[Rd] negative p-values from fisher's test (PR#7801)

From: <mnason_at_Niaid.nih.gov>
Date: Wed 20 Apr 2005 - 21:31:35 GMT

Full_Name: Martha Nason
Version: 2.0.1
OS: Windows XP
Submission from: (NULL) (137.187.154.154)

I am running simulations using fisher's test on 2 x c tables and a very small p.value from fisher's test (<2.2e-16) is returned as a negative number. Code follows.

> set.seed(0)
> nreps.outer <-7
> pvalue.fisher <- rep(NA,nreps.outer)
>
> population1 <- c( rep("A",300),seq(1:100))
>
> population2 <- c( rep("A",100),seq(101:200))
>
>
> for (j in 1:nreps.outer){

+ n1 <- sample(30:100,1)
+ n2 <- sample(30:100,1)
+ 
+ group1 <- sample(population1, n1, replace=T)
+ group2 <- sample(population2, n2, replace=T)
+ 
+ pvalue.fisher[j] <-

fisher.test(table(c(group1,group2),c(rep("group1",n1),rep("group2",n2))))$p.value

+ 
+ print(c(j,pvalue.fisher[j]))
+ 
+ }
[1] 1.000000e+00 3.581362e-05
[1] 2.0000000 0.1424779
[1] 3.0000000 0.1196600
[1] 4.000000000 0.004222897
[1] 5.000000e+00 3.234016e-07

[1] 6.000000000 0.003240286
[1] 7.000000e+00 -3.847298e-05

>
> fisher.test(table(c(group1,group2),c(rep("group1",n1),rep("group2",n2))))

        Fisher's Exact Test for Count Data

data: table(c(group1, group2), c(rep("group1", n1), rep("group2", n2))) p-value < 2.2e-16
alternative hypothesis: two.sided

> fisher.test(table(c(group1,group2),c(rep("group1",n1),rep("group2",n2))))$p.value
[1] -3.847298e-05

---

R-devel@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel Received on Thu Apr 21 09:46:13 2005