Skip to Content
Statistical Analysis with R For Dummies, 2nd Edition
book

Statistical Analysis with R For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by Joseph Schmuller
July 2025
Beginner
464 pages
9h 31m
English
For Dummies
Content preview from Statistical Analysis with R For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 6

Meeting Standards and Standings

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Standardizing scores

Bullet Making comparisons

Bullet Working with ranks in files

Bullet Rolling in the percentiles

In my left hand, I hold 100 Philippine pesos. In my right, I hold 1,000 Colombian pesos. Which is worth more? Both are called pesos, right? So shouldn’t the 1,000 be greater than the 100? Not necessarily. Peso is just a coincidence of names. Each one comes out of a different country, and each country has its own economy.

To compare the two amounts of money, you have to convert each currency into a standard unit. The most intuitive standard for U.S. citizens is our own currency. How much is each amount worth in dollars and cents? As I write this chapter, 100 Philippine pesos are worth almost $2. One thousand Colombian pesos are worth 23 cents.

So when you compare numbers, context is important. To make valid comparisons across contexts, you often have to convert numbers into standard units. In this chapter, I show you how to use statistics to do just that. Standard units show you where a score stands in relation to other scores within ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Statistical Analysis with R For Dummies

Statistical Analysis with R For Dummies

Joseph Schmuller

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781394343065