Download Types of Data and Text Functions - Lecture Notes | BUS and more Study notes Introduction to Business Management in PDF only on Docsity! You could use the SKEW function to find the exact skewness. Less than -1 is highly skewed. Greater than 1 is highly skewed. Types of Data Nominal data has no natural ordering. Examples include: male/female or a list of cities, or a list of departments. These data can only be summarized with the mode. You cannot arrange the departments in numerical order or perform calculations such as (sales + marketing) / 2. You can only use mode (or count) for nominal data. Ordinal (or ranked) data can be sorted into a meaningful order, but differences between ranks are not necessarily equal. You can find the most frequent result (mode) and rank them in order to find the median, but arithmetic calculations are impossible. Examples include: poor/fair/good or high school, undergraduate, master, doctorate. Poor + Fair + Good is meaningless. You can only use mode (or count) or median for ordinal data. Interval data: the zero point is arbitrary. Is 20 degrees Celsius twice as hot as 10 degrees Celsius? Converted to Fahrenheit to see that it is not, 68 degrees F and 50 degrees F. Temperature is measured on an interval scale with arbitrary zero points (0 degrees Celsius and 32 degrees Fahrenheit). Interval data has equal units (or equal intervals, hence the name). The difference between 4 and 5 is the same as the difference between 8 and 9. You can use mean, median, or mode for Interval data. Ratio data has a true zero and measurements can be compared as ratios. If a baby frog weighs 250gm, and Mrs. Frog weights 500gm and Mr. Frog weighs, 1,000gm, then Mr. Frog is twice as heavy as Mrs. Frog, and four times the weight of Baby Frog. You can use mean, median, or mode for Ratio data. Discrete: cannot take on any value. • The number of students in a classroom. • The number of green M&M’s in a bag. • The number of suitcases lost by an airline. Continuous: can take on any value. • The height of basketball players. • The salaries of I.U. graduates. • The time it takes for your car battery to die. Categorical • Nominal: classifies without ordering the categories. • Ordinal: classifies, and orders the categories. Numerical • Interval: classifies, orders, and establishes an equal unit in the scale. • Ratio: classifies, orders, establishes an equal unit, and contains a true zero point. – Discrete: Numerical data that cannot take on any value. – Continuous: Numerical data that can take on any value.
