STATISTICS AND ANALY TICS

UNIT – 1: STATISTICAL DATA COLLECTION AND TYPES

Data : Data can be defined as the raw information such as numbers, words, images, facts, names,
observations, measurements etc., used for a specific purpose of survey or research or analysis.

Types of data:

Data

Secondary
Primary Data
Data

Quantitative Qualitative Published Unpublished

Data Data Data Data

Continuous
Discrete Data Nominal Data Ordinal Data
Data

Primary data: These are the data that are collected for the first time by an investigator for a specific
purpose.

Ex: The census of india, the reserve bank of india (RBI) etc

It is classified into two types:

1) Quantitative data &

2) Qualitative data

Quantitative data: These are numerical data and it is based on mathematical calculations. These
can be measured numerically.

Ex: height, weight, length, age, area, volume, temperature etc

There are two types of quantitative data:

1) Discrete data &

2) Continuous data
Discrete data: These are numerical data which can be counted as a whole number (exact value & not
any fractional value). It contains only a finite number of possible values.

Ex: → Number of students in the class

→ If a coin is tossed 3 times, the possible number of heads = 0, 1, 2, 3. It cannot take 2.2 or any
other value

→ There are 10 number of car parked in a ground, there cannot be a 9.5 car parked in ground

Continuous data: These are numerical data which can be measured in fractional numbers. It
contains infinite number of possible values between a certain range (integral as well as fractional)

Ex: → Length of a ruler can take any length between 0 to 100 cm. it can be either 30 cm, 30.11 cm
etc

→ Temperature range

→ Distance between two cities is 100.32 km

Qualitative data: These are descriptive data based on observation. It does not involve any
mathematical calculations. It describes quality of something or someone.

Ex: skin colour, eye colour, intelligence, honesty, wisdom etc

There are two types of qualitative data:

1) Nominal data &

2) Ordinal data

Nominal data: These data are examined using the grouping method and data are grouped in
categories. It is used for naming or labelling variables, without any numerical values.

Ex: → letters, symbols, words, gender etc

→ cars in the parking ground can be categorised based on its colour, brand name, brand symbol,
area of registration etc

Ordinal data: These data are examined based on rank, satisfaction and fanciness. The variables in
ordinal data are listed in an ordered manner

Ex: → How was your customer service experience?

o Good
o Neutral
o Bad
→ Rate your customer service experience on a scale of 1 – 5 (Lowest - Highest)

o 1
o 2
o 3
o 4
o 5

→ Answer to survey

o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Agree
o Strongly agree

Secondary data: Secondary data is second-hand data that is already collected and recorded by some
researchers for their purpose and not for the current research problem.

It means the information is already available & someone analyses it.

Ex: magazines, news papers, books, journals etc

There are two types of secondary data:

1) Published data &

2) Unpublished data

Published data includes

 Census report of India

 Reserve bank of India bulletin
 Annual survey of industries
 Five year plans
 Stock exchanges
 Trade unions

Unpublished data includes

 Diaries
 Letters
 Unpublished biographies
 Records maintained by business enterprises
 The central government, state government and research institutes also collect data which is
not published due to some reasons
Data collection tools: There are many methods of gathering information. The main tools are:

 Questionnaires
 Survey
 Interviews
 Focus group discussion
 Case studies
 Portfolios

Questionnaires: Questionnaires are simple, straight forward data collection methods. Respondents
get a series of questions either open or close – ended, related to the matter at hand. The
participants fill in the questionnaire and mail it back.

Merits:

1) This method is economical in respect of money, labour and time

2) This method is used for extensive enquiries covering a very wide area

Demerits:

1) This method is not useful in case the respondents are illiterate or semi – literate
2) The collected data is not expected to be very accurate due to lack of seriousness in the
respondents

Survey:

Survey research is used to collect data from a sample of people and gather their thoughts, opinions
and feelings for a specific topic

Surveys can be divided in to two types:

1) Paper surveys: Paper surveys are in the form of questionnaires

2) Online surveys: The online surveys are carried out in the form of a web survey developed
using software

Interviews:

The interview method of collecting data involves asking questions and getting answers from
participants. It is achieved in two ways, such as

1) Personal interview: In this method, an interviewer is required to ask questions face to face
to the other person
2) Telephonic interview: This method of collecting information consists in contacting
respondents on telephone itself

Focus group discussion: A focus group is a group interview of approximately six to twelve people
with similar characteristics, discuss the common areas of the problem. The responses are captured
by video recording, voice recording or writing.
Advantage:

 Information obtained is usually very detailed

Disadvantage:

 The discussion can be dominated or side tracked by a few individuals

Data cleaning:

Data cleaning is the process used to determine inaccurate, incomplete or unreasonable data and
then improving the quality through correction of detected errors and omissions. The process of
maintaining a high data quality is called data cleaning.

Applications/uses of MS Excel in data analysis:

 Frequency
 Relative frequency
 Bar graph
 Pie graph
 Line graph
 Boxplot
 Leaf plot etc

For your knowledge:

 Assume that you are collecting feedback from customer about your restaurant, then prepare
sample questionnaire containing five questions about the same
 While using MS Excel, what are the short cut keys are used for the following options:
1. Cut
2. Copy
3. Paste
4. Undo
5. Select all