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jamesson_kaupanger's avatar
jamesson_kaupanger
Copper Contributor
Sep 09, 2019
Solved

Looking for trends in unrelated related data

I don't know if this is in the exact right spot, but here goes.   Let's say that I'm a biologist analyzing litters of puppies:   I've got six litters I want to analyze. Each of those litters co...
  • IngeborgHawighorst's avatar
    IngeborgHawighorst
    Sep 13, 2019

    jamesson_kaupanger 

     

    What constitutes "wrong" fur color?

     

    In your sample above, the Fur color is a numerical value. If you want to mark this as either right or wrong, then that is already one piece of analysis that you need to undertake in a separate step.

     

    For example, you could create a column in the data that shows "fur color status", for which the value can be wrong or right or whatever. To arrive at the value, you may want to employ a formula that evaluates some of the other properties of that puppy. Maybe skin colors below 10 should have fur colors over 100 and if the fur color is not over 100, it is classified as wrong. Or something like that. An IF function should do the trick. With that function in place, you can then classify the data by the fur color status.

     

    • Do Puppies from Litter 2 have a higher-than-average rate of wrong fur color?

    Create a pivot table that shows the average rate for each fur color status in the columns, the litter numbers in the rows.

      fur color status
    Litter correct wrong
    1 80% 20%
    2 75% 25%
    3 95% 5%
    4 19% 89%
    overall 67% 35%

     

    • Do all Puppy 4s have a higher-than-average rate of wrong fur color?

    use a similar table, but with puppy numbers in the rows.

     

    • Do all Site 21s have a higher-than-average rate of wrong fur color?

    use a similar table, but with site numbers in the rows.

     

    • If a Puppy's fur color is wrong, does that mean there's a greater-than-average likelihood that their fur length is wrong?
    • If a Puppy's fur color is wrong, does that mean there's a greater-than-average likelihood that their eye color is wrong?

    The first three bullets were simple calculations. These last two are about probability and go deeper into the realm of statistical analysis. Again, you will first need to build the structures (helper columns) required to classify by fur length status and eye color status.

     

    If you load the data into the Power Pivot data model, you can add the helper columns there. You can then also use the powerful statistical DAX functions  to create measures and then surface the results in pivot tables.

     

    I'm not sure whether your question is more about understanding how Excel works, or what math to use to calculate a value with several variables, or if you need help with the whole concept of statistical analysis. 

     

    Neither of these can be explained in a single forum question, because they each have their own learning curves.

     

     

     

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