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The Fisher Exact test for an RxC table is the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Test

Troubleshooting


Problem

Does SPSS provide the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Exact Test for contingency tables that are larger than 2x2? Freeman, G.H., & Halton, T.R. (1951). Note on exact treatment of contingency, goodness-of-fit and other problems of significance. Biometrika, 38, 141-149.

Resolving The Problem

With the Exact Tests module installed, the Crosstabs procedure can print the Fisher-Freeman-Halton exact test of independence when the contingency table is larger than 2x2. If Exact Tests is installed, then the main Crosstabs dialog will have a button labelled "Exact". Click this button and then click the radio button beside "Exact" in the "Exact Tests" dialog that opens. Click Continue. Click the Statistics button in the main Crosstabs dialog and then click the "Chi-square" check box in the Statistics dialog box. Here is a sample syntax command with these choices:

CROSSTABS
/TABLES=row BY col
/STATISTICS=CHISQ
/METHOD=EXACT.

The result labeled as Fisher's Exact test in the output is in fact the Fisher-Freeman-Halton Test. Note that a chi-square value is not calculated or printed for this test, although it was requested by the chi-square check box or the CHISQ keyword. An exact 2-sided significance is printed.

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Historical Number

42474

Document Information

Modified date:
16 April 2020

UID

swg21479647