How to Test Against the Previous Period Using a Nominal, Ordinal, or Binary - Multi Variable – Displayr Help

Typically, in order to compare one period to a previous period (or one column to the previous column), you would need to use a variable with a Structure of Date/Time in the columns of your table. This is so that the periods are based on a timeline, and the previous period can be identified for testing. However, Displayr allows you to use a nominal, ordinal, or binary - multi variable in place of a Date/Time variable to perform statistical tests against the previous period.

This article describes how to go from using the default exception (complement) testing on a table with a nominal, ordinal, or binary - multi wave variable:

To a state where a nominal, ordinal, or binary - multi wave variable is treated like a date/time variable to test against the previous period:

Requirements

A nominal, ordinal, or binary - multi variable representing a wave, month, quarter, rolling time average, etc. If you need to construct a nominal or ordinal variable from an existing date/time variable, see How to Create a Categorical Variable from a Date/Time Variable.
- This variable will need to be used in the columns of a crosstab.
Ensure that your Test Type > Date/Time/Wave setting is set to Compare to previous period in the Advanced Statistical Testing Assumptions. See How to Conduct Significance Tests by Comparing to Previous Time Periods for more details.

Method - Use the Data Preparation Agent

Ensure that you have the appropriate variable type. See requirements for more details.
Run the Data Preparation Agent, including the step to identify nominal/ordinal/binary - multi variables to treat as waves in statistical tests.

Method - Set manually

In the Data Sources tree, select the nominal, ordinal, or binary - multi variable. See requirements for more details.
In Properties , go to Data > Attributes and tick Treat as wave in statistical tests.