screen of MINITAB are shown as below,

1.2.2 Entering the data in to MINITAB

Generally, data are entered into MINITAB in the same way as entering
them into Excel. Through typing or using arrows data can be easily
moved on to the next cell.

Example 1.2: Enter the following data set in to MINITAB software.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A

8
 2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B
2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

Step 1: Type the data in the table in to the ‘Data window’ and the output
is given in the ‘session window’.

1.2.3 Saving the data in to MINITAB

Step 1: File  Save Project As

9
Step 2: In the ‘Save Project As’ dialogue box, enter the name you want to
save the data, inside the white space given in front of ‘File name’.
Usually, in SPSS files save as .MPJ type.

Step 3: Press ‘save’ button to save the file on the computer.

10
 CHAPTER TWO: SUMMARY STATISTICS

2.1 Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive Statistics are used to describe or summarize data in ways

that are meaningful and useful. There are two types of statistic that are
used to describe data. i.e. measures of central tendency and measures of
variability, or dispersion. Mean, median, and mode are the three
measures of central tendency. Measure of dispersion includes the range,
variance, and standard deviation.

Example 2.1: Get the descriptive statistics. i.e. mean, mode, median,
range, variance and standard deviation for the below data set using
SPSS.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A
2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B
2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

11
Method 01- Using the Descriptives command

Step 1: Analyze  Descriptive Statistics  Descriptives

Step 2: In the ‘Descriptives’ dialog box, add the desired variables (using
the arrow) in to the list of variables that are required to analyze.

12
Step 3: Click the options button to select the descriptive measures and
press the continue button.

Step 4: Press the continue button in the ‘Descriptives’ dialog box to

generate the output given below.

Descriptive Statistics

N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Variance

Deviation

Sales 11 93 295 388 338.82 30.420 925.364

Valid N (listwise) 11

Interpretation of descriptive statistics

According to the output obtained above, the variable ‘sales’ have 11

figures and the range of sales is from 295 to 388 with a mean of 338.82.
The standard deviation is 30.420 and the variance is 925.364.

13
Method 02 – Using the Frequencies command

Step 1: Analyze  Descriptive Statistics  Frequencies

Step 2: In the ‘Frequencies’ dialog box, add the desired variables (using
the arrow) in to the list of variables that are required to analyze. Select
the statistics option to proceed.

14
Step 3: Select the descriptive measures and press the continue button.

Step 4: Press the ok button in the ‘Frequencies’ dialog box to generate

the output given below.

15
Method 03 – Using the Explore command

Step 1: Analyze  Descriptive Statistics  Explore

Step 2: In the ‘Explore’ dialog box, add the desired variables using the
arrow in to the dependent list that are required to analyze.

16
Step 3: Under display, if you want to get only the summarized data,
select ‘statistics’ option. Otherwise, select ‘plots’ option to specify the
type of plot you want to include in the output.

Step 4: Press the ‘statistics’ button to select the descriptive measures for
the output and press continue.

Step 5: Press the ok button in the ‘Explore’ dialog box to generate the output
given below.

17
*Note: In SPSS, there are three methods that can be used to obtain
the descriptive statistical measures for a particular data set. When
determining the SPSS command, it’s important to select the one
that provides the information you need in a preferable format.

In MINITAB,

Method 01

Step 1: Stat Basic Statistics  Display Descriptive Statistics

18
Step 2: In the ‘Display Descriptive Statistics’ dialog box, add the desired
variables in to the variables list that are required to analyze.

Step 3: Press the ‘statistics’ button to select the measures for the output.
After selecting the expected statistical measures, click the ok button.

Step 4: Press the ok button in the ‘Descriptives’ dialog box to generate

the output as given below.

19
Method 02

Step 1: Stat Basic Statistics  Graphical Summary

Step 2: In the ‘Graphical Summary’ dialog box, add the desired variables
in to the variables list that are required to analyze.

