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On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel 2007

Author

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  • McCullough, B.D.
  • Heiser, David A.

Abstract

Excel 2007, like its predecessors, fails a standard set of intermediate-level accuracy tests in three areas: statistical distributions, random number generation, and estimation. Additional errors in specific Excel procedures are discussed. Microsoft's continuing inability to correctly fix errors is discussed. No statistical procedure in Excel should be used until Microsoft documents that the procedure is correct; it is not safe to assume that Microsoft Excel's statistical procedures give the correct answer. Persons who wish to conduct statistical analyses should use some other package.

Suggested Citation

  • McCullough, B.D. & Heiser, David A., 2008. "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel 2007," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(10), pages 4570-4578, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:csdana:v:52:y:2008:i:10:p:4570-4578
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Hargreaves, Bruce R. & McWilliams, Thomas P., 2010. "Polynomial Trendline function flaws in Microsoft Excel," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1190-1196, April.
    3. John C Frain, 2014. "Applied LATEX for Economists, Social Scientists and Others," Trinity Economics Papers tep0214, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    4. McCullough, B.D., 2008. "Special section on Microsoft Excel 2007," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(10), pages 4568-4569, June.
    5. Oluwarotimi O. Odeh & Allen M. Featherstone & Jason S. Bergtold, 2010. "Reliability of Statistical Software," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1472-1489.
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    7. Su, Yu-Sung, 2008. "It's easy to produce chartjunk using Microsoft®Excel 2007 but hard to make good graphs," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 52(10), pages 4594-4601, June.
    8. A. Yalta & A. Yalta, 2010. "Should Economists Use Open Source Software for Doing Research?," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 371-394, April.
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    11. McCullough, Bruce D. & Yalta, A. Talha, 2013. "Spreadsheets in the Cloud - Not Ready Yet," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 52(i07).
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    14. A. Talha Yalta & A. Yasemin Yalta, 2009. "Wilkinson Tests and gretl," EHUCHAPS, in: Ignacio Díaz-Emparanza & Petr Mariel & María Victoria Esteban (ed.), Econometrics with gretl. Proceedings of the gretl Conference 2009, edition 1, chapter 16, pages 243-251, Universidad del País Vasco - Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales.
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    16. Guy Mélard, 2014. "On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel 2010," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 29(5), pages 1095-1128, October.
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