Data Analysis with Microsoft Excel: Updated for Office 2007

Chapter 4 Describing Your Data 131

Table 4-2 Summary of variable properties

Quantitative
Variables whose values come in
meaningful (not arbitrary) numbers

Discrete

Quantitative variables whose values derive

from a list of specifi c numbers

Continuous

Quantitative variables that can assume values from

within a continuous range of possible values

Qualitative
Variables whose values fall
into categories

Ordinal

Qualitative variables whose categories can be

assigned some natural order

Nominal

Qualitative variables whose categories cannot be

put into any natural order

In this chapter, we’ll work primarily with continuous quantitative vari-

ables. You’ll learn how to work with qualitative variables in Chapter 7,

where you work with tables and categorical data.

Frequency Tables

You’ve been asked to analyze the history of housing prices in the Southwest

and have been given a random sample from the records of resales of homes in

Albuquerque, New Mexico, from 2/15/1993 through 4/30/1993 (Albuquerque

Board of Realtors). The variables in this data set have been placed in an Excel

workbook with the range names and descriptions shown in Table 4-3.

Table 4-3 Housing Data Set

Range Name Range Description
Price A2:A118 The selling price of each home
Square_Feet B2:B118 The square footage of the home
Age C2:C118 The age of the home in years
Features D2:D118 The number of features available in the home
(dishwasher, refrigerator, microwave, disposal,
washer, intercom, skylight(s), compactor, dryer,
handicapped-accessible, cable TV access)
NE_Sector E2:E118 Located in the northeast sector of the city (Yes or No)
Corner_Lot F2:F118 Located on a corner lot (Yes or No)
Offer_Pending G2:G118 Offer pending on the home (Yes or No)
Annual_Tax H2:H118 Estimated annual tax paid on the home