SHAZAM Output File

SHAZAM Output File


As SHAZAM executes the commands listed in the SHAZAM command file it writes results to an output file. The output file may also contain error messages. With Windows SHAZAM the output is displayed in the SHAZAM window.

The SHAZAM output filename is specified by the user. It may be useful to use the extension .OUT for SHAZAM output files. Then a file with a name like WORK.OUT is immediately recognizable as a SHAZAM output file.

As an example, consider the SHAZAM program that analyzes the Theil textile data. The output that is produced from a STAT command is below.

 |_* Summary statistics for the log-transformed data set
 |_STAT LCONS LINC LPRICE / PCOV PCOR
 NAME        N   MEAN        ST. DEV      VARIANCE     MINIMUM      MAXIMUM
 LCONS       17   4.8864       .18216       .33184E-01   4.5951       5.1240
 LINC        17   4.6333       .51253E-01   .26268E-02   4.5581       4.7212
 LPRICE      17   4.3118       .22141       .49022E-01   3.9627       4.6151
 
  CORRELATION MATRIX OF VARIABLES -       17 OBSERVATIONS
 LCONS      1.0000
 LINC       .97862E-01   1.0000
 LPRICE    -.93596       .22212       1.0000
              LCONS        LINC         LPRICE
 
  COVARIANCE MATRIX OF VARIABLES -       17 OBSERVATIONS
 LCONS      .33184E-01
 LINC       .91368E-03   .26268E-02
 LPRICE    -.37750E-01   .25206E-02   .49022E-01
              LCONS        LINC         LPRICE

How to interpret the output file

By inspecting the above output it is clear that some care is required to interpret the results that appear in a SHAZAM output file. A single SHAZAM command can result in lengthy output that involves the computation of a variety of statistics. The following should be noted.

Note 1:   Lines that have the |_ prefix are the commands and comment statments that were entered by the user.

Note 2:   Some statistics may be familiar to the user and other statistics may not be familiar. Therefore the user should focus on the interpretation of the statistics that they have studied from course textbooks and/or journal articles. In preparing a research report users should never report output results that they do not understand. This could lead to erroneous discussion and conclusions.

Note 3:   Numeric results are reported in a form that is not suitable for pasting into a word processing document. The results give more significant digits than are needed for reporting research results in a report.

In the above output, note that the variance of the variable LCONS is reported as .33184E-01 and the variance of the variable LINC is reported as 26268E-02. E-01 means to multiply by 10 to the power of -1 and E-02 means to multiply by 10 to the power of -2. Therefore the number .33184E-01 is 0.033184 and the number 26268E-02 is 0.0026268.

This type of reporting notation is a convenience for SHAZAM. Never use the E notation when presenting results in a report. Always consider rounding the numerical results to a form that is appropriate for the purposes of report presentation.

For example, SHAZAM reports the number 0.07749 in the form .7749E-01. This means:

      .7749E-01 = (.7749)(10-1) = 0.07749

This result can be reported as: 0.077.

Similarily, SHAZAM may report the number 8,347,562 in the form 0.83476E+07. This means (0.83476)(107). In this case, the number can be reported as 8,347 thousand or 8.3 million.

A Note on Printing the SHAZAM output file

To print the SHAZAM output file from a word processor set the font to Courier 10pt. That is, use a fixed-width font. This will ensure that the output is displayed in a readable style. Also set the margins so that lines do not wrap around to the next line.


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