CHAPTER 33Analyzing Data with the Analysis ToolPak

Although Excel was designed primarily for business users, people in other disciplines, including education, research, statistics, and engineering, also use the software. One way Excel addresses these nonbusiness users is with its Analysis ToolPak add-in. However, many features in the Analysis ToolPak are valuable for business applications as well.

The Analysis ToolPak: An Overview

The Analysis ToolPak is an add-in that provides analytical capability that normally isn't available in Excel.

These analysis tools offer many features that may be useful to those in the scientific, engineering, and educational communities—not to mention business users whose needs extend beyond the normal spreadsheet fare.

This section provides a quick overview of the types of analyses that you can perform with the Analysis ToolPak. This chapter covers each of the following tools:

  • Analysis of variance (three types)
  • Correlation
  • Covariance
  • Descriptive statistics
  • Exponential smoothing
  • F-test
  • Fourier analysis
  • Histogram
  • Moving average
  • Random number generation
  • Rank and percentile
  • Regression
  • Sampling
  • T-test (three types)
  • Z-test

As you can see, the Analysis ToolPak add-in brings a great deal of additional functionality to Excel. These procedures have limitations, however. In some cases, you may prefer to create your own formulas ...

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