Data Analytics
Lecture #2
Data Categorization
We are going to learn…
Data in data analytics
NOIR topology
Nominal scale
Binary
Symmetric
Asymmetric
Ordinal scale
Interval and ratio-scale
Multidimensional data model
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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.).
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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
techniques are followed to derive hitherto
unknown knowledge in the form of
patterns, associations, anomalies or similarities from a
volume of data.
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NOIR
Classification of scales of Measurement
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.
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NOIR Classification
Nominal Ordinal Interval Ratio
Alphabetical
Binary Ternary Others
Ordered Discrete
Numerically
Symmetric
Ordered Continuous
Literally
Asymmetric
Ordered
Categorical (Qualitative) Numeric (Quantitative)
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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 / )
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NOIR summary
Nominal (with distinctiveness property only)
Ordinal (with distinctive and order property only)
Interval (with additive property + property of Ordinal
data)
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.
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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 ??
????
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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}
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Operations on Nominal variables
Summary statistics applicable to nominal data is mode.
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)
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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 ( < , ≤ , > , ≥ ).
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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]
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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Data Cube
Multidimensional Data Modeling
Concept of data cube
A multidimensional data model views data in the
form of a cube.
A data cube is characterized with two things
Dimension: the perspective or entities with respect
to which an organization wants to keep record.
Fact: The actual values in the record
Example.
Rainfall data of Metrological Department
Time (Year, Season, Month, Week, Day, etc.)
Location (Country, Region, State, etc.)
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2-D view of rainfall data
In this 2-D representation, the rainfall for
“North-East” region are shown with respect to
different months for a period of years
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3-D view of rainfall data
Suppose, we want to represent data according
to times (Year, Month) as well as regions of a
country say East, West, North, North-East, etc.
A 2-D view of 3-D rainfall data
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3-D view of rainfall data
Data cube: This enables us a 3-D view of the
rainfall data
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3-D view of rainfall data
India China Russia Pakistan
Data cube: This enables us a 3-D view of the
rainfall data for a continent say?
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3-D view of rainfall data
What is the data cube representation of
rainfall data of the entire world?
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Data cube aggregation
ROLL UP
DRILL DOWN
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Reference
The detail material related to this lecture can be found in
Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques (3rd Edn.) by Jiawei
Han, Michelline Kamber and Jian Pei, Morgan Kaufmann
(2014).
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Any question?
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Questions of the day…
1. Consider an image as an entity.
• What are the attributes you should think to
represent an image?
• Categorize each attribute according to the NOIR
data classification.
• Suppose, two images are given. Give an idea to
check if two images are identical or not.
2. How you can convert a data of interval type to
ordinal type? Give an example. What are the
issues of such transformation? Whether the
reverse is possible or not? Justify you answer.
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Questions of the day…
3. What are the different properties used to
categorize the data according to NOIR data
categorization?
4. Given an entity say “STUDENT” with the
following attributes. Identify the NOIR
category
Scholarsh Name toRollNo
which
DoB each of them
Aaadhar Gender belongs.
Mobiloe Email Id
ip No. No.
amount
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Questions of the day…
5. Give the concept of data cube to represent
hyper-dimensional data? Also, explain with
suitable diagrams the following.
Roll up
Drill down
Slice
6. Using the concept of data cube, how YouTube
can archive videos of all type?
7. Give FOUR differences between data of types
“interval” and “ratio-scale”
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