Question

Mike, your buddy in QMB 2301, does not go to class often. Before the exam, he wants to study with you. You try to teach him the concept of quantitative and categorical data. He says: “Any categorical data can be converted to quantitative data by just assigning a number to it. Likewise, any numerical data can be converted to categorical data by just spelling out the words of the numbers.” Explain why Mike is wrong.

Answer 1

There are two types of Variables

Categorical Variables are also known as Qualitative Variables. These variables are variables that describe the characteristics of the individual or category.

Whereas

Numerical Variables or Quantitative Variables are variables that take the numerical value on which arithmetic operations can be performed.

So categorical data can also have numerical values in it but that numerical values are just a way of representing and there is no sense in making arithmetical calculations to that value.

For example,

A company engaged in the manufacturing of 100 products, so they give each product a code like 001, 002 to 100. Now, these codes are numeric but they does not have any meaning in arithmetical calculations. They are just categories which represents in numeric terms.

So, Mike statement is wrong that just adding a number to categorical data makes the data numerical one and vice versa.

I hope it will help you in the study.

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