Nominal Categorical Data Definition

Unlike ordinal data ordinal data in statistics ordinal data are the type of data in which the values follow a natural order.

Nominal categorical data definition. With categorical data events or information can be placed into groups to bring some sense of order or understanding. Ordinal data are often treated as categorical where the groups are ordered when graphs and charts are made. Also called nominal data. A variable that codes whether each one in a set of observations is in a particular nominal category is called a categorical variable.

For example gender is a categorical variable having two categories male and female and there is no intrinsic ordering to the categories. The data fall into categories but the numbers placed on the categories have meaning. Nominal data is labeled or named data which can be divided into various groups that do not overlap. Nominal and ordinal arrays are statistics and machine learning toolbox data types for storing categorical values.

Data of this kind include those which can be grouped or categorized by age gender race or any other class. An affiliation to a religious group or political party can be considered as categorical data. For example rating a restaurant on a scale from 0 lowest to 4 highest stars gives ordinal data. Categorical data is analysed using mode and median distributions where nominal data is analysed with mode while ordinal data uses both.

It is the simplest form of a scale of measure. The order of the data collected can t be established using nominal data and thus if you change the order of data its significance of data will not be altered. Categorical data can be counted grouped and sometimes ranked in order of importance. The distinction between categorical and quantitative variables is crucial for deciding which types of data analysis methods to use.

Categorical data is always one type the nominal type. In some cases nominal data is also called categorical data. In some cases ordinal data may also be analysed using univariate statistics bivariate statistics regression applications linear trends and classification methods. A nominal category or a nominal group is a group of objects or ideas that can be collectively grouped on the basis of a particular characteristic a qualitative property.

Nominal and ordinal arrays store data that have a finite set of discrete levels which might or might not have a natural order. Quantitative data are analyzed using descriptive statistics time series linear regression models and much more. In statistics nominal data also known as nominal scale is a type of data that is used to label variables without providing any quantitative value. A categorical variable sometimes called a nominal variable is one that has two or more categories but there is no intrinsic ordering to the categories.