The R Project SVN R

\name{t.test}
\alias{t.test}
\alias{t.test.default}
\alias{t.test.formula}
\title{Student's t-Test}
\description{
  Performs one and two sample t-tests on vectors of data.
}
\usage{
\method{t.test}{default}(x, y = NULL, alternative = c("two.sided", "less", "greater"),
       mu = 0, paired = FALSE, var.equal = FALSE,
       conf.level = 0.95, \dots)
\method{t.test}{formula}(formula, data, subset, na.action, \dots)
}
\arguments{
  \item{x}{a numeric vector of data values.}
  \item{y}{an optional numeric vector data values.}
  \item{alternative}{a character string specifying the alternative
    hypothesis, must be one of \code{"two.sided"} (default),
    \code{"greater"} or \code{"less"}.  You can specify just the initial
    letter.}
  \item{mu}{a number indicating the true value of the mean (or
    difference in means if you are performing a two sample test).}
  \item{paired}{a logical indicating whether you want a paired
    t-test.}
  \item{var.equal}{a logical variable indicating whether to treat the
    two variances as being equal. If \code{TRUE} then the pooled
    variance is used to estimate the variance otherwise the Welch
    approximation to the degrees of freedom is used.}
  \item{conf.level}{confidence level of the interval.}
  \item{formula}{a formula of the form \code{lhs ~ rhs} where \code{lhs}
    is a numeric variable giving the data values and \code{rhs} a factor
    with two levels giving the corresponding groups.}
  \item{data}{an optional data frame containing the variables in the
    model formula.}
  \item{subset}{an optional vector specifying a subset of observations
    to be used.}
  \item{na.action}{a function which indicates what should happen when
    the data contain \code{NA}s.  Defaults to
    \code{getOption("na.action")}.}
  \item{\dots}{further arguments to be passed to or from methods.}  
}
\details{
  The formula interface is only applicable for the 2-sample tests.
  
  If \code{paired} is \code{TRUE} then both \code{x} and \code{y} must
  be specified and they must be the same length.  Missing values are
  removed (in pairs if \code{paired} is \code{TRUE}).  If
  \code{var.equal} is \code{TRUE} then the pooled estimate of the
  variance is used.  By default, if \code{var.equal} is \code{FALSE}
  then the variance is estimated separately for both groups and the
  Welch modification to the degrees of freedom is used.
}
\value{
  A list with class \code{"htest"} containing the following components:
  \item{statistic}{the value of the t-statistic.}
  \item{parameter}{the degrees of freedom for the t-statistic.}
  \item{p.value}{the p-value for the test.}
  \item{conf.int}{a confidence interval for the mean appropriate to the
    specified alternative hypothesis.}
  \item{estimate}{the estimated mean or difference in means depending on
    whether it was a one-sample test or a two-sample test.}
  \item{null.value}{the specified hypothesized value of the mean or mean
    difference depending on whether it was a one-sample test or a
    two-sample test.}
  \item{alternative}{a character string describing the alternative
    hypothesis.}
  \item{method}{a character string indicating what type of t-test was
    performed.}
  \item{data.name}{a character string giving the name(s) of the data.}
}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{prop.test}}
}
\examples{
t.test(1:10,y=c(7:20))      # P = .00001855
t.test(1:10,y=c(7:20, 200)) # P = .1245    -- NOT significant anymore

## Classical example: Student's sleep data
data(sleep)
plot(extra ~ group, data = sleep)
## Traditional interface
attach(sleep)
t.test(extra[group == 1], extra[group == 2])
detach()
## Formula interface
t.test(extra ~ group, data = sleep)
}
\keyword{htest}