With the advancement of science and technology and the expansion of communication a vast amount of data are collected and many techniques have been developed for the data analysis in many field of science. The purpose of data analysis is to extract informations from the data which are large in size and complex in structure. The data analysis is composed of two steps of procedure: the one is to make clear the data structure and the other is to classify and arrange samples in the data. The transformation and display of the data and informations are also included in the data analysis.
The system for the data analysis is closely elated with the computer since the multivariate analysis, one of major techniques of the data analysis, requires a large amount of calculation. In the system the data file, data transformation, file management, display and data processing must be organically combined with each other. We are planning not a single system but a set of systems, that is, the SPSS system in the base and the BMD, BMDP and other library or private programs are in the branches.
Some basic examples of data analysis are given: triangle diagram, scatter diagram, trend surface analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis.
We are hoping that the data analysis will be widely applied and helps researchers in many fields of geology.