Discriminant Analysis Via Statistical Packages

Abstract

The two aspects of discriminant analysis are briefly reviewed: predictive discriminant analysis (PDA) and descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA). Use of three popular statistical packages (BMDP, SAS, and SPSS) to obtain computational results for a PDA and for a DDA is generally reviewed. Results yielded by two BMDP procedures (7M and SM) are discussed, as are four SAS procedures (DISCRIM, STEPDISC, CANDISC, and GLM), and two SPSS procedures (DISCRIMINANT and MANOVA). It is pointed out which procedures are used to obtain PDAresults and which are used for PDAresults. Examples of printout information are given. Some of these examples pertain to misleading information-one to incorrect information, and some, of course, to very useful information. The need for nonpackage analyses to generate specific PDA and DDA information is also mentioned.