TYPES OF DATA
The word Data means a set of known facts. There are different types of data because there are
different ways in which facts are gathered. Some data may exist because specific things have
characteristics that have been categorized whereas other data may exist as a result of things being
counted, or measured on some sort of scale.
The first important distinction to make is between Qualitative Data and Quantitative Data.
Qualitative data consists of categories or types of a characteristic or attribute. These categories form
the basis of the analysis of qualitative data. The socio-economic definitions, social class A, B, C1, and
so on, would be qualitative data, whereas the numbers of houses or amount of income would be
quantitative data. Qualitative Data is based on counting or measuring. The numerical scale
used to produce the figures forms the basis of the analysis of Quantitative Data.
The second important distinction to make is between the two different types of quantitative data:
Discrete and Continuous.
Discrete Data
Discrete data is quantitative data that can take only a limited number of values because it is
produced by counting in distinct or “discrete” steps or measuring against a scale made up of distinct
steps.
There are Three types of Discrete Data that You May have to Deal with,
Data that can only take certain values because other values simply cannot occur, for
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example, the number of t-shirts sold by a clothing retailer in a day. There could be 12 sold one
day and 7 on another, but selling 9.3 t-shirts in a day is not possible because there is no such
thing as 0.3 of a t-shirt.
Data that take only certain values because those are the ones that have been established
by long-standing customers and practice, for example, public houses in the UK sell
draught beer in whole and half-pints. You could try asking for three-quarters of a pint, but the
bar staff would no doubt insist that you purchase the smaller or larger quantity.
Data that only takes certain values because the people who have provided the data or the
analysis have decided, for convenience, to round values that don’t have to be discrete. For
example This is what you are doing when you give your age to the last full year. Similarly, the
temperatures given in weather reports are rounded to the nearest degree, and the distances on
road signs are usually rounded to the nearest mile. Such data is discrete by convention rather
than by definition. It is really continuous data.
Continuous Data
The precision of Continuous Data is limited only by how precisely the quantities are measured. For
instance, we measure both the length of bus journey and athletic performances using the scale of
time. In the first case, a clock or a wristwatch is sufficiently accurate, but in the second case, we
would use a stopwatch or an even more sophisticated timing device. Further on you will find the
terms discrete variable and continuous variable. A discrete variable has discrete values
whereas a continuous variable has continuous values.
© 2023 Athena Global Education. All Rights Reserved
© 2023 Athena Global Education. All Rights Reserved
