Nominal data

As explained in Data Without Labels

Nominal data consists of categories with no inherent ordering or sequence.

Nominal data consists of categories used as labels without any inherent sequence or ordering. It is qualitative, or categorical, data rather than measurable quantities. section 1.2.2

Typical nominal categories include:

• Languages spoken in a country. section 1.2.2
• Colors in a rainbow. section 1.2.2
• Services available to a customer. section 1.2.2
• Cities in a country. section 1.2.2

Unlike ordinal data, nominal data cannot be arranged meaningfully from lower to higher or from one state to another. section 1.2.2

Figure 1.2 The divisions and subdivisions of data

Use the taxonomy to locate nominal data among qualitative and quantitative data types. section 1.2.2

How Data Without Labels covers it

How deep it goes

Defines the category type, gives examples, and contrasts it with ordinal data without discussing computation or modeling.

Examples

Uses languages, rainbow colors, customer services, and cities as concrete nominal categories.

What you can do after

Evaluate whether a categorized variable has labels only or also supports meaningful ordering.

How it connects

Connects nominal data to qualitative data, categorical variables, binary data, ordinal data, and quantitative data.

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Also explained in

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  Ensemble Methods for Machine LearningA nominal feature is a categorical feature whose categories have no inherent ordering or quantitative relationship.
• 

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  D3.js in Action, Third EditionA nominal value is a categorical value whose labels have no inherent ordering.
• 

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  Data Storytelling with Altair and AINominal data contains categorical labels whose values have no intrinsic ordering.

Compare how 4 books explain nominal data →

Related concepts

• data typekind of · A data type classifies values and specifies their representation or interpretation and the operations applicable to them.
• categorical datakind of · Categorical data consists of values representing membership in a discrete set of named or ordered categories rather than measured numerical magnitudes.
• qualitative datakind of · Qualitative data is descriptive, nonnumeric information representing characteristics, categories, meanings, experiences, opinions, or context rather than measured quantities.
• datakind of · Data is represented information, observations, measurements, or other values that can be stored, processed, transmitted, analyzed, or interpreted.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Data Without Labels. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.