PACKAGE |STAT Data Manipulation and Analysis, by Gary Perlman
NAME rankrel - rank order statistics for related samples
SYNOPSIS rankrel [-ry] [-c maxcases] [names]
WEB FORM rankrel can be run from an online web form.
DESCRIPTION rankrel analyses data from ordinally ranked data obtained from related/matched samples. The input consists of scores from several samples, conditions, or groups. Each condition's data are in a separate column. The scores need not be ranks; they will be ranked by the program. For each condition, the number of scores, extrema and quartiles are reported. Conditions are compared for equality of location using the sign test, the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, and the Friedman two-way analysis of variance of ranks. A matrix of Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients (rho) is printed.

The sign test and the Wilcoxon test are only used when there are two conditions. When there are fewer than 25 paired cases that are different, the exact binomial probability is computed; for larger N, the normal approximation is used.

Probability of Obtained Statistics
Functions computing exact probabilities of Wilcoxon and Friedman could not be found when the program was written, so for small samples, statistical tables at the back of a text should be consulted. For large samples, normal and Chi-square approximations are adequate.

OPTIONS
-c maxcases
Set the maximum number of input cases. Use the -L option to see the default.
-r
Request a report of average ranks for conditions.
-s
Stop significance tests from printing. This option is useful when the Spearman rho values are of primary interest.
-y
When computing the normal approximation for the probability of the Wilcoxon test, Yates' correction for continuity is applied. This option stops its use. There are no cases where Yates' correction should not be used, but the option is useful to check textbook examples for accuracy.
The following standard help options are supported. The program exits after displaying the help.
-L
Display limits
-O
Display options and values
-V
Display version number and date
EXAMPLE The following data are from Siegel, page 79. The command names the conditions "school" and "home." 
> rankrel school home
82   63
69   42
73   74
43   37
58   51
56   43
76   80
65   62

sign test: 0.144531 (one-tailed)
Wilcoxon T = 4, N = 8
  p approximated with z: .026892 (one-tailed)
  tabled critical value for T for one-tailed p = .025: 4
Friedman R = 2
Spearman Rank Correlation (rho) = .786
LIMITS Use the -L option to determine the program limits.
MISSING VALUES Cases with missing data values (NA) are counted but not included in the analysis.
SEE ALSO pair, regress, and anova perform the normal-theory parametric counterparts to this non-parametric, distribution-free analysis.
To see a scatterplot of ranks, the ranksort filter can be used as a pre-processor for the pair plotting option.
rankind analyses ordinal data for independent conditions.

Siegel, S. (1956) Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill.

WARNING When the program advises to check a table for exact probabilities of significance tests, it may still compute approximate values. These approximations should not be used for serious work.
UPDATED January 20, 1987