20
Step 3: Click the ok button in the ‘Graphical Summary’ dialog box to
generate the output as presented below.

Summary for Sales

A nderson-Darling N ormality Test
A -S quared 0.20
P -V alue 0.845
M ean 338.82
S tDev 30.42
V ariance 925.36
S kew ness 0.231257
Kurtosis -0.973454
N 11
M inimum 295.00
1st Q uartile 310.00
M edian 335.00
3rd Q uartile 361.00
300 320 340 360 380 M aximum 388.00
95% C onfidence Interv al for M ean
318.38 359.25
95% C onfidence Interv al for M edian
309.59 362.56
95% C onfidence Interv al for S tDev
9 5 % C onfidence Inter vals
21.25 53.38
Mean

Median

310 320 330 340 350 360 370

21
 CHAPTHER THREE: GRAPHICAL PRESENTATION

3.1 Frequency Distribution

The number of observations that relates into particular class (or

category) of the qualitative variable is called the frequency (or count) of
that class. A table listing all classes and their frequencies is called a
frequency distribution.

Cumulative frequency (cumulative relative frequency) is obtained by

summing the frequencies (relative frequencies) of all classes up to the
specific class. In a case of qualitative variables, cumulative frequencies
makes sense only for ordinal variables, not for nominal variables.

Generally, by using SPSS and Minitab, raw data is processed. This means,
each unit of sample is entered one at a time. As for an example, if the
sample size is 100, there will be 100 rows of data in the data file.
However, both these softwares have the options to analyze these data
and produce results in the form of a frequency table.

Example 3.1: Get the frequency distribution, for the data set.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A
2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B

22
 2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

Step 1: Analyze  Descriptive Statistics Frequencies

Step 2: In the ‘Frequencies’ dialog box, add the desired variables in to

the list of variables that are required to analyze.

23
Step 3: In order to obtain the frequency distribution in the output, make
sure that the box labeled as display frequency tables is checked.

Step 4: Click the ok button in the ‘Frequencies’ dialog box to generate

the output as presented below

Example 3.2: Ages of 38 people are given below.

34,60,40,72,37,33,42,62,49,32,52,40,31,19,68,55,58,54,37,32,54,38,20,5
0, 56,48,35,52,29,56,68,65,45,42,54,39,29,56

Summarize the data in a frequency table by using SPSS.

*Note: When a data set is large it is important to present them in a

meaningful manner for which all the observations in the data set
could be grouped in to classes or categories already selected. Thus

24
a table of classes and their corresponding frequencies can be
developed and it is called a grouped frequency distribution.

The number of classes of a frequency distribution is somewhat

arbitrary. In general the frequency table should have 5-15 (or 20)
classes.

In SPSS,

Step 1: Transform  Recode in to different variables

Step 2: In the ‘Recode in to different variables’ dialogue box, select Age

as the numeric variable and under the output variable, include new
name as ‘Age_cat’ and press ‘change’.

25
Step 3: In the ‘Recode in to different variables’ dialogue box, click ‘old
and new values’ button.

Step 4: In the ‘Recode in to different variables’ dialogue box, click ‘old

and new values’ button.

26
Step 5: Recode the numbers in to new values as shown in the following
boxes and press continue.

*Note: Assume the width of the class is 10 and it should be indicated in

the SPSS software as follows.

27
Step 6: Change the value labels as indicated below.

Step 7: Analyze  Descriptive Statistics Frequencies  Charts  Bar

Charts

28
Step 8: Generated SPSS output is indicated as follows.

Age in Categories
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
0<19 1 2.6 2.6 2.6
20<29 3 7.9 7.9 10.5
30<39 10 26.3 26.3 36.8
40<49 7 18.4 18.4 55.3
Valid
50<59 11 28.9 28.9 84.2
60<69 5 13.2 13.2 97.4
70<79 1 2.6 2.6 100.0
Total 38 100.0 100.0

Interpretation

According to the above table for ‘age categories’, there is about 11

people within the age category of (50-59) followed by 10 people within
the age category of (30-39). Further, there’s only one person within the
age categories of (0-19) and (70-79) years.

