I vote for hatting it because I have always been taught and have always read that estimates gets a hat to distinguish from the actual value, unless they have their own symbol for a specific purpose (a bit like s being a sample estimate of sigma). Less important if you are writing up simple results (I would simply use Rho in that case), more important in textbooks or anything where you are using formulas to prove something or show something. Maybe someone disagrees, though. Answer from moosy85 on reddit.com
Quora
quora.com › What-does-hat-q-mean-in-statistics
What does \hat{q} mean in statistics?
Example: if 60% of people have a black car then phat is .6, and qhat is 1-.6 = .4. qhat is the proportion that is not something (for the above example qhat is the proportion of people that do not have a black car).
Philschatz
philschatz.com › statistics-book › contents › m47891.html
Mathematical Phrases, Symbols, and Formulas · Statistics
For questions regarding this license, please contact [email protected]. If you use this textbook as a bibliographic reference, then you should cite it as follows: OpenStax College, Statistics. OpenStax CNX.
Videos
StatsDirect
statsdirect.com › help › references › glossary.htm
Glossary of Symbols and Abbreviations Used in StatsDirect
Copyright © 1987-2025 Iain E. Buchan, all rights reserved. Download software here
Reddit
reddit.com › r/statistics › [q] to hat or not to hat?
r/statistics on Reddit: [Q] To hat or not to hat?
March 23, 2022 -
I just had a discussion with a colleague regarding reporting of results from rank-order correlation using Spearman’s method, which yields ρ, or rho. Rho can be estimated from a bivariate association between two independent values measured in a sample. The sample is intended to represent the population it was sampled from - should or should not then the sample estimate be reported with a hat (ρ̂ )?
Top answer 1 of 5
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I vote for hatting it because I have always been taught and have always read that estimates gets a hat to distinguish from the actual value, unless they have their own symbol for a specific purpose (a bit like s being a sample estimate of sigma). Less important if you are writing up simple results (I would simply use Rho in that case), more important in textbooks or anything where you are using formulas to prove something or show something. Maybe someone disagrees, though.
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While I agree that the hat is technically correct, when reported as a number I don't think there's much confusion: if I were to report that ρ=0.43 I don't think readers are going to get confused and think I'm talking about the population value instead of the sample. Hats also won't always typeset well, and might mess up any future NLP run on your reporting - those shouldn't be problems in 2022, but they still are. I would probably report it without that hat for simplicity's sake, even though I think the hat is technically correct.
Qualityandinnovation
qualityandinnovation.com › 2014 › 11 › 22 › typing-x-bar-y-bar-p-hat-q-hat-and-all-that-2
Typing x-bar, y-bar, p-hat, q-hat, and all that! In Microsoft Word (& Excel) – Quality and Innovation
November 22, 2014 - UNTIL THIS MORNING when I really, really, really wanted to be able to use y-bar and p-hat in my paragraph, without having to do the even kludgier thing where you just call them “y-bar” and “p-hat” in the text. That doesn’t feel good. Even Arial Unicode MS, the behemoth of fonts (it even contains tons of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters) does not have essential statistical symbols.
YouTube
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How To Find Q Hat In Statistics? - The Friendly Statistician
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BrownMath
brownmath.com › swt › symbol.htm
Stats without Tears Statistics Symbol Sheet
In geometric and binomial probability distributions, p is the probability of “success” (defined here in Chapter 6) on any one trial and q = (1−p) is the probability of “failure” (the only other possibility) on any one trial.
YouTube
youtube.com › the friendly statistician
What Is Q Hat In Statistics? - The Friendly Statistician - YouTube
What Is Q Hat In Statistics? In this informative video, we will break down the concept of "q hat" in statistics and its significance in data analysis. Unders...
Published January 11, 2025 Views 9
Spreadsheet Daddy
spreadsheetdaddy.com › home › excel › how to☝️ type x-bar, y-bar, p-hat, and other statistical symbols in microsoft excel
How To☝️ Type X-bar, Y-bar, P-hat, and Other Statistical Symbols in Excel
September 12, 2025 - Statistical symbols in Excel can be tricky - but not if you're armed with this tutorial. Read on to learn how to type x-bar, y-bar, p-hat, x-hat, and other symbols.
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Hat_notation
Hat notation - Wikipedia
October 8, 2025 - A "hat" (circumflex (ˆ)), placed over a symbol is a mathematical notation with various uses. In statistics, a circumflex (ˆ), nicknamed a "hat", is used to denote an estimator or an estimated value. For example, in the context of errors and residuals, the "hat" over the letter ...
Cengage
help.cengage.com › webassign › instructor_guide › webassign › r_i_letter_forms.htm
WebAssign: Letter Forms
You can use these symbols in your questions or assignments.
