Topic

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to: 1. Differentiate between qualitative and quantitative data; 2. Distinguish nominal and ordinal data (as well as level of achievement and ranking); and 3. Discriminate between discrete and continuous data.

Types of Data

INTRODUCTION

Generally, every study or research will generate data set of various types. In this topic, you will be introduced to two data classifications namely Qualitative and Quantitative. The qualitative data can further be classified into nominal and ordinal data. The quantitative data can be further classified as discrete and continuous data. It is important to understand these classifications so that you can modify the raw data wisely to suit the objective of data analysis.

1.1

DATA CLASSIFICATION

A set of data consists of measurements or observations of a certain criteria conducted on a group of individuals, or objects or items. A variable is an interested criterion to be measured on each individual such as height, or weight; or a criterion to be observed such as ones ethnic background or intelligent quota.

It is called variable because its value varies from one individual to another in the sample. Depending on the objective of a research, there could be more than one

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

variable being measured or observed on each individual. For example, a researcher may want to observe the following variables on five individuals consisting of 2 females and 3 males from a Primary School in State J. The obtained data are given in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1: A Set of Data Consists of 5 Variables Measured on Each Individual
Individual 1 2 3 4 5 Ethnic Malay Chinese Malay Indian Chinese Number of Sisters in Family 3 2 4 5 1 Weight (Kg) 20 23 25 19 21 Fathers Qualification Degree Diploma STPM PMR SPM PMR GradeEnglish A A C B D Achievement Excellent Excellent Ordinary Good Poor

By examining Table 1.1: (a) (b) Can you observe the different types of variables and their respective values? Can you see that value of each variable varies from individual 1 to individual 5?

A variable which possesses numerical value like weight, is termed as Quantitative Variable. It is further classified into Discrete Quantitative Variable and Continuous Quantitative Variable: (i) The value of Discrete Quantitative Variable is integer by nature. Usually the value is obtained through counting process. The number of sisters in a family is an example of Discrete Quantitative Variable. On the other hand, the value of Continuous Quantitative Variable is obtained through a measuring process. The height of pupil is an example of Continuous Quantitative Variable.

(ii)

There is another type of variable whose value is non-numerical in nature such as Ethnic Background of pupil in school. This type of variable is called Qualitative Variable. In the Malaysian context, the values of variable ethnic background, are Malays, Chinese, Indian and others. The nature of the value is just categorical and does not involve counting or measuring process to get the value. The categorical value can be in either of Nominal form such as Ethnicity, or Ordinal form such as PMR English Grade. Thus Qualitative Variable can be further classified into Nominal Variable and Ordinal Variable. The ordinal

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

variable can be further classified into Categorical Level or Ordered Categorical such as Achievement, and Categorical Rank such as Academic Qualification. Figure 1.1 below depicts the classification of variables.

Figure 1.1: Classification of variables

1.2

NOMINAL DATA

The word Nominal is just the name of a category and contains no numerical value. The variable cannot be measured or counted and the values neither can be arranged in sequence nor in order. In data analysis, this variable will be represented by code number to differentiate the categorical values of the variable. For example for the variable Gender, 0 will represent Male, and 1 will represent Female. For variable State, 01 will represent Johor State, 08 will represent Perak State etc. Any integer can be the code number but its representation must be defined clearly. It is important to note that the code number is just categorised representation which does not carry numerical value. This means that although by nature number 0 is less than 1 but we cannot say that code 0 is less than code 1 which can further mislead and wrongly order that category Male is less than Female. Table 1.2 presents examples of Nominal Variable with their values. In this table, the last column shows examples of code numbers which are commonly used by

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

researcher. When we key in data into the computer, data entry will type 0 for Male individual, and type 1 for female individual. The computer will then count code 0 to give the frequency of Male individual, and count code 1 to give the frequency of Female individual. Similar process will be done for other nominal variables. We can convert the frequency into percentage as required. In the data analysis, this process is called cross tabulation whereby descriptive statistics such as min, median or mode of each category can be obtained.
Table 1.2: Example of Nominal Data Nominal Variable Gender Religion Values Male Female Islam Christian Hindu Budha Others Malay Chinese Indian Others Single Married Widow Widower Yes No Numerical Code 0 1 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 0 1

Ethnic

Marital Status

Agreement

You are encouraged to answer the following exercise to test whether you understand the concept.

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

EXERCISE 1.1 Give the code number to represent the given categorical value of the following Nominal Variables: (a) State of origin (b) Month of birth (c) The degree you obtained. Can all data be classified as Nominal Data? Suppose you are going to use a data comprised of code numbers representing individuals perception on a certain opinion. Is this data still considered as nominal data? Give your reasoning.