29
3.2 Graphical presentation of data in SPSS & MINITAB

3.2.1 Bar Graph

Example 3.3: Draw a bar graph using the data given below.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A
2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B
2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

Method 01 – Drawing a bar graph

Step 1: Graphs  Chart Builder

30
Step 2: In the ‘Chart Builder’ dialog box, press ok to proceed.

Step 3: Under Gallery, there are few options to select. It depends on your
requirement, either to draw a bar graph, line graph, pie chart, histogram
or a scatter plot.

Step 4: Graphs  Chart Builder  Bar

Step 5: Drag and drop the bar graph in the white space provided above.
(Refer below graph)

31
Step 6: In order to define the x axis and y axis, select the appropriate
variables given in the variables column.

Step 7: Then drag and drop each variable, each time at the space given
for the x and y axis as shown below.

32
Step 8: Press ok button to get the output as follows.

Method 02 – Drawing a bar graph

Exercise 3.4: Let the blood types of 30 persons are as follows:

OAOABAOOAAOBOBOAOOAAAABBAABAAO

Draw a bar graph for the above data given.

In SPSS,

Step 1: Graphs  Legacy Dialogs  Bar

33
Step 2: In the ‘Bar Charts’ dialogue box, select simple, if you need to
draw a graph for a single variable. Then select the option of ‘Summaries
for groups of cases’ and press define to proceed.

Step 3: In the ‘Define Simple Bar: Summaries for Groups of Cases’

dialogue box, select N of cases and insert blood group for the categorical
axis. Then press ok.

34
Step 4: Click the ok button in the ‘Define Simple Bar: Summaries for
Groups of Cases’ dialogue box to generate the output as presented
below.

Step 5: Double click on the bar graph, to make changes in the graph.

35
Example 3.5: Draw a bar graph for the following frequency table for
ages.

Age in Categories
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent

0<19 1 2.6 2.6 2.6

20<29 3 7.9 7.9 10.5
30<39 10 26.3 26.3 36.8
40<49 7 18.4 18.4 55.3
Valid
50<59 11 28.9 28.9 84.2
60<69 5 13.2 13.2 97.4
70<79 1 2.6 2.6 100.0
Total 38 100.0 100.0

Enter the data in to SPSS, by allocating a code for each of the age
categories and carry out the previously discussed steps to draw the bar
graph.

36
Interpretation

According to the above graph, majority of the respondents are within

the age category of (50-59) years. The lowest number of respondents is
in between the age category of (70-79) years.

In MINITAB,

Step 1: Graph  Bar Chart

Step 2: In the ‘Bar Chart’ dialogue box, under Bars represent, select
‘Counts of unique values’ option and simple graph. Then press ok.

37
Step 3: In the ‘Bar Chart’ dialogue box, select ‘blood group’ as the
categorical variable and press ok button.

Step 4: Generated MINITAB output is indicated as follows.

Chart of Blood Group

14

12

10

8
Count

0
A B O
Blood Group

38
According to the above bar graph, there is around 14 people in blood
group of A, 6 people in blood group of B and 10 people in blood group of
O.

Bar Graph for Likert Scale

Example 3.6: Analyze the following questions used in a questionnaire

using SPSS.

Q01. I'm satisfied with my basic salary

Q02. I'm satisfied with the overtime payment scheme of the company.
Q03. I'm satisfied with the bonus scheme of this company.
Q04. I'm satisfied with the transparency of the incentive scheme of this
company.
Q05. I'm satisfied with the welfare activities organized by the company.

Likert scale: 1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4–Agree, 5-

Strongly Agree

In SPSS, Step 1: Analyze  Tables  Custom Tables

39
Step 2: Variables need to be included in the rows, instead in the
columns, and need to get the row percentages. Further, it’s required to
choose for the Category Position the option "Row Labels in Columns".

Step 3: Generated SPSS output is indicated as follows.

