If you entered 3 or 4 worksheet columns in Categorical variables on the main dialog box, you can cross the variables to form the rows and/or the columns of a two-way contingency table. Crossing variables allows you to use this analysis to evaluate data from three-way and four-way contingency tables.
You can cross the first two variables to form rows and/or the last two variables to form columns. To only cross variables for either rows columns, you must enter three categorical variables on the main dialog box. To cross variables for both rows and columns, you must enter four categorical variables on the main dialog box.
Select one of the following options to define the rows:
Select one of the following options to define the columns:
The following example shows row crossing. Column crossing is similar. Suppose you have two variables. The row variable, Gender, has two levels: male and female. The column variable, Age, has three levels; young, middle aged, elderly.
Female | Elderly |
Female | Middle aged |
Female | Young |
Male | Elderly |
Male | Middle aged |
Male | Young |
By default, Minitab orders text values alphabetically. To define a custom order for the text values, you can change the value order. For more information, to go Change the display order of text values in Minitab output.