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A.3.5 Statistics Window

Statistics Window

Statistics Window

The Statistics Window shows statistics for the values in each of the table's columns. You can display it using the Column Statistics () button when the chosen table is selected in the Control Window's Table List.

The calculated values are displayed in a JTable widget with a row for each column in the main table, and a column for each of a number of statistical quantities calculated on some or all of the values in the data table column corresponding to that grid row. The following columns are shown by default:

Name
The name of the column in the main table represented by this grid row.
Mean
The mean value of the good cells. For boolean columns, this is the proportion of good cells which are True.
S.D.
The standard deviation of the good cells.
Minimum
The minimum value. For numeric columns the meaning of this is quite obvious. For other columns, if an ordering can be reasonably defined on them, the 'smallest' value may be shown. For instance string values will show the entry which would be first alphabetically.
Maximum
As minimum, but shows the largest values.
Good cells
The number of non-blank cells.
Several additional items of statistical information are also calculated, but the columns displaying these are hidden by default to avoid clutter. You can reveal these by using the Display menu:
Index
The index of the column in the table, i.e. the order in which it is displayed.
$ID
The unique identifier label for the column in the main table.
Sum
The sum of all the values in the column. For boolean columns this is a count of the number of True values in the column.
Variance
The variance of the good cells.
Skew
Gamma 1 measure of skewness of the value distribution.
Kurtosis
Gamma 2 measure of peakedness of the value distribution.
Row of min.
The index of the row in the main table at which the minimum value occurred.
Row of max.
The index of the row in the main table at which the maximum value occurred.
Bad cells
The number of blank cells; the sum of this value and the Good cells value will be the same for each column.
Cardinality
If the column contains a small number of distinct values then that number, the column's cardinality will be shown here. Cardinality is the number of distinct values which appear in that column. If the number of values represented is large (currently >50) or a large proportion of the non-bad values (currently >75%) then no value is shown.

The quantities displayed in this window are not necessarily those for the entire table; they are those for a particular Row Subset. At the bottom of the window is the Subset For Calculations selector, which allows you to choose which subset you want the calculations to be done for. By clicking on this you can calculate the statistics for different subsets. When the window is first opened, or when it is invoked from a menu or the toolbar in the Control Window, the subset will correspond to the current row subset.

The toolbar contains the following extra button:

Recalculate
Once statistics have been calculated for a given subset they are cached and not normally recalculated again. Use this button if you want to force a recalculation because the data may have changed.

For a large table the calculations may take a short while. While they are being performed you can interact with the window as normal, but a progress bar is shown at the bottom of the window. If you initiate a new calculation (by pushing the Recalculate button or selecting a new subset) or close the window during a calculation, the superceded calculation will be stopped.


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TOPCAT - Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables
Starlink User Note 253
TOPCAT web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/topcat/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk