Definition
Turning to the authority of introductory statistical textbooks (Bluman 1992; Samuels and 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
Gender of a fish: male and female
Student evaluation: fail, pass,...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Recommended Reading
Bluman AG (1992) Elementary statistics: a step by step approach. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque
Samuels ML, Witmer JA (1999) Statistics for the life sciences, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall Publishers, Upper Saddle River
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Yang, Y. (2017). Measurement Scales. In: Sammut, C., Webb, G.I. (eds) Encyclopedia of Machine Learning and Data Mining. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7687-1_529
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7687-1_529
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7685-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7687-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceReference Module Computer Science and Engineering