The UNIVARIATE Procedure
Calculating Percentiles
The UNIVARIATE procedure automatically computes the 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles (quantiles), as well as the minimum and maximum of each analysis variable. To compute percentiles other than these default percentiles, use the PCTLPTS= and PCTLPRE= options in the OUTPUT statement.
You can specify one of five definitions for computing the percentiles with the PCTLDEF= option. Let n be the number of nonmissing values for a variable, and let 
represent the ordered values of the variable. Let the tth percentile be y, set 
, and let
where j is the integer part of the quantity and g is the fractional part of the quantity. Then the PCTLDEF= option defines the tth percentile, y, as described in Table 30.
Table 30: Percentile Definitions
| PCTLDEF | Description | Formula |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weighted average at  |  |
where  is taken to be  | ||
| 2 | Observation numbered closest to np |  |
| 3 | Empirical distribution function |  |
| 4 | Weighted average aimed |  |
at  | where  is taken to be  | |
| 5 | Empirical distribution function with averaging |  |
Weighted Percentiles
When you use a WEIGHT statement, the percentiles are computed differently. The 100pth weighted percentile y is computed from the empirical distribution function with averaging:
where 
is the weight associated with 
and 
is the sum of the weights.
Note that the PCTLDEF= option is not applicable when a WEIGHT statement is used. However, in this case, if all the weights are identical, the weighted percentiles are the same as the percentiles that would be computed without a WEIGHT statement and with PCTLDEF=5.
Confidence Limits for Percentiles
You can use the CIPCTLNORMAL option to request confidence limits for percentiles, assuming the data are normally distributed. These limits are described in Section 4.4.1 of Hahn and Meeker (1991). When 
, the two-sided 
confidence limits for the 
th percentile are
where n is the sample size. When 
, the two-sided confidence limits for the th percentile are
One-sided confidence bounds are computed by replacing 
by 
in the appropriate preceding equation. The factor 
is related to the noncentral t distribution and is described in Owen and Hua (1977) and Odeh and Owen (1980). See Example 3.10.
You can use the CIPCTLDF option to request distribution-free confidence limits for percentiles. In particular, it is not necessary to assume that the data are normally distributed. These limits are described in Section 5.2 of Hahn and Meeker (1991). The two-sided confidence limits for the th percentile are
where 
is the jth order statistic when the data values are arranged in increasing order:
The lower rank l and upper rank u are integers that are symmetric (or nearly symmetric) around 
, where 
is the integer part of 
and n is the sample size. Furthermore, l and u are chosen so that 
and 
are as close to 
as possible while satisfying the coverage probability requirement,
where 
is the cumulative binomial probability,
In some cases, the coverage requirement cannot be met, particularly when n is small and p is near 0 or 1. To relax the requirement of symmetry, you can specify CIPCTLDF(TYPE = ASYMMETRIC). This option requests symmetric limits when the coverage requirement can be met, and asymmetric limits otherwise.
If you specify CIPCTLDF(TYPE = LOWER), a one-sided lower confidence bound is computed as , where l is the largest integer that satisfies the inequality
If you specify CIPCTLDF(TYPE = UPPER), a one-sided upper confidence bound is computed as , where u is the smallest integer that satisfies the inequality
Note that confidence limits for percentiles are not computed when a WEIGHT statement is specified. See Example 3.10.