\name{SpearmanTest}
\alias{spearman_test}
\alias{spearman_test.formula}
\alias{spearman_test.IndependenceProblem}
\title{ Spearman's Test on Independence }
\description{
    Testing the independence of two numeric variables.
}
\usage{
\method{spearman_test}{formula}(formula, data, subset = NULL, weights = NULL, \dots)
\method{spearman_test}{IndependenceProblem}(object,
    distribution = c("asymptotic", "approximate"), ...) 
}
\arguments{
  \item{formula}{a formula of the form \code{y ~ x | block} where \code{y}
    and \code{x} are numeric variables and \code{block} is an
    optional factor for stratification.}
  \item{data}{an optional data frame containing the variables in the
    model formula.}
  \item{subset}{an optional vector specifying a subset of observations
    to be used.}
  \item{weights}{an optional formula of the form \code{~ w} defining
      integer valued weights for the observations.}
  \item{object}{an object of class \code{IndependenceProblem}.}
  \item{distribution}{a character, the null distribution of the test statistic
    can be approximated by its
    \code{asymptotic} distribution (\code{asymptotic}) 
    or via Monte-Carlo resampling (\code{approximate}).
    Alternatively, the functions 
    \code{\link{approximate}} or \code{\link{asymptotic}} can be
    used to specify how the exact conditional distribution of the test statistic
    should be approximated.}
  \item{\dots}{further arguments to be passed to or from methods.}
}
\details{

  The null hypothesis of the independence of \code{y} and \code{x} 
  is tested. 

}
\value{

  An object inheriting from class \code{\link{IndependenceTest-class}} with
  methods \code{\link{show}}, \code{\link{statistic}}, \code{\link{expectation}},
  \code{\link{covariance}} and \code{\link{pvalue}}. The null distribution
  can be inspected by \code{\link{pperm}}, \code{\link{dperm}},  
  \code{\link{qperm}} and \code{\link{support}} methods. 

}
\examples{

  spearman_test(CONT ~ INTG, data = USJudgeRatings)

}
\keyword{htest}
