The Kruskal–Wallis test by ranks, Kruskal–Wallis H test (named after William Kruskal and W. Allen Wallis), or one-way ANOVA on ranks is a non-parametric method for testing whether samples originate from the same distribution. It is used for comparing two or more independent samples of equal or different sample sizes. It extends the Mann–Whitney U test, which is used for comparing only two groups. The parametric equivalent of the Kruskal–Wallis test is the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). A significant Kruskal–Wallis test indicates that at least one sample stochastically dominates one other sample. The test does not identify where this stochastic dominance occurs or for how many pairs of groups stochastic dominance obtains. For analyzing the specific sample pairs for stochastic dominance, Dunn's test, pairwise Mann–Whitney tests with Bonferroni correction, or the more powerful but less well known Conover–Iman test are sometimes used. Since it is a nonparametric method, the Kruskal–Wallis test does not assume a normal distribution of the residuals, unlike the analogous one-way analysis of variance. If the researcher can make the assumptions of an identically shaped and scaled distribution for all groups, except for any difference in medians, then the null hypothesis is that the medians of all groups are equal, and the alternative hypothesis is that at least one population median of one group is different from the population median of at least one other group. Otherwise, it is impossible to say, whether the rejection of the null hypothesis comes from the shift in locations or group dispersions. This is the same issue that happens also with the Mann-Whitney test. Method Rank all data from all groups together; i.e., rank the data from 1 to N ignoring group membership. Assign any tied values the average of the ranks they would have received had they not been tied. The test statistic is given by: where: is the total number of observations across all groups is the number of groups is the number of observations in group is the rank (among all observations) of observation from group is the average rank of all observations in group is the average of all the . If the data contain no ties the denominator of the expression for is exactly and . Thus The last formula only contains the squares of the average ranks. A correction for ties if using the short-cut formula described in the previous point can be made