The use of spreadsheet software programs in performing cluster analysis onagricultural multivariate data

Cluster analysis is one of the basic procedures that a researcher must impo se over its data to ensure possible disallocations among the component vari ables. When the data include such groups or clusters, it is possible for a non-regular distribution of variables' values to appear. Under those condit ions, data cannot be correlated and regression models do not describe possi ble relations among them in a satisfactory way. During the last years many statistically oriented programs have become available, offering a variety o f techniques that handle these kinds of data disorientations. Commercially available spreadsheet software programs offer convenient and e ffective means for performing cluster analysis over multivariable experimen tal data. Among the advantages of the spreadsheet approach to cluster analy sis are its relative ease of use, its general applicability, a procedural t ransparency, the ability to alter interactively selected parameters and the capacity to view the results immediately through embedded graphics. This paper deals with the use of specific Spreadsheet software and its capa city to handle biostatistical manipulations over experimental data in order to produce cluster separation based on several theoretical methods. The pr esentation rests upon a structure of experimental agricultural data and the sequence of the procedures is presented along with references to a number of well known commercial statistically oriented programs in order that its capacity and effectiveness become clear.