Dear Andy, Usual literature of runs: Run: a run is defined to be a maximum subsequence of like elements.[Mendenhall, Scheaffer, and Wackerly (1986), Mathematical Statistics with Applications, 3rd Ed., Duxbury Press, CA, Page 597] Run: a sequence of 1 or more identical symbols that is preceded and followed by either a different symbol or no symbol at all.[Matre, Gilbreath (1983) Statistics for Business nad Economics, revides ed, Business pub. inc, texas, Page 527]. Gibbons(1971) also says something like it. My problem is - 1. which table of run test do i use? Using distribution of R, or using R as a test statistic? or both? Both are due to Swed, Eisenhart (1943) "tables for testing randomness of grouping in a sequence of alternatives". 2. Does R or S-plus or any of their packages provide Non-parametric ordinary "Run test"? Any response / help / comment / suggestion will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------- Mohammad Ehsanul Karim <wildscop at yahoo.com> Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT) University of Dhaka, Dhaka -1000, Bangladesh ------------------------------- ====____________________________ WilDKiD <wildscop at yahoo.com>