Pcsunit
pcsunit.com › 202202251313363006.html
How do you find Q hat in statistics? – Unit's Questions And Answers
How to Do ItOpen up Microsoft ... sure you have selected “Arial Unicode MS” as the font. Voila, your p has a hat!! q hat, the hat symbol above the q means “estimate of” r....
OpenStax
openstax.org › books › introductory-business-statistics-2e › pages › b-mathematical-phrases-symbols-and-formulas
B Mathematical Phrases, Symbols, and Formulas - Introductory Business Statistics 2e | OpenStax
December 13, 2023 - Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introductory-business-statistics-2e/pages/b-mathematical-phrases-symbols-and-formulas
OpenStax
openstax.org › books › introductory-statistics-2e › pages › f-mathematical-phrases-symbols-and-formulas
F Mathematical Phrases, Symbols, and Formulas - Introductory Statistics 2e | OpenStax
December 13, 2023 - Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/introductory-statistics-2e/pages/f-mathematical-phrases-symbols-and-formulas
Reddit
reddit.com › r/statistics › [q] symbol for skewness?
r/statistics on Reddit: [Q] Symbol for Skewness?
August 5, 2022 -
What symbol/notation do y'all use for skewness? I've seen γ1 , B2, and others being used. Hopefully there's a more common one, but from what I've seen there isn't a consensus.
Top answer 1 of 3
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mu(hat)3
2 of 3
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I have never ever seen B2 for skewness. Where did you see that? You're right, there's not a strong consensus but I'll make an argument for one symbol. In my opinion we should stick to the convention of Greek letters for population parameters and lowercase roman for observed sample statistics, and because of the plethora of symbols and the variety of distinct definitions of sample quantities, we should carefully define both the population symbol and the sample definition we mean. You didn't specify so I'll talk about population-skewness symbols. In old papers you'll often see √β1 but the intent is to convey a signed quantity - β1 being the square of population skewness, so this is clearly problematic and it has led to published papers (including some by experts that are widely cited) literally containing errors. To me that's a non-starter notation wise. Next is γ1 . This arises because of the connection between the third standardized cumulant and standardized moments. This doesn't generalize to high order standardized moments but it works for this. Its probably the most common population symbol that doesn't rule itself out. Its also my suggestion. Pretty commonly used, adhering to common conventions (Greek for a population parameter), at least some connection to other uses of symbols, while not screwing with people. Sample symbols should then as far as possible take some variant of 'g' or 'g1', perhaps with some additional indicator of exactly which sample quantity is intended. The problem is all reasonable symbols already have definitions, some more than one so it's a bit of a minefield. Whatever you do, define your symbol precisely.
Use English Words
useenglishwords.com › results › q-hat-statistics-symbol
Q Hat Statistics Symbol
6 hours ago q hat, the hat symbol above the q means "estimate of" r: Pearson's product moment correlation coefficient SD: standard deviation (of a sample, ) - a measure of variability around the mean - Greek lower case sigma (σ) is used for population standard deviation.
Wumbo
wumbo.net › symbols › p-hat
P Hat Symbol (p̂)
In statistics, the p-hat symbol (written as p̂, with a “hat” or “caret” over the letter p) is used to represent the proportion of a sample with a particular characteristic or outcome.
Richland College
people.richland.edu › james › lecture › m170 › ch08-pro.html
Stats: Estimating the Proportion
When you're computing E, I suggest that you find the sample proportion, p hat, and save it to P on the calculator. This way, you can find q as (1-p). Do NOT round the value for p hat and use the rounded value in the calculations. This will lead to error. Once you have computed E, I suggest ...
CUNY
academicworks.cuny.edu › cgi › viewcontent.cgi pdf
City University of New York (CUNY) City University of New York (CUNY)
population parameters are always symbolized with Greek ... I. Module 12: Estimating Sample Size ... J. Module 13: Introduction to Null Hypothesis Significance Testing ... The Null Hypothesis. H0 is pronounced “H sub-zero” or “H · sub naught.” H0 is a hypothesis about a population · parameter. The Null Hypothesis states that there is no effect. Any difference between the parameter and the statistic is
Lumen Learning
courses.lumenlearning.com › introstats1 › chapter › appendix-f-mathematical-phrases-symbols-and-formulas
Appendix F: Mathematical Phrases, Symbols, and Formulas | Introduction to Statistics
P(X=x)=qx−1p, for x=1,2,3,... ... P(X=x)=μxe−μx! ... Introductory Statistics. Authored by: Barbara Illowski, Susan Dean. Provided by: Open Stax. Located at: http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]. License: CC BY: Attribution.