Definition
Turning to the authority of introductory statistical textbooks (Bluman, 1992; Samuels & Witmer, 1999), there are two parallel ways to classify data into different types. Data can be classified into either categorical or numeric. Data can also be classified into different levels of measurement scales.
There are two parallel ways to classify data into different types. Data can be classified into either categorical or numeric. Data can also be classified into different levels of measurement scales.
Categorical versus Numeric
Variables can be classified as either categorical or numeric. Categorical variables, also often referred to as qualitative variables, are variables that can be placed into distinct categories according to some characteristics. Categorical variables sometimes can be arrayed in a meaningful rank order. But no arithmetic operations can be applied to them. Examples of categorical variables are
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Gender of a fish: male and female
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Student evaluation: fail, pass,...
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Recommended Reading
Bluman, A. G. (1992). Elementary statistics: A step by step approach. Wm. C. Brown Publishers Dubuque, Iowa, USA.
Samuels, M. L. & Witmer, J. A. (1999). Statistics for the life sciences (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall Publishers, USA.
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Yang, Y. (2011). Measurement Scales. In: Sammut, C., Webb, G.I. (eds) Encyclopedia of Machine Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30164-8_529
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30164-8_529
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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