t-distribution

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The t-distribution (Student’s t-distribution) is a continuous probability distribution that arises in estimating the mean of a normally distributed population when the sample size is small and the population standard deviation is unknown. The larger the sample, the more the t-distribution resembles a normal distribution.

t-distributions for different degrees of freedomThe t-distribution plays a role in many statistical analyses including the Student’s t-test for assessing the statistical significance of the difference between two sample means and in the construction of confidence intervals for the difference between two population means. As the sample size increases, the t-distribution approaches the normal distribution.

Like the F-distribution the t-distribution can be obtained using the regularized incomplete beta function with the following inputs: X = d.f. * t / (d.f. * t * t), a = d.f. / 2 and b = 0.5, where t is the value obtained in the t-test, and d.f. is the degrees of freedom. The source code below applies that method to estimate the probability of the null hypothesis for a given t-value. The code includes the gamma function and the incomplete beta function, which are both used.

[code language="vb"]       
#COMPILE EXE
#REGISTER NONE
#DIM ALL
'
FUNCTION PfromT(BYVAL T AS DOUBLE,BYVAL df AS DOUBLE) AS DOUBLE
    LOCAL Beta, betain AS EXT
    IF ABS(T) > 0.0 AND df > 0.0 THEN
        CALL IncomplBeta(df / (df + T * T), df * 0.5#, 0.5#, Beta, betain)
        FUNCTION = betain
    ELSE
        FUNCTION = 1
    END IF
END FUNCTION
'
FUNCTION PBMAIN
    LOCAL Result AS STRING, P, t, df AS EXT
    LOCAL i1 AS LONG
    Result = INPUTBOX$("Enter t-value, d.f.", "Get p-value")
    i1 = INSTR(Result, ",")
    t = VAL(LEFT$(Result, i1 - 1))
    df = VAL(MID$(Result,i1 + 1))
    P = PfromT(t, df)
    MSGBOX "P=" + FORMAT$(P," ##.##################"), ,"Result:"
END FUNCTION
'
SUB IncomplBeta(BYVAL X AS EXT, BYVAL P AS EXT, BYVAL Q AS EXT, _
    BYREF beta AS EXT, BYREF betain AS EXT)
'
'   Derived from FORTRAN code based on:
'   algorithm AS 63  Appl. Statist. (1973), vol.22, no.3
'   Computes incomplete beta function ratio for arguments
'   X between zero and one, p (=a) and q (=b) positive.
'   Returns log beta and Regularized Incomplete Beta
'
    LOCAL ns, indx AS LONG
    LOCAL zero, one, acu AS EXT
    LOCAL psq, cx, xx, pp, qq, term, ai, rx, temp AS EXT

'   define accuracy and initialise
    zero = 0.0 : one = 1.0 : acu = 1.0E-18
    betain = 0.0 : beta = 0.0

'   test for admissibility of arguments
    IF(p <= zero OR q <= zero) THEN EXIT SUB
    IF(x < zero OR x > one) THEN EXIT SUB
    IF(x = zero OR x = one) THEN EXIT SUB

'   calculate log of beta by using function GammLn
    beta = gammln(p) + gammln(q) - gammln(p + q)
    betain = x

'   change tail if necessary
    psq = p + q
    cx = one - x
    IF (p < psq * x) THEN
        xx = cx
        cx = x
        pp = q
        qq = p
        indx = 1
    ELSE
        xx = x
        pp = p
        qq = q
        indx = 0
    END IF
    term = one
    ai = one
    betain = one
    ns = qq + cx * psq

'   use Soper's reduction formulae.
    rx = xx / cx
    temp = qq - ai
    IF (ns = 0) THEN rx = xx
    DO
        term = term * temp * rx / (pp + ai)
        betain = betain + term
        temp = ABS(term)
        IF(temp <= acu AND temp <= acu * betain) THEN EXIT DO 
        ai = ai + one 
        ns = ns - 1 
        IF (ns >= 0) THEN
            temp = qq - ai
            IF (ns = 0) THEN rx = xx
        ELSE
            temp = psq
            psq = psq + one
        END IF
    LOOP

'   calculate Regularized Incomplete Beta
    betain = betain * EXP(pp * LOG(xx) + (qq - one) * LOG(cx) - beta) / pp
    IF indx = 1 THEN betain = one - betain
END SUB
'
FUNCTION GammLn(BYVAL x AS EXT) AS EXT

    ' Returns Ln(Gamma()) or 0 on error
    ' Based on Numerical Recipes gamma.h
    ' Lanczos, C. 1964, "A Precision Approximation
    ' of the Gamma Function," SIAM Journal on Numerical
    ' Analysis, ser. B, vol. 1, pp. 86-96.

    LOCAL j AS LONG, tmp, y, ser AS EXT
    DIM cof(0 TO 13) AS LOCAL EXT
    cof(0) = 57.1562356658629235
    cof(1) = -59.5979603554754912
    cof(2) = 14.1360979747417471
    cof(3) = -0.491913816097620199
    cof(4) = 0.339946499848118887e-4
    cof(5) = 0.465236289270485756e-4
    cof(6) = -0.983744753048795646e-4
    cof(7) = 0.158088703224912494e-3
    cof(8) = -0.210264441724104883e-3
    cof(9) = 0.217439618115212643e-3
    cof(10) = -0.164318106536763890e-3
    cof(11) = 0.844182239838527433e-4
    cof(12) = -0.261908384015814087e-4
    cof(13) = 0.368991826595316234e-5
    IF x <= 0.0 THEN FUNCTION = 0.0 : EXIT FUNCTION ' Bad argument
    y = x
    tmp = x + 5.2421875
    tmp = (x + 0.5) * LOG(tmp) - tmp
    ser = 0.999999999999997092
    FOR j = 0 TO 13
        y = y + 1
        ser = ser + cof(j)/y
    NEXT j
    FUNCTION = tmp + LOG(2.5066282746310005 * ser / x)
END FUNCTION

[/code]

Enter t-value and degrees of freedom

Result: two-sided probability

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