Data Categorization

7/4/19
Today’s discussion…
— Data in data analytics
— NOIR topology
— Nominal scale
— Binary
— Symmetric
— Asymmetric

— Ordinal scale
— Interval and ration scale
— Multidimensional Data Model

7/4/19
Data in Data Analytics

— Entity: A particular thing is called entity or object.

— Attribute. An attribute is a measurable or observable property of an entity.
— Data. A measurement of an attribute is called data.
— Note
— Data defines an entity.
— Computer can manage all type of data (e.g., audio, video, text, etc.).

7/4/19
Data in Data Analytics
— In general, there are many types of data that can be used to
measure the properties of an entity.

— A good understanding of data scales (also called scales of

measurement) is important.

— Depending the scales of measurement, different technique

are followed to derive hitherto unknown knowledge in the
form of
— patterns, associations, anomalies or similarities from a volume of
data.

7/4/19
 Classification of scales of Measurement

7/4/19
NOIR classification
— The mostly recommended scales of measurement are
N: Nominal
O: Ordinal
I: Interval
R: Ratio

The NOIR scale is the fundamental building block on

which the extended data types are built.

7/4/19
 NOIR Classification

Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio

Binary Ternary Others Alphabetical

Ordered Discrete

Symmetric Numerically
Ordered Continuous

Literally
Asymmetric Ordered

Numeric
Categorical (Qualitative)
(Quantitative)
7/4/19
Properties of data
— Following FOUR properties (operations) of data are pertinent.

# Property Operation Type

1. Distinctiveness = and ≠
Categorical
(Qualitative)
2. Order <,≤,>,≥

3. Addition + and -
Numerical
(Quantitative)
4. Multiplication * and /
7/4/19
NOIR summary
ü Nominal (with distinctiveness property only)

ü Ordinal (with distinctive and order property only)

ü Interval (with additive property + property of Ordinal data)

ü Ratio (with multiplicative property + property of Interval

data)

— Further, nominal and ordinal are collectively referred to as

categorical or qualitative data. Whereas, interval and ratio
data are collectively referred to as quantitative or numeric
data.

7/4/19
 Which of the following employment
classifications best describes your area
of work?
— 1. Educator
— 2. Construction worker
— 3. Manufacturing worker
— 4. Lawyer
— 5. Doctor
— 6. Other

7/4/19
Nominal scale
— Definition
A variable that takes a value among a set of mutually exclusive codes that have no logical
order is known as a nominal variable.

— Examples
Gender Used letters or numbers
{ M, F} or { 1, 0 }

Blood groups Used string

{A , B , AB , O }

Rhesus (Rh) factors Used symbols

{+ , - }

Country code ??
????

7/4/19
Nominal scale
Note
— The nominal scale is used to label data categorization
using a consistent naming convention.
— The labels can be numbers, letters, strings,
enumerated constants or other keyboard symbols.
— Nominal data thus makes “category” of a set of data.

— The number of categories should be two (binary) or

more (ternary, etc.), but countably finite.

7/4/19
Nominal scale
Note
— A nominal data may be numerical in form, but the numerical values
have no mathematical interpretation.
— For example, 10 prisoners are 100, 101, … 110, but; 100 + 110 = 210 is
meaningless. They are simply labels.
— Two labels may be identical ( = ) or dissimilar ( ≠ ).
— These labels do not have any ordering among themselves.
— For example, we cannot say blood group B is better or worse than
group A.
— Labels (from two different attributes) can be combined to give
another nominal variable.
— For example, blood group with Rh factor ( A+ , A- , AB+, etc.)

7/4/19
Binary scale
— Definition
A nominal variable with exactly two mutually exclusive categories that
have no logical order is known as binary variable

— Examples
Switch: {ON, OFF}
Attendance: {True, False}
Entry: {Yes, No}
etc.

Note
— A Binary variable is a special case of a nominal variable that
takes only two possible values.

