Overview of the Simulate Platform

The Simulate platform provides simulated results for a column of statistics in a report. Right-click a column of statistics in a report and select Simulate. In the Simulate window, specify a column in your data table that forms the basis for your simulation. This is the column that you switch out. This column can have any role in the analysis. In particular, it can be a response or a predictor in a model. You then specify a column in your data table that contains a formula that you want to use for the simulation. This is the column that you switch in. It functions as a surrogate for the column that you switched out.

Note: Your data table must contain a column that has a random component.

The method works as follows. A column of simulated values is generated based on the formula in the formula column that you switch in. The entire analysis that generated the report containing the statistics of interest is rerun using this new column of simulated values to replace the column that you switched out. This process is repeated N times, where N is the total number of samples that you specify.

The Simulate analysis produces an output data table showing a summary of the analysis.

• Each row of the data table represents the results of the analysis for one column of simulated values.

• There is a column for each row of the report table involved in the simulation.

• There are scripts to facilitate your analysis.

Tip: The Simulate platform reruns the entire analysis that appears in the platform report from which Simulate is invoked. As a result, Simulate might run slowly for your selected column because of extraneous analyses in the report. If Simulate is taking a long time, remove extraneous options from the platform report before running Simulate.