Statistics is concerned with observations, or experiments. The results we observe, or measure are called variates , or variables . Each is broken down into two sub-types. Qualitative data can be ordinal or nominal . Because qualitative data always have a limited number of alternative values, such variates are also described as discrete.
All qualitative data are discrete, while some numeric data are discrete and some are continuous.
For statistical analysis, quantitative data is often converted into discrete numeric data by simply counting the different values that appear. Qualitative Data Qualitative data arise when the observations fall into separate distinct categories. Such data are inherently discrete , in that there are a finite number of possible categories into which each observation may fall. Quantitative Data Quantitative or numerical data arise when the observations are counts or measurements. Quantities such as sex and weight are called variates because the value of these quantities vary from one observation to another.