Question

Discuss appropriate data representations

Answer 1

Data representation is one of the important phase in statistical analysis. Statistics is a tool that deals with large quantitative as well as qualitative data and this data can be represented graphically. In fact, the graphical representation of statistical data is an first step in statistical analysis. There are number of graphs such as dot plot, bar graph, line graph, pie chart, histogram, etc. We should use proper graph at appropiate places. A graph represents a data in the form of a qualitative structure and provides important information.

Appropiate situations to use different plots for data representation:

1. The dot plots are quite useful when there are small amount of data is given within the small number of categories.

2. A bar graph is a very frequently used graph in statistics as well as in media. A bar graph is a type of graph which contains rectangles or rectangular bars. The lengths of these bars should be proportional to the numerical values represented by them.

3. A line graph is a kind of graph which represents data in a way that a series of points are to be connected by segments of straight lines.

4. The histograms and frequency polygons are very common graphs in statistics. A histogram is defined as a graphical representation of the mutually exclusive events. A histogram is quite similar to the bar graph. Both are made up of rectangular bars. The difference is that there is no gap between any two bars in the histogram. The histogram is used to represent the continuous data.