Strongly Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree
Disagree Agree
Q01. I'm satisfied with
15% 35% 30% 10% 10%
my basic salary
Q02. I'm satisfied with
the overtime payment 10% 45% 20% 20% 5%
scheme of the company.
Q03. I'm satisfied with
the bonus scheme of 10% 40% 30% 10% 10%
this company.
Q04. I'm satisfied with
the transparency of the
incentive scheme of this 10% 40% 25% 15% 10%
company.

40
Q05. I'm satisfied with
the welfare activities
organized by the 0% 30% 30% 30% 10%
company.

Step 4: After obtaining the SPSS output, bar graph can be drawn in the
similar way as explained in Exercise 3.4.

3.2.2 Histogram

Histogram is a special type of a bar graph that is frequently used to

represent the distribution of the continuous data. Unlike in bar charts,
there are no gaps in between classes.

Example 3.7: Draw a histogram using SPSS.

Age Categories Frequency Codes for Age

categories
0-19 1 1
20-29 3 2
30-39 10 3
40-49 7 4
50-59 11 5
60-69 5 6
70-79 1 7
Total 38

In SPSS,

Step 1: Graph  Legacy Dialogs  Histogram

41
Step 2: In the ‘Histogram’ dialogue box, under variable include ‘age in
categories” and press ok.

Step 3: Generated SPSS output is indicated as follows.

42
Example 3.8: Ages of 38 people are given below.

34,60,40,72,37,33,42,62,49,32,52,40,31,19,68,55,58,54,37,32,54,38,20,5
0, 56,48,35,52,29,56,68,65,45,42,54,39,29,56

Draw a histogram using MINITAB.

Step 1: Graph  Histogram

43
Step 2: In the ‘Histogram’ dialogue box, select ‘simple’ and press ok to
proceed.

Step 3: Generated MINITAB output is indicated as follows.

Histogram of Age

5
Frequency

0
20 30 40 50 60 70
Age

44
3.2.3 Pie Chart

Exercise 3.9: Let the blood types of 30 persons are as follows:

OAOABAOOAAOBOBOAOOAAAABBAABAAO

Draw a pie chart for the Blood groups using SPSS and MINITAB.

In SPSS,

Step 1: Graph  Pie Chart

Step 2: In the ‘Pie Charts’ dialogue box, select ‘Summaries for groups of
cases’ and click the define button.

45
Step 3: In the ‘Pie Charts’ dialogue box, insert ‘Blood Group’ to the space
named as ‘Define Slices by’ and press ok to proceed.

Step 4: Generated SPSS output is indicated as follows.

46
In MINITAB,

Step 1: Graph  Pie Chart

Step 2: In the ‘pie chart’ dialogue box, select ‘Blood Group’ as the
categorical variable and press ok.

Step 3: Generated MINITAB output is presented as follows.

47
 Pie Chart of Blood Group
Category
A
B
O

33.3%

46.7%

20.0%

Interpretation

According to the above pie chart, 46.7% persons are having the Blood
group of A and 33.3% of persons are having the blood group of 33.3%.
Only 20% of individuals are having the blood group of O.

3.2.4 Scatter plot

Exercise 3.10: Draw a scatter plot using the data given below.

X Y
1 5
2 8
3 12
4 10
5 14
6 9
7 15
8 14
9 17
10 21

48
In SPSS,

Step 1: Graph  Legacy Dialogs  Scatter/Dot

Step 2: Select ‘Simple Scatter’ and click on ‘Define’.

Step 3: Select ‘Y’ variable as the Y axis and ‘X’ variable as the X axis and
press ok.

49
Step 4: Generated SPSS output is given below.

Interpretation
According to the above scatter plot, there’s a positive relationship
between X and Y.

50
In MINITAB,

Step 1: Graph  Scatter plot

Step 2: In the ‘Scatter plots’ dialogue box, select ‘simple’ and press ok.

51
Step 3: Select ‘Y’ variable as the Y axis and ‘X’ variable as the X axis and
press ok.

Step 4: Generated MINITAB output is given below.

