Hilmar / Tracy,

Thanks for joining this thread. I know it's present in Excel (after activating the Analysis Toolpak). But the logic of that function (pseudocode that can be used in vfp) is not there, as to my knowledge.

Someone else demonstrated to me in Excel that the following function gives almost the same distribution for 1000 values as the Excel function did:

pseudocode: 
for n = 1 to 1000
   insert into (sometable) value ( A + random(B,C) + random(B,C) + random(B,C) + random(B,C) )
next

where A is a constant and random(B,C) is an aselect drawn value between B and C.

I wonder whether (and if so, why) that (easily implemented) pseudocode is a good model.


>Do you mean the excel function: =NORMSDIST(Z)?
>
>This may help:
>
>http://faculty.washington.edu/gloftus/P317-318/Useful%20examples/ExcelNormalDist.html
>
>Someone else has done it. this app was done in VFP:
>
>http://www.radix.net/~holmer/guide.pdf
>
>
>
>
>>Jaime,
>>Thanks for your reply. I've visited the site and it indeed somewhat refreshes my mind. I had statistics on university (ph.d. psychology) quite many years ago, so most tests and explanations trigger keys of little doors in my mind. But I have not yet found a solution to my current problem.
>>
>>Given a certain number of values, and assuming that these values are normally distributed, one could calculate the percentile of each of those values. But that's not what I'm interested in. I need to produce the list of values itself, and these values must be normally distributed. So, the other way around. IOW, I need a formula that produces a data sample that's normally distributed.
>>
>>Any additional suggestion?
>>
>>>Peter
>>>I don't see where is the problem to write this in VFP. If you have the values for the mean ( easily calculated ) and standard deviation, just write a function with the formula for normal distribution. If you need to refresh your memory about the latter, you can find it here:
>>>http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/normal_distribution.html
>>>
>>>Best Regards,
>>>Jaime
>>>
>>>>Hi to all,
>>>>
>>>>I need to fill a row of a table with values that meet the requirements of a 'normal distribution'. Excel is supposed to have a function that can generate such values (with the help of the Analysis Toolpak). Is it something that can be accomplished in VFP?