BASIC PROGRAM FOR CHARACTER SEPARATION INDEXES FROM AN IDENTIFICATION MATRIX OF PERCENT POSITIVE CHARACTERS

A BASIC program termed CHARSEP is given for calculating the usefulness of different properties (or characters) for separating groups in which the percentage of positive values have been tabulated for these properties. For each character the following separation indices are calculated: Gyllenberg's Sum of C, Gyllenberg's R, Niemeläs index, and the VSP index, and the CSP index. Additional quantities that are useful in evaluating the identification matrix are the numbers of groups to which an unknown can be allocated reliably if it is scored positive or negative for a character, the character consistency within taxa, and the separation potential of each character. Characters of poor diagnostic value can be determined readily by the program. © 1979.