A Review of Systat 11

摘要

The differences that I experienced when comparing SYSTAT logistic regression output with that of Stata and SAS was un- typical of what I found when making other comparisons. Analyses that I made between the packages resulted in near identical output. Of course, software packages at times employ differing algorithms for the same statistical procedure. Moreover, toleration and rounding differences can and do occur. To be sure, I did not evaluate every SYSTAT statistical routine, but I did look at those routines and functions that are most commonly used in research. I discussed logistic regression because it had ancillary options that did not closely match output produced in other packages—but this was an anomaly. SYSTAT has for many years been considered one of the leading statistical packages on the market. Its new version 11 offers users a wide range of statistical and graphical capability. The manuals, exercises, online help, and ease of use all help contribute making it a worthwhile package for any research unit.