Perform 2 sample t-test

Question

I have a the mean, std dev and n of sample 1 and sample 2 - samples are taken from the sample population, but measured by different labs.

n is different for sample 1

Answer 1

If you have the original data as arrays a and b, you can use scipy.stats.ttest_ind with the argument equal_var=False:

t, p = ttest_ind(a, b, equal_var=False)

If you have only the summary statistics of the two data sets, you can calculate the t value using scipy.stats.ttest_ind_from_stats (added to scipy in version 0.16) or from the formula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welch%27s_t_test).

The following script shows the possibilities.

from __future__ import print_function

import numpy as np
from scipy.stats import ttest_ind, ttest_ind_from_stats
from scipy.special import stdtr

np.random.seed(1)

# Create sample data.
a = np.random.randn(40)
b = 4*np.random.randn(50)

# Use scipy.stats.ttest_ind.
t, p = ttest_ind(a, b, equal_var=False)
print("ttest_ind:            t = %g  p = %g" % (t, p))

# Compute the descriptive statistics of a and b.
abar = a.mean()
avar = a.var(ddof=1)
na = a.size
adof = na - 1

bbar = b.mean()
bvar = b.var(ddof=1)
nb = b.size
bdof = nb - 1

# Use scipy.stats.ttest_ind_from_stats.
t2, p2 = ttest_ind_from_stats(abar, np.sqrt(avar), na,
                              bbar, np.sqrt(bvar), nb,
                              equal_var=False)
print("ttest_ind_from_stats: t = %g  p = %g" % (t2, p2))

# Use the formulas directly.
tf = (abar - bbar) / np.sqrt(avar/na + bvar/nb)
dof = (avar/na + bvar/nb)**2 / (avar**2/(na**2*adof) + bvar**2/(nb**2*bdof))
pf = 2*stdtr(dof, -np.abs(tf))

print("formula:              t = %g  p = %g" % (tf, pf))

The output:

ttest_ind:            t = -1.5827  p = 0.118873
ttest_ind_from_stats: t = -1.5827  p = 0.118873
formula:              t = -1.5827  p = 0.118873

Answer 2

Using a recent version of Scipy 0.12.0, this functionality is built in (and does in fact operates on samples of different sizes). In scipy.stats the ttest_ind function performs Welch’s t-test when the flag equal_var is set to False.

For example:

>>> import scipy.stats as stats
>>> sample1 = np.random.randn(10, 1)
>>> sample2 = 1 + np.random.randn(15, 1)
>>> t_stat, p_val = stats.ttest_ind(sample1, sample2, equal_var=False)
>>> t_stat
array([-3.94339083])
>>> p_val
array([ 0.00070813])