1.3

ORDINAL DATA

Ordinal Data such as Achievement in Table 1.1 is a qualitative data whose categorical values can be arranged according to some ordered value. However the distance between any two values is not known and cannot be measured. No one knows the distance between poor and good as well as between poor and excellent. There are two types of Ordinal Data namely level or degree such as variable Achievement and rank such as Fathers Academic Qualification as mentioned in Table 1.1. Likert Scale is synonyms with rank Ordinal Data. The scale uses sequence of integers with fixed interval such as 1,2,3,4,5 or perhaps 1,3,5,7,9. There is no standard rule in choosing the integers. A researcher can take 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or even 100, 200, 300, 400, etc. However, in practice, it is common to choose small integers. The sequence of integers is used to represent the corresponding order of categorical values. Thus, it is important to define clearly such representation. Consider a simple experiment of ranking the taste of several types of ice-cream by respondent. Scale 1 could represent very tasty, 2 to represent tasty, 3 to represent less tasty, 4 to represent not tasty, and 5 to represent not at all tasty. The values of taste perception is by nature of rank order which begins with the highest degree represented by scale 1 and the descending degrees to the lowest which is represented by scale 5. However, one can reverse the order of integer values to make it in line with the order of the categorical values i.e. scale 5 can

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

represent very tasty, and scale 1 will represent not at all tasty. Again here, in the previous representation, although we have equal interval 5-4-3-2-1, but it does not represent equal difference in the respected degree of perception. Table 1.3 depicts several types of Level or Degree Ordinal Data.
Table 1.3: Examples of Level or Degree Ordinal Data Variable Perception Level Categorical values Very tasty Tasty Less Tasty Not tasty Not tasty at all Very satisfactory Satisfactory Moderately satisfactory Un-satisfactory Very Un-satisfactory Strongly Agree Agree Doesnt Matter Disagree Strongly disagree Excellent Very Good Good Satisfactory Fail Likert Scale 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

Satisfaction Level

Degree of Agreement

Level of Achievement

In the case of Rank Ordinal Data, the categorical values can be arranged in order from the highest level going down to the lowest level or vice-versa. Table 1.4 presents various forms of Rank Ordinal Data. You can see that the value of each variable is arranged from the highest to the lowest level. For Grade of Hotel, we have grade 5*, then 4* and so on, until the last grade 1*.

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Table 1.4: Examples of Rank Ordinal Data Variable Grade of Hotel Rank Categorical 5* 4* 3* 2* 1* A B C D E Degree Diploma STPM SPM Head Master Senior Assistant Teacher Attachment Teacher

Grade of Examination

Teachers Qualification

Rank of Teachers Profession

EXERCISE 1.2 Give the code number to represent the categorical value of the following Nominal Data: (a) (b) (c) Degree of severeness in injury. Class of a degree obtained. Level of delivery of a lecture by lecturer.

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

1.4

DISCRETE DATA

Discrete Data is the one that consist of integers or whole numbers. This type of data can easily be obtained through counting process. The followings are examples of discrete data: x x x x x The number of stolen cars every month, in 2006. The number of students absent in a class every month in 2005. The number of rainy-days in a year. The number of children in a family for 50 families. The number of students who obtained grade A in a final examination.

Researcher can obtain the mean, mode, median and variance of discrete data. However, the values of these statistics may no longer be integer. ACTIVITY 1.1 What are the criteria of Discrete Data? Give examples of discrete data. You may discuss with your course mates.

1.5

CONTINUOUS DATA

Continuous Data is the value of continuous variable that consist of numbers with decimals. This data usually can be obtained through a measuring process. The following are examples of continuous variables: x x x x Height, weight, age. Temperature, pressure. Volume, mass, density. Time, length, breadth.

One can obtain mean, mode, median, variance and other descriptive statistics of a data set which will be discussed in Topic 2.

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EXERCISE 1.3 1. 2. What are the criteria of a continuous random variable? For the following observations, state whether the concerned variable is categorical or numerical type.
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) Data The age of employees in an electronic factory Rank of army officer The weight of new born baby Household income Rate of death in a big city The number of students in each class at a school Brands of television found in market Variable

3.

For the following observations, state whether the concerned variable is discrete or continuous.
(a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) Data The time spent by children watching television Rate death caused by homicide The number of criminal cases in a month The price of terrace house in KL The number of patients over 65 years old The rate of unemployment in Malaysia Variable

4.

Classify the following observations whether the variables concerned are either Nominal or Ordinal types. For Ordinal Type, please classify further to either level or degree Ordinal, or Rank Ordinal.
Data (a) (b) Brands of computer owned by student (IBM, Acer, Compaq, Dell, Others) Quality of books published by university (Good, Satisfactory, Moderate, Unsatisfactory, Bad) Category of houses (High cost, Moderate Cost, Low Cost) Level of English Competency at school (Excellent, Good, Moderate, Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, Very Poor) Types of daily News Paper read (Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia, Star, New Straits Times) Nominal Level Ordinal Rank Ordinal

(c) (d)

(e)

10 X

TOPIC 1 TYPES OF DATA

x x x

A variable is observable or measurable criteria of individuals in a sample. It can be qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative variable can be of discrete nature whose values are integer obtained through a counting process. Qualitative variable can be classified into Nominal and Ordinal. The ordinal variable can further be sub-classified into level or degree ordinal and Rank Ordinal. The variable also can be continuous whose values are numbers with decimals obtained through measuring process. On the other hand, a qualitative variable consists of categorical data which is non-numerical in nature. In research, qualitative data will be represented by defined code number which cannot be used in arithmetical operation.

x x x