wilcoxon_test.m

GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. It provides a c

## Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, 1997  Kurt Hornik
## 
## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
## it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
## any later version.
## 
## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
## General Public License for more details. 
## 
## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
## along with this file.  If not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
## 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

## usage:  [pval, z] = wilcoxon_test (x, y [, alt])
##
## For two matched-pair sample vectors x and y, perform a Wilcoxon
## signed-rank test of the null hypothesis PROB(x > y) == 1/2.
## Under the null, the test statistic z approximately follows a
## standard normal distribution. 
##
## With the optional argument string alt, the alternative of interest
## can be selected.  
## If alt is "!=" or "<>", the null is tested against the two-sided
## alternative PROB(x > y) != 1/2.
## If alt is ">", the one-sided alternative PROB(x > y) > 1/2 is
## considered, similarly for "<".
## The default is the two-sided case.
##
## pval is the p-value of the test.
##  
## If no output argument is given, the p-value of the test is displayed.

## Author:  KH <[e-mail]>
## Description:  Wilcoxon signed-rank test
  
function [pval, z] = wilcoxon_test (x, y, alt)
  
  if ((nargin < 2) || (nargin > 3))
    usage ("[pval, z] = wilcoxon_test (x, y [, alt])");
  endif
    
  if (! (is_vector (x) && is_vector (y) && (length (x) == length (y))))
    error ("wilcoxon_test:  x and y must be vectors of the same length");
  endif

  n = length (x);
  x = reshape (x, 1, n);
  y = reshape (y, 1, n);
  d = x - y;
  d = d (find (d != 0));
  n = length (d);
  if (n > 0)
    r = ranks (abs (d));
    z = sum (r (find (d > 0)));
    z = ((z - n * (n + 1) / 4) / sqrt (n * (n + 1) * (2 * n + 1) / 24));
  else
    z = 0;
  endif

  cdf = stdnormal_cdf (z);
  
  if (nargin == 2)
    alt = "!=";
  endif

  if (! isstr (alt))
    error("wilcoxon_test:  alt must be a string");
  elseif (strcmp (alt, "!=") || strcmp (alt, "<>"))
    pval = 2 * min (cdf, 1 - cdf);
  elseif (strcmp (alt, ">"))
    pval = 1 - cdf;
  elseif (strcmp (alt, "<"))
    pval = cdf;
  else
    error (sprintf ("wilcoxon_test:  option %s not recognized", alt));
  endif

  if (nargout == 0)
    printf ("  pval:  %g\n", pval);
  endif
  
endfunction