Command Overview

The sample size command is used to compute the sample size required to achieve the precision level specified based upon the expected error rate and confidence level required. The data source is the information provided on the command line.

Syntax

The command is entered on the command line as the command name ("sample", or just "sa") followed by one or more command parameters. Each command parameter consists of an argument name, immediately followed by an equal sign ("=") and then immediately followed by a value. The value may be enclosed with quotation marks, and must be enclosed by quotation marks if the value consists of any embedded spaces.

An example of sample size computation is to determine the sample size required to be taken from a population of 10,000, where the expected error rate is 30% and the desired precision is 10%.. The desired confidence level is 95%.

The command would then be:

samp pop=10000 conf=.95 ep=.1 er=.3

An example of the precision command toolbar and output are shown below:

These results indicate that in order to achieve the desired precision, a sample size of 81 is required.

Main Form