Chapter 2, Part A Descriptive Statistics:

Tabular and Graphical Displays

> Summarizing Data for a Categorical Variable

—Categorical data use labels or names to identify categories of like items.
> Summarizing Data for a Quantitative Variable
—Quantitative data are numerical values that indicate how much or how many.

Summarizing Categorical Data

✓Frequency Distribution
✓Relative Frequency Distribution
✓Percent Frequency Distribution
✓Bar Chart
✓Pie Chart

Frequency Distribution

✓A frequency distribution is a tabular summary of data showing the number (frequency) of

observations in each of several non-overlapping categories or classes.
✓The objective is to provide insights about the data that cannot be quickly obtained by looking
only at the original data.

Relative Frequency Distribution

✓The relative frequency of a class is the fraction or proportion of the total number of data items
belonging to a class.

Relative frequency of a class = Frequency of the class ÷ n

✓A relative frequency distribution is a tabular summary of a set of data showing the relative
frequency for each class.

Percent Frequency Distribution

✓The percent frequency of a class is the relative frequency multiplied by 100.

✓A percent frequency distribution is a tabular summary of a set of data showing the percent
frequency for each class.
Bar Chart

✓A bar chart is a graphical display for depicting qualitative data.

✓On one axis (usually the horizontal axis), we specify the labels that are used for each of the
classes.
✓A frequency, relative frequency, or percent frequency scale can be used for the other axis
(usually the vertical axis).
✓Using a bar of fixed width drawn above each class label, we extend the height appropriately.
✓The bars are separated to emphasize the fact that each class is separate.

Pareto Diagram

✓In quality control, bar charts are used to identify the most important causes of problems.
✓When the bars are arranged in descending order of height from left to right (with the most
frequently occurring cause appearing first) the bar chart is called a Pareto diagram.
✓This diagram is named for its founder, Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist.

Pie Chart

✓The pie chart is a commonly used graphical display for presenting relative frequency and
percent frequency distributions for categorical data.
✓First draw a circle; then use the relative frequencies to subdivide the circle into sectors that
correspond to the relative frequency for each class.
✓Since there are 360 degrees in a circle, a class with a relative frequency of .25 would
consume .25(360) = 90 degrees of the circle.

Example
Inferences from the Pie Chart
✓Almost one-half of the customers surveyed preferred Pepsi (looking at the left side of the pie).
✓The second preference is for Dr. Pepper with 25% of the customers opting for it.
✓Only 5% of the customers opted for Sprite.

Summarizing Quantitative Data

✓Frequency Distribution
✓Relative Frequency and Percent Frequency Distributions
✓Dot Plot
✓Histogram
✓Cumulative Distributions
✓Stem-and-Leaf Display
Frequency Distribution

Example
Sanderson and Clifford, a small public accounting firm wants to determine time in days required
to complete year end audits. It takes a sample of 20 clients.

Frequency Distribution

The three steps necessary to define the classes for a frequency distribution with quantitative
data are:
Step 1 - Determine the number of non-overlapping classes.
Step 2 - Determine the width of each class.
Step 3 - Determine the class limits.

Frequency Distribution
Guidelines for Determining the Number of Classes

✓Use between 5 and 20 classes.

✓Data sets with a larger number of elements usually require a larger number of classes.
✓Smaller data sets usually require fewer classes.
✓The goal is to use enough classes to show the variation in the data, but not so many classes
that some contain only a few data items.

Frequency Distribution
Guidelines for Determining the Width of Each Class

✓Use classes of equal width.

✓Approximate Class Width =Largest data value-Smallest data value ÷ Number of classes
✓Making the classes the same width reduces the chance of inappropriate interpretations.

Frequency Distribution
Note on Number of Classes and Class Width

✓In practice, the number of classes and the appropriate class width are determined by trial and
error.
✓Once a possible number of classes is chosen, the appropriate class width is found.
✓The process can be repeated for a different number of classes.
✓Ultimately, the analyst uses judgment to determine the combination of the number of classes
and class width that provides the best frequency distribution for summarizing the data.
Frequency Distribution
Guidelines for Determining the Class Limits

✓Class limits must be chosen so that each data item belongs to one and only one class.
✓The lower class limit identifies the smallest possible data value assigned to the class.
✓The upper class limit identifies the largest possible data value assigned to the class.
✓The appropriate values for the class limits depend on the level of accuracy of the data.
✓An open-end class requires only a lower class limit or an upper class limit.

Frequency Distribution
Class Midpoint

✓In some cases, we want to know the midpoints of the classes in a frequency distribution for
quantitative data.
✓The class midpoint is the value halfway between the lower and upper class limits.

Relative Frequency and Percent Frequency Distributions

Example: Sanderson and Clifford

Insights obtained from the Percent Frequency Distribution:

✓40% of the audits required from 15 to 19 days.
✓Another 25% of the audits required 20 to 25 days.
✓Only 5% of the audits required more than 30 days.

Dot Plot

✓One of the simplest graphical summaries of data is a dot plot.

✓A horizontal axis shows the range of data values.
✓Then each data value is represented by a dot placed above the axis.

Histogram

*Another common graphical display of quantitative data is a histogram.

*The variable of interest is placed on the horizontal axis.
*A rectangle is drawn above each class interval with its height corresponding to the interval's
frequency, relative frequency, or percent frequency.
*Unlike a bar graph, a histogram has no natural separation between rectangles of adjacent
classes.
 Cumulative Distributions

✓Cumulative frequency distribution - shows the number of items with values less than or equal
to the upper limit of each class.
✓Cumulative relative frequency distribution - shows the proportion of items with values less
than or equal to the upper limit of each class.
✓Cumulative percent frequency distribution - shows the percentage of items with values less
than or equal to the upper limit of each class.

Cumulative Distributions

✓The last entry in a cumulative frequency distribution always equals the total number of
observations.
✓The last entry in a cumulative relative frequency distribution always equals 1.00.
✓The last entry in a cumulative percent frequency distribution always equals 100.

Stem-and-Leaf Display

✓A stem-and-leaf display shows both the rank order and shape of the distribution of the data.
✓It is similar to a histogram on its side, but it has the advantage of showing the actual data
values.
✓The first digits of each data item are arranged to the left of a vertical line.
✓To the right of the vertical line we record the last digit for each item in rank order.
✓Each line (row) in the display is referred to as a stem. ✓Each digit on a stem is a leaf.

Stretched Stem-and-Leaf Display

✓If we believe the original stem-and-leaf display has condensed the data too much, we can
stretch the display vertically by using two stems for each leading digit(s).
✓Whenever a stem value is stated twice, the first value corresponds to leaf values of 0 - 4, and
the second value corresponds to leaf values of 5 - 9.

Stem-and-Leaf Display
Leaf Units

✓A single digit is used to define each leaf.

✓In the preceding example, the leaf unit was 1.
✓Leaf units may be 100, 10, 1, 0.1, and so on.
✓Where the leaf unit is not shown, it is assumed to equal 1.
✓The leaf unit indicates how to multiply the stem-and-leaf numbers in order to approximate the
original data.