Continuous and Discrete Variables

The first step to understanding descriptive statistics is knowing whether a variable is categorical or quantitative.

Categorical (qualitative) variables take their values from a limited set. If they are assigned numerical valuables it is purely symbolic and only for ease of processing (e.g. red = 1, blue = 2).

Quantitative (numerical) variables take numerical values. They come in two forms:

• Continuous variables, which can take any value (to any degree of precision) within some range (e.g. any value between 0 and 1)
• Discrete variables, which are not continuous on any range (e.g. a variable that takes integer values between 0 and 100)

Once we know the types of variables we are working with we can then start using appropriate methods (and avoid using inappropriate ones).