Scatterplot of Y vs X
22.5

20.0

17.5

15.0
Y

12.5

10.0

7.5

5.0

0 2 4 6 8 10
X

52
3.2.5 Line graph

Exercise 3.11: Draw a line graph for the data given in the table.

Year Month Sales Company

2018 January 310 A
2018 February 305 A
2018 March 295 A
2018 April 340 A
2018 November 361 A
2018 December 380 A
2019 January 388 B
2019 February 358 B
2019 March 320 B
2019 April 335 B
2019 June 335 B

In SPSS,

Step 1: Graph  Chart Builder

53
Step 2: Drag and drop the Line graph in the white space provided above.
(Refer below graph)

Step 3: Select ‘months’ as the x axis and ‘sales’ as the y axis.

Step 4: Generated SPSS output for line graph is shown below.

54
*Note: In MINITAB, line graph can be drawn using the scatter plot.

Step 1: Graph  Scatter plot

55
Step 2: In the ‘scatter plot’ dialogue box, select ‘with connect line’ and
press ok button.

Step 3: In the ‘scatter plot’ dialogue box enter ‘sales’ as the Y variable
and ‘months’ as the x variable and press ok button.

56
Step 4: Generated MNITAB output is given below.

Scatterplot of Sales vs Month

400

380

360
Sales

340

320

300

January March May July September November

Month

Interpretation

According to the above line graph, there are fluctuations in sales over
the period of January 2018 June 2019.

3.2.6 Box plot

A boxplot consists of box and 2 tails. The horizontal line inside the box
shows the position of the median and its upper and lower boundaries
are its upper and lower quartiles. The tails run to the most extreme
values. Boxplot in sum shows structure of the data along with its
skewness and spread.

57
Example 3.12: Student’s GPA at the university are recorded as follows.

3.75, 3.98, 3.92, 3.32, 3.44, 3.10, 2.54, 2.43, 2.80, 2.41

Draw a box plot using SPSS and MINITAB.

In SPSS,

Step 1: Graph  Legacy Dialogs  Box plot

Step 2: In the ‘Box plot’ dialogue box, select simple option and under
Data in chart, select ‘summaries of separate variables and press define
to proceed.

58
Step 3: In the ‘Box plot’ dialogue box, insert GPA to the space labeled as
‘Boxes represent’ and press ok to proceed.

59
Step 4: Generated SPSS output is given below.

Max

Q3

Q2
Median

Q1

Min

A box plot is used to display the distribution of data using the five
number summary. i.e. minimum, Q1- first quartile, Q2- second quartile
(Median), Q3- third quartile and maximum.

According to the above box plot, minimum value = 2.41, Q1=2.51,

Q2=3.21, Q3=3.79, maximum value=3.98.

*Note: In a box plot, if there are any outliers exist, it should be in

the outside of the minimum and maximum values. According to the
above box plot, there are no outliers.

In MINITAB,

Step 1: Graph  Legacy Dialogs  Box plot

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Step 2: In the ‘Box plot’ dialogue box, select simple option and press ok
button to proceed.

Step 3: In the ‘Box plot’ dialogue box, insert GPA to the space labeled as
‘Boxes represent’ and press ok to proceed.

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Step 4: Generated MINITAB output is given below.

Boxplot of GPA

4.00

3.75

3.50

3.25
GPA

3.00

2.75

2.50

Interpretation

According to the above box plot, minimum value = 2.41, Q1=2.51,

Q2=3.21, Q3=3.79, maximum value=3.98. Almost similar results were
obtained in the SPSS output .

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REFERENCES

1. Argyrous G. (2013) Statistics for Research, With a Guide to SPSS.

Third Edition. (ISBN-13: 978-1849205948)

2. Crawshaw J. and Chambers J. (2001). A Concise Course in Advanced

Level Statistics: With Worked Examples. Fifteenth Edition. Oxford
Publisher.

3. Evans M. J and Rosenthal J.S (2009). Probability and Statistics. The

Science of Uncertainty. Second Edition. University of Toronto.

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