Understand Modeling Types

Table 3.7 Modeling Types
Modeling Type and Description	Examples	Specific Example
Continuous Numeric data only. Used in operations like sums and means.	Height Temperature Time	The time to complete a test might be 2 hours, or 2.13 hours.
Ordinal Numeric or character data. Values belong to ordered categories.	Month (1,2,...,12) Letter grade (A, B,...F) Size (small, medium, large)	The month of the year can be 2 (February) or 3 (March), but not 2.13. February comes before March.
Nominal Numeric or character data. Values belong to categories, but the order is not important.	Gender (M or F) Color Test result (pass or fail)	The gender can be M or F, with no order. Gender categories can also be represented by a number (M=1 and F=2).