7/4/19
Symmetric and Asymmetric Binary Scale
— Different binary variables may have unequal importance.

— If two choices of a binary variable have equal importance,

then it is called symmetric binary variable.
— Example: Gender = {male , female}
// usually of equal probability.

— If the two choices of a binary variable have unequal

importance, it is called asymmetric binary variable.
— Example: Food preference = {V , NV}

7/4/19
Operations on Nominal variables
— Summary statistics applicable to nominal data are mode,
contingency correlation, etc.
— Arithmetic ( + , - , * a n d / ) and logical operations ( < , > , ≠ e t c . )
are not permitted.
— The allowed operations are : accessing (read, check, etc.) and re-
coding (into another non-overlapping symbol set, that is, one-
to-one mapping) etc.
— Nominal data can be visualized using line charts, bar charts or
pie charts etc.
— Two or more nominal variables can be combined to generate
other nominal variable.
— Example: Gender (M,F) × Marital status (S, M, D, W)

7/4/19
Survey

7/4/19
Ordinal scale
— Definition
Ordered nominal data are known as ordinal data and the
variable that generates it is called ordinal variable.
— Example:
Shirt size = { S, M, L, XL, XXL}

Note
The values assumed by an ordinal variable can be ordered
among themselves as each pair of values can be compared
literally or using relational operators ( < , ≤ , > , ≥ ).

7/4/19
Operation on Ordinal data
— Usually relational operators can be used on ordinal data.
— Summary measures mode and median can be used on ordinal data.
— Ordinal data can be ranked (numerically, alphabetically, etc.) Hence,
we can find any of the percentiles measures of ordinal data.
— Calculations based on order are permitted (such as count, min, max,
etc.).
— Spearman’s R can be used as a measure of the strength of association
between two sets of ordinal data.
— Numerical variable can be transformed into ordinal variable and vice-
versa, but with a loss of information.
— For example, Age [1, … 100] = [young, middle-aged, old]

7/4/19
Interval scale
— Definition
Interval-scale variables are continuous measurements of a roughly linear scale.
— Example:
weight, height, latitude, longitude, weather, temperature, calendar dates, etc.

Note
— Interval data are with well-defined interval.
— Interval data are measured on a numeric scale (with +ve, 0 (zero), and –ve
values).
— Interval data has a zero point on origin. However, the origin does not imply a
true absence of the measured characteristics.
— For example, temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit; 0⁰ does not mean absence
of temperature, that is, no heat!

7/4/19
Operation on Interval data
— We can add to or from interval data.
— For example: date1 + x-days = date2
— Subtraction can also be performed.
— For example: current date – date of birth = age
— Negation (changing the sign) and multiplication by a
constant are permitted.
— All operations on ordinal data defined are also valid here.
— Linear (e.g. cx + d ) or Affine transformations are
permissible.
— Other one-to-one non-linear transformation (e.g., log, exp,
sin, etc.) can also be applied.
7/4/19
Operation on Interval data
Note
— Interval data can be transformed to nominal or ordinal
scale, but with loss of information.

— Interval data can be graphed using histogram,

frequency polygon, etc.

7/4/19
Ratio scale
— Definition
Interval data with a clear definition of “zero” are called ratio data.
— Example:
Temperature in Kelvin scale, Intensity of earth-quake on Richter scale,
Sound intensity in Decibel, cost of an article, population of a country, etc.

Note
— All ratio data are interval data but the reverse is not true.
— In ratio scale, both differences between data values and ratios
(of non-zero) data pairs are meaningful.
— Ratio data may be in linear or non-linear scale.
— Both interval and ratio data can be stored in same data type
(i.e., integer, float, double, etc.)
7/4/19
Operation on Ratio data
— All arithmetic operations on interval data are
applicable to ratio data.

— In addition, multiplication, division, etc. are allowed.

— Any linear transformation of the form ( ax + b )/c are

known.

7/4/19
7/4/19